Abraham Merritt - Burn, Witch, Burn!

"What do you mean to do, Ricori?"

"Kill the witch," he answered quietly. "Kill her and the girl. Before the day comes. I have waited too long. I will wait no longer. She shall kill no more."

I felt a wave of weakness. I dropped into a chair. My sight dimmed. Ricori gave me water, and I drank thirstily. Through the roaring in my ears I heard a knocking at the door and the voice of one of Ricori's men:

"McCann is here."

Ricori said: "Tell him to come in."

The door opened. McCann strode into the room.

"I got her—"

He stopped short, staring at us. His eyes fell upon the covered body upon the cot and his face grew grim:

"What's happened?"

Ricori answered: "The dolls killed Dr. Braile. You captured the girl too late, McCann. Why?"

"Killed Braile? The dolls! God!" McCann's voice was as though a hand had gripped his throat.

Ricori asked: "Where is the girl, McCann?"

He answered, dully: "Down in the car, gagged and tied."

Ricori asked: "When did you get her? And where?"

Looking at McCann, I suddenly felt a great pity and sympathy for him. It sprang from my own remorse and shame. I said:

"Sit down, McCann. I am far more to blame for what has happened than you can possibly be."

Ricori said, coldly: "Leave me to be judge of that. McCann, did you place cars at each end of the street, as Dr. Lowell instructed?"

"Yes."

"Then begin your story at that point."

McCann said: "She comes into the street. It's close to eleven. I'm at the east end an' Paul at the west. I say to Tony: 'We got the wench pocketed!' She carries two suitcases. She looks around an' trots where we located her car. She opens the door. When she comes out she rides west where Paul is. I've told Paul what the Doc tells me, not to grab her too close to the doll–shop. I see Paul tail her. I shoot down the street an' tail Paul.

"The coupe turn into West Broadway. There she gets the break, a Staten Island boat is just in an' the street's lousy with a herd of cars. A Ford shoots over to the left, trying to pass another. Paul hits the Ford and wraps himself round one of the El's pillars. There's a mess. I'm a minute or two getting out the jam. When I do, the coupe's outa sight.

"I hop down an' telephone Rod. I tell him to get the wench when she shows up, even if they have to rope her off the steps of the doll– shop. An' when they get her, bring her right here.

"I come up here. I figure maybe she's headed this way. I coast along by here an' then take a look in the Park, I figure the doll– hag's been getting all the breaks an' now one's due me. I get it. I see the coupe parked under some trees. We get the gal. She don't put up no fight at all. But we gag her an' put her in the car. Tony rolls the coupe away an' searches it. There ain't a thing in it but the two suitcases an' they're empty. We bring the gal here."

I asked: "How long between when you caught the girl and your arrival?"

"Ten–fifteen minutes, maybe. Tony nigh took the coupe to pieces. An' that took time."

I looked at Ricori. McCann must have come upon the girl just about the moment Braile had died. He nodded:

"She was waiting for the dolls, of course."

McCann asked: "What do you want me to do with her?"

He looked at Ricori, not at me. Ricori said nothing, staring at McCann with a curious intentness. But I saw him clench his left hand, then open it, fingers wide. McCann said:

"Okay, boss."

He started toward the door. It did not take unusual acumen to know that he had been given orders, nor could their significance be mistaken.

"Stop!" I intercepted him and stood with my back against the door. "Listen to me, Ricori. I have something to say about this. Dr. Braile was as close to me as Peters to you. Whatever the guilt of Madame Mandilip, this girl is helpless to do other than what she orders her. Her will is absolutely controlled by the doll–maker. I strongly suspect that a good part of the time she is under complete hypnotic control. I cannot forget that she tried to save Walters. I will not see her murdered."

Ricori said: "If you are right, all the more reason she should be destroyed quickly. Then the witch cannot make use of her before she herself is destroyed."

"I will not have it, Ricori. And there is another reason. I want to question her. I may discover how Madame Mandilip does these things—the mystery of the dolls—the ingredients of the salve— whether there are others who share her knowledge. All this and more, the girl may know. And if she does know, I can make her tell."

McCann said, cynically: "Yeah?"

Ricori asked: "How?"

I answered grimly: "By using the same trap in which the doll–maker caught me."

For a full minute Ricori considered me, gravely.

"Dr. Lowell," he said, "for the last time I yield my judgment to yours in this matter. I think you are wrong. I know that I was wrong when I did not kill the witch that day I met her. I believe that every moment this girl is permitted to remain alive is a moment laden with danger for us all. Nevertheless, I yield—for this last time."

"McCann," I said, "bring the girl into my office. Wait until I get rid of anyone who may be downstairs."

I went downstairs, McCann and Ricori following. No one was there. I placed on my desk a development of the Luys mirror, a device used first at the Salpetriere in Paris to induce hypnotic sleep. It consists of two parallel rows of small reflectors revolving in opposite directions. A ray of light plays upon them in such a manner as to cause their surfaces alternately to gleam and darken. A most useful device, and one to which I believed the girl, long sensitized to hypnotic suggestion, must speedily succumb. I placed a comfortable chair at the proper angle, and subdued the lights so that they could not compete with the hypnotic mirror.

I had hardly completed these arrangements when McCann and another of Ricori's henchmen brought in the girl. They placed her in the easy chair, and I took from her lips the cloth with which she had been silenced.

Ricori said: "Tony, go out to the car. McCann, you stay here."

The girl made no resistance whatever. She seemed entirely withdrawn into herself, looking up at me with the same vague stare I had noted on my visit to the doll–shop. I took her hands. She let them rest passively in mine. They were very cold. I said to her, gently, reassuringly:

"My child, no one is going to hurt you. Rest and relax. Sink back in the chair. I only want to help you. Sleep if you wish. Sleep."

She did not seem to hear, still regarding me with that vague gaze. I released her hands. I took my own chair, facing her, and set the little mirrors revolving. Her eyes turned to them at once, rested upon them, fascinated. I watched her body relax; she sank back in her chair. Her eyelids began to droop.

"Sleep," I said softly. "Here none can harm you. While you sleep none can harm you. Sleep…sleep…"

Her eyes closed; she sighed.

I said: "You are asleep. You will not awaken until I bid you. You cannot awaken until I bid you."

She repeated in a murmuring, childish voice: "I am asleep; I cannot awaken until you bid me."

I stopped the whirling mirrors. I said to her: "There are some questions I am going to ask you. You will listen, and you will answer me truthfully. You cannot answer them except truthfully. You know that."

She echoed, still in that faint childish voice: "I must answer you truthfully. I know that."

I could not refrain from darting a glance of triumph at Ricori and McCann. Ricori was crossing himself, staring at me with wide eyes in which were both doubt and awe. I knew he was thinking that I, too, knew witchcraft. McCann sat chewing nervously. And staring at the girl.