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neck…’
    ‘Bring the corpse up, Herr Tost. The sooner it is done, the better,’ I said sharply, looking up at the large clouds racing overhead. ‘A down pour will only make the task more troublesome.’
    The other ghouls nodded, as if the thought of working in a well with mud and water creeping up around them was a good incentive to get the work finished and done with. They began to pull their masks down over their faces.
    Tost’s face remained defiantly uncovered. ‘What’s it doing down there, sir?’
    I thought for an instant. ‘That is for me to discover,’ I said. ‘You job is to bring it to the surface.’
    ‘It’s not fever, then? Nothing contagious?’
    ‘Not fever,’ I confirmed.
    These men, and others like them, had retrieved and buried hundreds of corpses during the epidemic. Some of their fellows had died, no doubt. Now, they seemed to be relieved by my denial, which was repeated, rough and muffled, among themselves.
    ‘That’s good news,’ said Tost, turning to his men. ‘We know what needs to be done, in that case. Me and Bruno will go down first,’ he announced, pointing to one of his companions, tugging the mask down over his face. ‘Let down the stretcher,’ he instructed the others. ‘Once we have got the body secured, you two haul it up to the top – these people here will give you a hand. Then, lay it out on the cart ready for leaving. Right?’
    He waited for the other men to nod in agreement.
    Tost was no fool, I realised. His instructions would make sure that they were all equally exposed to the risks. He and Bruno would touch the body when they lifted it onto the stretcher, but the men on the ground would be forced to do the same when they untied it and lifted it onto their cart.
    ‘Come on! Let’s get cracking,’ he said.
    As he and the other man disappeared down the well-shaft, I went to stand beside the men who were letting out the rope. Knutzen drifted across and stood by my side. He did not say a word, and I said nothing to him in return. If he was gathering his courage to speak to me, I would let him stew. As Tost had mentioned, Knutzen had spoken to some one on the canal bank. The ghouls had heard them muttering about ‘strange wounds’. Now, the ghouls would see the wounds, too.
    I realised that the investigation was going to be difficult.
    I watched the operations, the ropes being paid out slowly, the climbers no longer visible, only their voices and their noisy grunts rising up into the light as they made their way into the darkness.
    A cry arose from the bottom of the well. ‘We’re here!’
    The loose rope was pulled up again, and a light was sent down to them.
    Their voices rumbled to the surface as the light descended. The rope went slack while the lantern was being untied. I heard an oath from one of the men below. They had found the girl’s body at the far end of the cistern, then. Snippets of their discussion drifted up, as if they were making efforts to finish the job without delay.
    I leant out over the wall of the well, listening.
    Their voices echoed up from the bowels of the earth, like the pronouncements of some mysterious Greek oracle. The depth of the tunnel, and its stone construction, seemed to amplify every sound that was made down below. I heard most of what they said.
    ‘Better tie her mouth up…’
    One of them sighed like a whale spouting water from its blow-hole.
    ‘Know what we should do before we lift her out?’ This was said in a deep, snarling growl. ‘That stick over there…One blow…That’s all it takes…’
    ‘That magistrate has seen her, Bruno,’ Egon Tost interrupted. ‘He’d know!’
    I stared down into the darkness and I shouted, ‘Get a move on down there.’
    ‘A couple of minutes, sir,’ Tost’s voice came back. ‘Just making sure that the ropes are tight. Wouldn’t want the lassie falling off now, would we?’
    ‘Wouldn’t we?’ I heard the other man hiss.
    I had to give them points for brazen