Burn, Witch, Burn!

"Hortense Darnley goes to the Mandilip woman, is given a doll, is asked to pose, is wounded there, is

treated there. And dies. Peters goes to the Mandilip woman, gets a doll, is wounded there, is presumably

treated there. And dies like Hortense. You see a doll for which, apparently, he has posed. Harriet goes

through the same routine. And dies like Hortense and Peters. Now what?"

Suddenly I felt rather old and tired. It is not precisely stimulating to see crumbling what one has long

believed to be a fairly well ordered world of recognized cause and effect. I said wearily:

"I don't know."

He arose, and patted my shoulder.

"Get some sleep. The nurse will call you if Ricori wakes. We'll get to the bottom of this thing."

"Even if we fall to it," I said, and smiled.

"Even if we have to fall to it," he repeated, and did not smile.

After Braile had gone I sat for long, thinking. Then, determined to dismiss my thoughts, I tried to read. I

was too restless, and soon gave it up. Like the room in which Ricori lay, my study is at the rear, looking

down upon the little garden. I walked to the window and stared out, unseeingly. More vivid than ever

was that feeling of standing before a blank door which it was vitally important to open. I turned back into

the study and was surprised to find it was close to ten o'clock. I dimmed my light and lay down upon the

comfortable couch. Almost immediately I fell asleep.

I awoke from that sleep with a start, as though someone had spoken in my ear. I sat up, listening. There

was utter silence around me. And suddenly I was aware that it was a strange silence, unfamiliar and

oppressive. A thick, dead silence that filled the study and through which no sound from outside could

penetrate. I jumped to my feet and turned on the lights, full. The silence retreated, seemed to pour out of

the room like something tangible. But slowly. Now I could hear the ticking of my clock-ticking out

abruptly, as though a silencing cover had been whisked from it. I shook my head impatiently, and walked

to the window. I leaned out to breathe the cool night air. I leaned out still more, so that I could see the

window of Ricori's room, resting my hand on the trunk of the vine. I felt a tremor along it as though

someone were gently shaking it-or as though some small animal were climbing it-

The window of Ricori's room broke into a square of light. Behind me I heard the shrilling of the Annex

alarm bell which meant the urgent need of haste. I raced out of the study, and up the stairs and over.

As I ran into the corridor I saw that the guards were not at the door. The door was open. I stood

stock-still on its threshold, incredulous-

One guard crouched beside the window, automatic in hand. The other knelt beside a body on the floor,

his pistol pointed toward me. At her table sat the nurse, head bent upon her breast-unconscious or

asleep. The bed was empty. The body on the floor was Ricori!

The guard lowered his gun. I dropped at Ricori's side. He was lying face down, stretched out a few feet

from the bed. I turned him over. His face had the pallor of death, but his heart was beating.

"Help me lift him to the bed," I said to the guard. "Then shut that door."

He did so, silently. The man at the window asked from the side of his mouth, never relaxing his watch

outward:

"Boss dead?"

"Not quite," I answered, then swore as I seldom do-"What the hell kind of guards are you?"

The man who had shut the door gave a mirthless chuckle.

"There's more'n you goin' to ask that, Doc."

I gave a glance at the nurse. She still sat huddled in the limp attitude of unconsciousness or deep sleep. I

stripped Ricori of his pajamas and went over his body. There was no mark upon him. I sent for

adrenalin, gave him an injection and went over to the nurse, and shook her. She did not awaken. I raised

her eyelids. The pupils of her eyes were contracted. I flashed a light in them, without response. Her pulse

and respiration were slow, but not dangerously so. I let her be for a moment and turned to the guards.

"What happened?"

They looked at each other uneasily. The guard at the window waved his hand as though bidding the other

do the talking. This guard said:

"We're sitting out there. All at once the house gets damned still. I says to Jack there, 'Sounds like they

put a silencer on the dump.' He says, 'Yeah.' We sit listening. Then all at once we hear a thump inside

here. Like somebody falling out of bed. We crash the door. There's the boss like you seen him on the

floor. There's the nurse asleep like you see her. We glim the alarm and pull it. Then we wait for

somebody to come. That's all, ain't it, Jack?"

"Yeah," answered the guard at the window, tonelessly. "Yeah, I guess that's all."

I looked at him, suspiciously.

"You guess that's all? What do you mean-you guess?"

Again they looked at each other.

"Better come clean, Bill," said the guard at the window.

"Hell, he won't believe it," said the other.

"And nobody else. Anyway, tell him."

The guard Bill said: