Burn, Witch, Burn!

"There is no possible doubt of it, Ricori."

He nodded to McCann: "Carry her down to the car."

I asked: "What are you going to do?"

He answered: "Kill the witch." He quoted with satiric unctuousness: "In death they shall not be divided."

He said, passionately: "As in hell they shall burn together forever!"

He looked at me, sharply.

"You do not approve of this, Dr. Lowell?"

"Ricori, I don't know-I honestly do not know. Today I would have killed her with my own hands but

now the rage is spent. What you have threatened is against all my instincts, all my habits of thought, all my

convictions of how justice should be administered. It seems to me-murder!"

He said: "You heard the girl. Twenty in this city alone killed by the dolls. And fourteen dolls. Fourteen

who died as Peters did!"

"But, Ricori, no court could consider allegations under hypnosis as evidence. It may be true, it may not

be. The girl was abnormal. What she told might be only her imaginings-without supporting evidence, no

court on earth could accept it as a basis for action."

He said: "No-no earthly court-" He gripped my shoulders. He asked: "Do you believe it was truth?"

I could not answer, for deep within me I felt it was truth. He said:

"Precisely, Dr. Lowell! You have answered me. You know, as I know, that the girl did speak the truth.

You know, as I know, that our law cannot punish the witch. That is why I must kill her. In doing that, I,

Ricori, am no murderer. No, I am God's executioner!"

He waited for me to speak. Again I could not answer.

"McCann"-he pointed to the girl-"do as I told you. Then return."

And when McCann had gone out with the frail body in his arms, Ricori said:

"Dr. Lowell-you must go with me to witness this execution."

I recoiled at that. I said:

"Ricori, I can't. I am utterly weary-in body and mind. I have gone through too much today. I am broken

with grief-"

"You must go," he interrupted, "if we have to carry you, gagged as the girl was, and bound. I will tell you

why. You are at war with yourself. Alone, it is possible your scientific doubts might conquer, that you

would attempt to halt me before I have done what I swear by Christ, His Holy Mother, and the Saints, I

shall do. You might yield to weariness and place the whole matter before the police. I will not take that

risk. I have affection for you, Dr. Lowell, deep affection. But I tell you that if my own mother tried to

stop me in this I would sweep her aside as ruthlessly as I shall you."

I said: "I will go with you."

"Then tell the nurse to bring me my clothing. Until all is over, we remain together. I am taking no more

chances."

I took up the telephone and gave the necessary order. McCann returned, and Ricori said to him:

"When I am clothed, we go to the doll-shop. Who is in the car with Tony?"

"Larson and Cartello."

"Good. It may be that the witch knows we are coming. It may be that she has listened through the girl's

dead ears as she spoke from her dead throat. No matter. We shall assume that she did not. Are there

bars on the door?"

McCann said: "Boss, I ain't been in the shop. I don't know. There's a glass panel. If there's bars we can

work 'em. Tony'll get the tools while you put on your clothes."

"Dr. Lowell," Ricori turned on me. "Will you give me your word that you will not change your mind about

going with me? Nor attempt to interfere in what I am going to do?"

"I give you my word, Ricori."

"McCann, you need not come back. Wait for us in the car."

Ricori was soon dressed. As I walked with him out of my house, a clock struck one. I remembered that

this strange adventure had begun, weeks ago, at that very hour…

I rode in the back of the car with Ricori, the dead girl between us. On the middle seats were Larson and

Cartello, the former a stolid Swede, the latter a wiry little Italian. The man named Tony drove, McCann

beside him. We swung down the avenue and in about half an hour were on lower Broadway. As we

drew near the street of the doll-maker, we went less quickly. The sky was overcast, a cold wind blowing

off the bay. I shivered, but not with cold.

We came to the corner of the doll-maker's street.

For several blocks we had met no one, seen no one. It was as though we were passing through a city of

the dead. Equally deserted was the street of the doll-maker.

Ricori said to Tony:

"Draw up opposite the doll-shop. We'll get out. Then go down to the corner. Wait for us there."

My heart was beating uncomfortably. There was a quality of blackness in the night that seemed to

swallow up the glow from the street lamps. There was no light in the doll-maker's shop, and in the

old-fashioned doorway, set level with the street, the shadows clustered. The wind whined, and I could

hear the beating of waves on the Battery wall. I wondered whether I would be able to go through that

doorway, or whether the inhibition the doll-maker had put upon me still held me.

McCann slipped out of the car, carrying the girl's body. He propped her, sitting in the doorway's