sweetheart,” Ralph said. “Very well, my dear sawbones, does this mean nothing to you? Yes? What about you, Strasse?”
Strasse muttered something.
Lisa said, “Nilpferd!”
“Yes,” Ralph said. “Nilpferd. (Nile-horse.) Another word for hippopotamus. And Hilda Speck’s brother is nicknamed Hippopotamus. Now for the next figure, the house with the woman looking out the attic and bearing an owl on her shoulder. Tell me, Strasse, does the Hippo have any special pals? One who is, perhaps, Greek? From the city of Athens?”
Strasse sputtered and said, “Somebody in the department has been feeding you information. I’ll...”
“Not at all,” Ralph said. “Obviously, the attic and the woman with the owl are the significant parts of the image. Dachstube (attic) conveys no meaning in German, but if we use the English translation, we are on the way to light. The word has two meanings in English. If capitalized, Attic, it refers to the ancient Athenian language or culture and, in a broader sense, to Greece as a whole. Note that the German adjective attisch is similar to the English Attic . To clinch this, Scarletin painted a woman with an owl on her shoulder. Who else could this be but the goddess of wisdom, patron deity of Athens? Scarletin was taking a chance on using her, since his kidnapers, even if they did not get beyond high school, might have encountered Athena. But they might not remember her, and, anyway, Scarletin had to use some redundancy to make sure his message got across. I would not be surprised if we do not run across considerable redundancy here.”
“And the tendrils?” I said.
“A pun in German, my dear Doctor. Ranke (tendril) is similar to Ranke (intrigues). The three figures are bound together by the tendril of intrigue.”
Strasse coughed and said, “And the mirror beneath the house with the attic?”
“Observe that the yellow brick road starts from the mirror and curves to the left or westward. I suggest that Scarletin means here that the road actually goes to the right or eastward. Mirror images are in reverse, of course.”
“What road?” Strasse said.
Ralph rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Surely the kidnapers made my husband explain the symbolism?” Lisa said. “They would be very suspicious that he might do exactly what he did do.”
“There would be nothing to keep him from a false explanation,” Ralph said. “So far, it is obvious that Scarletin has named the criminals. How he was able to identify them or to locate his place of imprisonment, I don’t know. Time and deduction—with a little luck—will reveal all. Could we have a road map of Germany, please?”
“I’m no dog to fetch and carry,” Strasse grumbled, but he obtained a map nevertheless. This was the large Mair’s, scale of 1:750,000, used primarily to indicate the autobahn system. Strasse unfolded it and pinned it to the wall with the upper part of Germany showing.
“If Scarletin had put, say, an American hamburger at the beginning of the brick road, its meaning would have been obvious even to the dummkopf kidnapers,” Ralph said. “He credited his searchers—if any—with intelligence. They would realize the road has to start where the crime started—in Hamburg.”
He was silent while comparing the map and the painting. After a while the fidgeting Strasse said, “Come, man! I mean, dog! You...”
“You mean Herr von Wau Wau, yes?” Ralph said.
Strasse became red-faced again, but after a struggle he said, “Of course. Herr von Wau Wau. How do you interpret this, this mess of a mystery?”
“You’ll note that there are many figures along the yellow brick road until one gets to the large moon rising behind the castle. All these figures have halos over their heads. This puzzled me until I understood that the halos are also zeros. We are to pay no attention to the figures beneath them.
“But the moon behind the castle? Look at the map. Two of the roads running southeast out of
Strasse muttered something.
Lisa said, “Nilpferd!”
“Yes,” Ralph said. “Nilpferd. (Nile-horse.) Another word for hippopotamus. And Hilda Speck’s brother is nicknamed Hippopotamus. Now for the next figure, the house with the woman looking out the attic and bearing an owl on her shoulder. Tell me, Strasse, does the Hippo have any special pals? One who is, perhaps, Greek? From the city of Athens?”
Strasse sputtered and said, “Somebody in the department has been feeding you information. I’ll...”
“Not at all,” Ralph said. “Obviously, the attic and the woman with the owl are the significant parts of the image. Dachstube (attic) conveys no meaning in German, but if we use the English translation, we are on the way to light. The word has two meanings in English. If capitalized, Attic, it refers to the ancient Athenian language or culture and, in a broader sense, to Greece as a whole. Note that the German adjective attisch is similar to the English Attic . To clinch this, Scarletin painted a woman with an owl on her shoulder. Who else could this be but the goddess of wisdom, patron deity of Athens? Scarletin was taking a chance on using her, since his kidnapers, even if they did not get beyond high school, might have encountered Athena. But they might not remember her, and, anyway, Scarletin had to use some redundancy to make sure his message got across. I would not be surprised if we do not run across considerable redundancy here.”
“And the tendrils?” I said.
“A pun in German, my dear Doctor. Ranke (tendril) is similar to Ranke (intrigues). The three figures are bound together by the tendril of intrigue.”
Strasse coughed and said, “And the mirror beneath the house with the attic?”
“Observe that the yellow brick road starts from the mirror and curves to the left or westward. I suggest that Scarletin means here that the road actually goes to the right or eastward. Mirror images are in reverse, of course.”
“What road?” Strasse said.
Ralph rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Surely the kidnapers made my husband explain the symbolism?” Lisa said. “They would be very suspicious that he might do exactly what he did do.”
“There would be nothing to keep him from a false explanation,” Ralph said. “So far, it is obvious that Scarletin has named the criminals. How he was able to identify them or to locate his place of imprisonment, I don’t know. Time and deduction—with a little luck—will reveal all. Could we have a road map of Germany, please?”
“I’m no dog to fetch and carry,” Strasse grumbled, but he obtained a map nevertheless. This was the large Mair’s, scale of 1:750,000, used primarily to indicate the autobahn system. Strasse unfolded it and pinned it to the wall with the upper part of Germany showing.
“If Scarletin had put, say, an American hamburger at the beginning of the brick road, its meaning would have been obvious even to the dummkopf kidnapers,” Ralph said. “He credited his searchers—if any—with intelligence. They would realize the road has to start where the crime started—in Hamburg.”
He was silent while comparing the map and the painting. After a while the fidgeting Strasse said, “Come, man! I mean, dog! You...”
“You mean Herr von Wau Wau, yes?” Ralph said.
Strasse became red-faced again, but after a struggle he said, “Of course. Herr von Wau Wau. How do you interpret this, this mess of a mystery?”
“You’ll note that there are many figures along the yellow brick road until one gets to the large moon rising behind the castle. All these figures have halos over their heads. This puzzled me until I understood that the halos are also zeros. We are to pay no attention to the figures beneath them.
“But the moon behind the castle? Look at the map. Two of the roads running southeast out of
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