The Betrayal of Maggie Blair - By Elizabeth Laird Page 0,18

hearthstone.

"All the witchcraft I ever had, I leave it on this hearth," she intoned, staring boldly up at him. "If I never return, the vile toad and the cold snail will be the only creatures here. And if anyone takes this place from me and my granddaughter, he will be cursed, and his cattle will die and his children—"

"Granny, stop it!" I cried, the picture of little Robbie coming suddenly to me. "Don't say those things!"

Scarlet with rage, Mr. Macbean lifted his hand to strike her, but Mr. Robertson caught it and pulled it down.

"Out of her own mouth, she has condemned herself," he said, shaking his head.

Another man rushed in and gave her a violent blow across the face, before Mr. Robertson could stop him.

"That's for last summer, witch!" he roared. "It's for the storm you called up that flattened my crops and left us with nothing for the winter. There's never natural hail in June. It was a Devil's strike. You brought it on us."

"That storm swept my brother's boat away—four men drowned and all the fishing gear was lost!" burst out another man, elbowing the first aside.

Then came a voice that I knew too well.

"I saw her making magic with my own eyes," Annie was squealing excitedly. "She said something foreign, and the ashes from her hearth flew up the cauldron chain and then—and then there was a noise."

"What sort of noise?" someone said, above the general intake of breath.

"A—a horrible sort of a voice," said Annie.

It was too much. I couldn't bear to listen any longer.

"She's a liar!" I shouted, startling everyone. "Don't listen to her! She's a liar and a thief! She stole my father's silver buckle!"

Annie went pale and stepped back, but she recovered almost at once.

"Maggie's a witch too!" she shrieked. "She learned it all from the old one. There was a witches' Sabbath at Ambrisbeg. She was there. I—"

Mr. Macbean turned on her.

"Hold your tongue," he said furiously. "This is not the time or the place. If you've something to say, you'll be called as a witness. Get back to Scalpsie and your mistress."

Annie stared back at him with a boldness that surprised me and made no move to go. Mr. Macbean hesitated, but Mr. Robertson said worriedly, "If this young person has evidence of a material nature, she must come with us and give it before the court. A witches' Sabbath! I had no inkling that things had gone this far. The matter must be investigated. Superstition and hearsay must be separated from fact. I will remind you all"—he nodded gravely at the crowd that was swelling all the time as people from Rothesay ran up the hill to watch and listen—"that the only grounds for the conviction of witchcraft is consorting with the Evil One. I must warn you against heeding mere gossip and slander."

Annie was nodding earnestly at the minister's words, an expression of the most sickly humility on her face.

"Oh, Mr. Robertson," she said sweetly. "I wouldn't slander anyone, but that girl is tainted with evil like her grandmother, and there are things ... I can testify—"

"Stop it, Annie," interrupted Mr. Macbean. "Don't bother the minister now." He turned to Mr. Robertson. "But the girl is right. The witch's granddaughter should be examined too. We can lock them up together tonight and let them both answer to the court in the morning."

"Let them burn together! Let them rot in Hell together!" shouted the man whose brother had drowned.

I saw too late what a fool I'd been, and as one of the sheriff's men caught hold of my arms, gripping them with painful strength, I was flooded with such fear that I thought I would faint. The man shoved me toward Granny, who staggered under the impact so that we had to clutch each other to save ourselves from falling into the fire.

"Look at them, bound with the Devil's pact!" someone shouted, while others jeered and some began to jostle us and hit out with their fists. The sheriff's men, at a command from Mr. Robertson, put a stop to that, or I really believe that we would have been murdered on the spot.

"Little fool!" Granny hissed in my ear. "Why didn't you hold your tongue? Now you're in trouble. Don't let them see you're afraid. Do you want them to tear you to pieces?"

She was led out first, and as she emerged into the bright light outside the cottage, a kind of howl went up, the sound that