‘What any good apprentice would do. Shouted “Clubs!” to let the other lads in the street know there was trouble. A few came out, though they weren’t quick – it was early, they were probably hardly awake. They will confirm the date if you doubt me. The two men were already gone, they went over the garden wall behind Master Greening’s shed, the same way as the other two. Some fellows went in pursuit, but they lost them.’ So these men, too, had probably surveyed Greening’s place before attacking it, to find the best escape route. ‘I stayed to knock up my master.’

‘How did Master Greening react when you told him?’

‘He was alarmed, what do you think?’ Elias replied curtly. Nicholas gave him a warning look, but he ignored it.

‘Did your master have any idea who the men could have been?’

‘Casual thieves, he thought. But they must be connected to the men who came later, and killed him. Mustn’t they?’

I caught a slight tremor in his voice; under his bravado Elias was seriously afraid. I thought, if Greening had his premises attacked a week before his murder, why did he let the two killers in when they knocked? Had he perhaps been reassured by a request to enter from two men with cultivated accents; one with a silk shirt under his jerkin? I looked at Elias again. I thought, did he know about the book? If he did, he was in danger. Yet he had not gone to ground, as it seemed Greening’s three friends had, and he had taken a job at the works next door. I asked, ‘What do you know of your master’s friends? I have the names McKendrick, Vandersteyn and Curdy.’

‘I have met them.’ The apprentice’s eyes narrowed. ‘Good, honest men.’

‘They were all able to give account of their movements on that night,’ I said with a reassuring smile. ‘Though they have not been seen for some days.’

‘I haven’t seen them since the murder.’

‘McKendrick is a Scotch name,’ Nicholas said bluntly. ‘Until just recently we were at war with them.’

Elias glared at him. ‘The papists threw Master McKendrick out of Scotland for calling the soul of the Pope a stinking menstruous rag. As it is.’

Okedene snapped, ‘Elias, I will not have such language in my shop!’

I raised a pacifying hand. ‘Was there any woman Master Greening was close to? Your master was still a young man.’

‘No. Since his poor wife died he devoted himself to his work and the service of God.’

I was considering how to broach the question of Elias’s involvement in the religious discussions between his master and his friends, when Nicholas asked him suddenly, ‘What about this Jurony Bertano that I heard my master mention as I came upstairs? Did your master know him?’