All the way back from the farm I kept thinking, suppose there really was someone there; he’d have been bound to hear the sound of the engine’s trial run, couldn’t miss it.

I must have been wrong, there wasn’t anyone there, but that shadow, the voice inside me, the odd feeling, well, I don’t know.

When I got to my next job in Einhausen, I told them the story, because I couldn’t get it out of my head.

I’d been over five hours at the Danner farm in Tannöd, and no one came along. Five hours alone at that farm without setting eyes on a living soul.

Frau Brunner in Einhausen thought it was very strange, too. “If only because of the little boy they have there. A child like that has to sleep, has to eat something,” she said. “You can’t just go wandering around like gypsies, not with a small child.”

But all her husband said was, “They’ll be getting in wood, that takes time.”

The knife. Where’s the knife, his pocketknife? He always has it on him, in his back trouser pocket. It’s been a fixed habit since the day he was first given that knife.

He can still remember every detail; he got it the day he was confirmed. A present from his sponsor at his confirmation. A clasp knife, a beautiful, useful knife with a brown handle. It was in a box. He remembers every detail.

He remembers the gift wrapping of the box. Thin tissue paper printed with flowers, garden flowers in bright colors. And the package was done up with a red bow. He was so eager to undo it, he tore the paper. A brown cardboard box came into sight. His hands trembled with excitement and delight as he opened that box. And there it lay, a pocketknife. His pocketknife. From that day on, he proudly took the knife around with him everywhere he went. It was his most precious possession.

None of the other village boys had a knife like that. He still sensed the good feeling he had when he took the knife in his hand or just had it somewhere on him. He often liked to hold it, passing it from one hand to the other. It gave him a sense of security. Yes, security.

Over the years, the knife became worn with much use. But the feeling stayed with him.

And now he’s been looking for the knife all day. When did he last use it? Where had he left it?

He goes through this last day again in his mind. Slowly, as if emerging from the mist, a picture comes before his eyes. He sees himself, knife in hand, cutting off a piece of smoked meat. Sees himself putting the pocketknife down beside the plate with the meat on it.

He feels uneasiness rise slowly inside him. His heart is racing; his heart’s in his mouth. He didn’t put the knife back in his pocket. He was sure of that. He left the knife there. His knife. His knife is in the larder next to the smoked meat. He sees it there in his mind’s eye quite clearly. He feels he only has to reach for it.

Panic seizes him. He must go back to the house. He must retrieve the knife, his knife. He can’t wait until evening, can’t wait for nightfall. That will be hours, it will be too long. So much can happen before evening.

Why didn’t he think of that this morning? He was feeding the animals, he was in a hurry. He left without checking that everything was back in its proper place. That was his mistake. Why didn’t he think of it until now? Never mind that, there’s nothing for it, he must go to the house. He must run the risk of entering the place in broad daylight.

He sees the bicycle leaning against a fruit tree. Sees the open door of the shack where they keep the root-slicing machine. He hears someone humming, whistling. Cautiously, he comes closer to the shack. He peers in. The man is so busy repairing the machine that he doesn’t notice him. From where he lurks by the door, he watches the unknown man.

Something drops from the man’s hand, falls on the floor, rolls over the ground and into the cistern. The stranger curses, looks searchingly around. Finally he climbs into the cistern.

This is the moment he’s been waiting for. He hurries past the open door. He’s already around the corner of the house before the other man can climb out of the cistern. Takes the key out of his jacket pocket and disappears through the door. The pocketknife is right where he left it. He waits a few more minutes. They seem to him like an eternity. He wants to wait for a good moment to leave the house again. The engine of the root-slicing machine begins turning over. He hears the noise. Quickly, he leaves the house without being seen.

Dagmar, daughter of Johann Sterzer, age 20

It was that Tuesday, about two thirty. We’d just gone out into the garden, me and my mother. To tidy up the beds.

As soon as we’re out in the garden, the mechanic from the agricultural machinery firm comes by on his bike. I know him; he came here once to repair one of our machines.

He braked right by our garden fence. Stopped but didn’t get off his bike. He just called to us from the fence, said if we saw Danner to tell him his machine was working fine again. It took him five hours, he said, he’d be sending the invoice in the post.

Then the mechanic got back on his bike and rode away.

My mother and I were surprised to hear there wasn’t anyone at the Danner farm. But it didn’t bother us. A little later I was thinking no more about it. I’d forgotten it entirely.

About an hour after the mechanic came by, young Hansl Hauer showed up. I was still in the garden with my mother. Hansl was waving his arms in the air. Waving them around like crazy. He was all worked up. Long before he got to us he was shouting, asking if Father was at home, saying something had happened at the Danner place.

At that very moment Father came out of the front door. He’d seen Hansl through the window.

Hansl still hadn’t reached us when he started shouting again. His dad had sent him, he said, because there was something wrong up at the Danners’.

“Herr Sterzer, he wants you to go up to Tannöd and the farm too,” he told my father.

At Hauer’s, they didn’t want to go poking around there on their own. None of them had seen the Danners since Saturday, he said. Even on Sunday there wasn’t a single one of the Danner family at church.

Then I remembered what the mechanic said, how he, too, had told us there wasn’t anyone at home at the Danner farm.

Hansl told us his aunt had sent him up to the Danners’ place. To look around, because no one at the Hauer farm had seen any of them for the last few days.

The cattle were mooing in the farmyard, he said, and the dog was whining frantically. Hansl shook the front door of the house, but it was locked. He shook it really hard; he knocked, too, and called to Barbara and Marianne. And when no one answered, and all of a sudden he didn’t like the way it felt up there at the farm, he went back to his dad.

He told him all about it, and his dad sent him over to us, for one of us to go up to the farm with him. So now Hansl was here with Father and Alois; they were to go straight up to Tannöd with him, and Hauer would be waiting for them there.

Father left right away with Lois. Up to the Danner farm. They took Hansl with them.

And that’s where they found them. All of them.

By Thy willing obedience,

deliver them, O Lord!

By the endless love of Thy divine heart,

deliver them, O Lord!

By Thy anguish and Thy labor,

deliver them, O Lord!

By Thy blood and sweat,

deliver them, O Lord!

By Thy captivity,

deliver them, O Lord!

By Thy cruel scourging,

deliver them, O Lord!

By Thy shameful crown of thorns,

deliver them, O Lord!