“He has quite a sophisticated concept of death,” Rosa replied. “I have been down in that gorge, and near his cave he has . . . well I would call it a memorial garden, made with stones with the names of people he has learned are dead on them, all planted with ferns and mosses. Sometimes he just sits there and contemplates them.”

“Really!” Giselle found herself touched. She would never, ever have expected that sort of behavior out of a troll, of all things.

The encampment was in sight now, and just as well, because twilight had truly fallen, and the lights and campfires were welcome sights ahead.

“One day, when I am not being run from pillar to post by my duties, I intend to come here and sit down with Pieter for several days and write down his history,” Rosa continued. “He might not understand the passage of time, but there is nothing at all wrong with his memory. And he might not remember peoples’ proper names, but he never forgets what he calls them. I think that by starting with me and going backward, I can figure out how long he has been there. And I can certainly get the tale of his earliest recollections out of him. After that I can at least match the rather descriptive names he calls people with the records of the Brotherhood.”

“That’ll make for a hell of a yarn,” Cody agreed, as they reached the edge of the encampment. “Jest a damn shame nobody’ll ever read it but yer Brotherhood.”

“Yes,” Rosa agreed wistfully. “It is.”

Todtnau was a slightly smaller town than Bad Schoensee, and although it did have a lovely waterfall, it lacked the lake, and so it was not as much of a spa destination. Still, they were able to support a run of four days, and even better, because Kellermann had made sure the show was there over a market weekend, the cost of supplies was cheaper than it had been in Bad Schoensee. Kellermann had counted on this, and made some very shrewd bargains while they were there. The Americans did like their meat, and sausages and hams would keep in the warmer weather better than anything other than salt beef.

Kellermann called the foremost of the members of the show together after the last show in Bad Schoensee. He had a map spread out on the table. “I wanted to show you all this, so there would be no rumors that I was leading you around in circles,” he said, looking at each of them in turn. “Look, there is Bad Schoensee,” he said, pointing. “And here is Todtnau. Now, here was my problem. We could have gone this way, up to Freiburg, which is a city and we probably could stay for two weeks or more. But it is a long way, and only one village on the way, so there would be no way of earning much money on the road there. So I rejected that.”