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“Teacher, what are you going to do?”

“What a to open Sadan’s coffin to convince you!”

At that moment he pushed on the end of the bar, which he had carefully wedged under the sarcophagus, and used it as a lever to slide the lid over to the thick plank of wood he had placed before Sadan’s reat heartache and fear, I wanted to stop the doctor However, he persisted After athe candle inside the coffin, the professor graspedhands I looked inside… but the coffin was completely empty!

You can iine the effect this had on me However, the doctor did not appear surprised I felt inclined to challenge him in spite of the suspicious facts laid before me I said:

“Yes, Resuhî Bey; I am satisfied that Sadan Hanim’s body is not in this coffin But what does that prove or tell us? This only proves that her body is not here!”

“Indeed, that is sound logic, but it is flimsy! Tell me, why is the body—Sadan Hanim’s body—not here?”

“I do not know Perhaps someone stole it; perhaps they sold it to an anatomical business!”

I also felt the weakness of my conjecture But there could not be another plausible explanation In reply, professor Resuhî Bey sighed

“If only what you said were true,” he said “However, the reality is otherwise; let us go, onto other evidence!”

With us He blew out the candle in his hand We opened the door of the mausoleum and went outside The professor locked the door, put the keys in his pocket, and then at his request aited on either side of the cemetery

I was able to see the tree the professor was hiding behind from the cypress tree where I was concealed This was siil We had been in worse situations during the Struggle for Independence But I could not recall a moment that oppressed ht had passed long ago My body was numb; my nerves were at first excessively tense but eventually calry atso foolish I do not kno many centuries passed in that state On a whi near the trunks of the dark cypress trees At the same time, a black shadow appeared behind the tree where Resuhî Bey was hiding and advanced upon that white phantom This was evidently the doctor However, I had to run around soraves without to Resuhî Bey’s earlier instructions, soain I saw a fast- like a shrouded corpse passed rave But since trees obstructed my view of the ure entered When Professor Resuhî Bey saw me, he held out before me the body of a small child and said in a somber voice:

“Do you believe it now?”

With an anger and obstinacy that I could not suppress at that moment, I said, “No!”

Resuhî Bey asked, a little impatiently, “Is this not a child?”

I replied in the same harsh tone “Yes, this is a child… But where did he come from? And let us see if he has any wounds” The professor appeared to be running out of patience He struck aa wound on the child’s neck When I said, triuht, was I not?” the doctor merely replied, “Thank God we arrived in time!”