Page:Weird Tales volume 11 number 02.pdf/48

Rh The nodding heads became more emphatic. Auert Polhemus slapped his dusty breeches.

"She should be thrown into the mill-pond," he declared. "It is the old water test. If she floats, she is a witch, and must die. If she drowns she is innocent, and someone else has bewitched the child."

"Ja, ja!" came from the nodding circle. Several men rose without further instructions, took some rope which hung over a beam, and started up the creek toward Hes Brummel's. They were back before long, with Hes Brummel bound hand and foot.

The old woman hissed and snarled and spat, clawing at the men's faces with her bound hands. Men and women lined up along one edge of the pond, holding lanterns over the black surface. As Hes Brummel was thrust forward toward the brink, footsteps were heard, and two men scrambled down the opposite bank.

"What's going on here?" inquired one of them, an old man who supported himself by means of a gnarled One of Hes Brummel's captors scratched his head.

"Well, Squire Yaupy," he answered respectfully, "truth is we think old Hes Brummel here is a witch. We're just going to make sure by throwing her into the pond. If she floats she's a witch, and we'll take care of her afterward, but if she sinks she's all right and we won’t bother any more about it."

Squire Yaupy De Vries threw back his head and laughed. He slapped his companion on the back.

"That's one good way to decide it—eh, Jake?" he asked. "But I know a better way." He made his way carefully around the edge of the pond while the crowd waited in silence, but some of the women shook their heads ominously, as though they disapproved of any more lenient course of justice. "You, Auert," he continued, "go over to your house and get your family Bible. We shall see whether God outweighs the devil."

Several of the people caught the idea and nodded in approval. Others either shook their heads the other way or looked blank. Auert Polhemus was back in a moment lugging the Bible by an iron chain attached to it. It was an enormous book, iron-bound, with wooden covers. Hes Brummel, still struggling, was pushed ahead of the crowd back into the mill, the two pans of the great flour-scales were dusted carefully, and the Bible was laid on one of them.

"If the woman you say is a witch is outweighed by the Bible," said Squire Yaupy, "she is a witch beyond any doubt. On the other hand, if she outweighs the Bible, she shall go free. Auert, will you look to the balance?"

Auert stepped forward, and Hes Brummel's slight form was lowered slowly into the opposite pan of the scales. The balance wavered for a moment, and then the Bible shot upward. The miller was evidently puzzled.

"She's heavier," he at length decided, while a murmur of disapproval came from the farmers.

"Then how can she be a witch?" argued the squire, turning to the assembly. "She outweighs even the word of God."

Heads continued to shake, but the squire took no notice of them. At a nod from him Hes Brummel's captors loosed her bonds. Feeling herself free, the old woman darted to the door and turned to glare at her persecutors.

"The curse of Alabad and Ghinu and Aratza be upon thee!" she spat, as she retreated into the darkness.

"See that? See that, Squire?" asked one excited woman. "Only a witch can curse like that! Some of us'll hear from that curse, we will!"