There was an awkward pause. Ester seemed to expect them to say something about that. So Max said “Thank you” for want of anything better.

“We’ve come to rescue you,” explained Klaus, rubbing his head.

“Oh good,” said Sister Marguerite cheerfully. “What did you have in mind, mon chou?”

“Well, ah –” Klaus looked a little crestfallen, as if this small detail had not crossed his mind until now “– ah, nothing in particular, to be honest. But we had to do something. I felt terrible just leaving you here.”

“And I can’t stand that twinkling twittering smirking great-aunt of yours,” added Ester. “She’s bested me far too many times. I want in on whatever-it-is-you’re-going-to-do.”

Max looked at them both. They really were a picture of evil: Klaus hunkering down below the ceiling, muscles bulging and thick eyebrows drawn in, and Ester squatting over her stick and glowering at them. But she had misjudged them – and they had come back to help her anyway.

“Thank you,” she said, and she meant it this time. Ester nodded graciously, like toady royalty.

“Now,” said Sister Marguerite, “we had better decide on a plan. We don’t have long.”

And this was an excellent point. So Marguerite put her chin on her hands, and Klaus twiddled the definitely-Turkish hat thoughtfully, and Ester chewed three pear drops at once to fuel her brain, and Max held on to both plaits, and they all thought.

“Maybe,” said Max, “if we use Marguerite’s sewing stuff, and our spare clothes, we can make something to disguise ourselves as, um, as a – as a—”

“Or,” cut in Ester, “if we all lift Klaus and use him like a battering ram, we can smash down the door, and—”

“Or,” said Sister Marguerite hastily, before Ester could plan any more damage to Klaus’s skull, “if I tie all my spare habits together, we could make a rope to climb out of the window.” She peered out. “Oh. Actually, we’re rather high up. Hm. Well, if we jumped the last few storeys—”

“Or,” said Klaus firmly, “when Le Goff comes back I could pick him up and put him in the cupboard outside.”

The others all looked at him.

“It locks,” he added.

“That,” said Sister Marguerite, “would work excellently.”

Max very much wanted Le Goff to be put in a cupboard, but she felt a little knot of worry. Surely then Klaus would be in big trouble too – Klaus who had tried to look after Sister Marguerite when she was “ill”; who had stopped to help the “stranger” on the floor at Marek, Marek and Ruszy’s; who had come back to rescue her and Marguerite. Klaus, who was nice.

“We can’t let you,” said Max. “Then you’ll be wanted by the police, too.”

Klaus smiled sadly. “I already am, Max.”

“Because of what you did for Die Eiserne Hand?” Max asked.

Klaus blinked. “Yes. How did you know?”