Абрахам Меррит - Burn, Witch, Burn!

along,' he says, 'gettin' the air. I won't deny I'd had some drinks,' he says, 'but nothin' I couldn't carry. I'm

swishin' along wit' me cane, when I drops it by that bush there,' he says, pointin'. 'I reach down to pick it

up,' he says, 'an' there I see a doll. It's a big doll an' it's all huddled up crouchin', as if somebody dropped

it that way. I reaches over t' pick it up. As I touch it, thedoll jumps as if I hit a spring. It jumps right over

me head,' he says. 'I'm surprised,' he says, 'an' considerably startled, an' I'm crouchin' there lookin' where

the doll was when I feel a hell of a pain in the calf of me leg,' he says, 'like I been stabbed. I jump up, an'

there's this doll wit' a big pin in its hand just ready t' jab me again.'

"'Maybe,' says I to the drunk, 'maybe 'twas a midget you seen?' 'Midget hell!' says he, 'it was a doll! An'

it was jabbin' me wit' a hat-pin. It was about two feet high,' he says, 'wit' blue eyes. It was grinnin' at me

in a way that made me blood run cold. An' while I stood there paralyzed, it jabbed me again. I jumped

on the bench,' he says, 'an' it danced around an' around, an' it jumped up an' jabbed me. An' it jumped

down an' up again an' jabbed me. I thought it meant to kill me, an' I yelled like hell,' says the drunk. 'An'

who wouldn't?' he asks me. 'An' then you come,' he says, 'an' the doll ducked into the bushes there. Fer

God's sake, officer, come wit' me till I can get a taxi an' go home,' he says, 'fer I make no bones tellin'

you I'm scared right down to me gizzard!' says he.

"So I take the drunk by the arm," went on Shevlin, "thinkin', poor lad, what this bootleg booze'll make

you see, but still puzzled about how he got them holes in his legs. We come out to the Drive. The drunk is

still a-shakin' an' I'm a-waitin' to hail a taxi, when all of a sudden he lets out a squeal. 'There it goes!

Look, there it goes!'

"I follow his finger, an' sure enough I see somethin' scuttlin' over the sidewalk an' out on the Drive. The

light's none too good, an' I think it's a cat or maybe a dog. Then I see there's a little coupe drawn up

opposite at the curb. The cat or dog, whatever it is, seems to be makin' fer it. The drunk's still yellin' an'

I'm tryin' to see what it is, when down the Drive hell-fer-leather comes a big car. It hits this thing

kersmack an' never stops. He's out of sight before I can raise me whistle. I think I see the thing wriggle

an' I think, still thinkin' it's a cat or dog, 'I'll put you out of your misery,' an' I run over to it wit' me gun. As

I do so the coupe that's been waitin' shoots off hell-fer-leather too. I get over to what the other car hit,

an' I look at it-"

He slipped the bag off his knees, set it down beside him and untied the top.

"An' this is what it was."

Out of the bag he drew a doll, or what remained of it. The automobile had gone across its middle,

crushing it. One leg was missing; the other hung by a thread. Its clothing was torn and begrimed with the

dirt of the roadway. It was a doll-but uncannily did it give the impression of a mutilated pygmy. Its neck

hung limply over its breast.

McCann stepped over and lifted the doll's head, I stared, and stared…with a prickling of the scalp…with

a slowing of the heart beat…

For the face that looked up at me, blue eyes glaring, was the face of Peters!

And on it, like the thinnest of veils, was the shadow of that demonic exultance I had watched spread over

the face of Peters after death had stilled the pulse of his heart!

Shevlin watched me as I stared at the doll. He was satisfied by its effect upon me.

"A hell of a lookin' thing, ain't it?" he asked. "The doctor sees it, McCann. I told you he had brains!" He

jounced the doll down upon his knee, and sat there like a red-faced ventriloquist with a peculiarly

malevolent dummy-certainly it would not have surprised me to have heard the diabolic laughter issue

from its faintly grinning mouth.

"Now, I'll tell you, Dr. Lowell," Shevlin went on. "I stands there lookin' at this doll, an' I picks it up.

'There's more in this than meets the eye, Tim Shevlin,' I says to myself. An' I looks to see what's become

of the drunk. He's standin' where I left him, an' I walk over to him an' he says: 'Was it a doll like I told

you? Hah! I told you it was a doll! Hah! That's him!' he says, gettin' a peck at what I'm carryin'. So I

says to him, 'Young fellow, me lad, there's somethin' wrong here. You're goin' to the station wit' me an'

tell the lootenant what you told me an' show him your legs an' all,' I says. An' the drunk says, 'Fair

enough, but keep that thing on the other side of me.' So we go to the station.

"The lootenant's there an' the sergeant an' a coupla flatties. I marches up an' sticks the doll on the top of

the desk in front of the lootenant.

"'What's this?' he says, grinnin'. 'Another kidnapin'?'

"Show him your legs," I tells the drunk. 'Not unless they're better than the Follies,' grins this

potato-brained ape. But the drunk's rolled up his pants an' down his socks an' shows 'em.

"'What t'hell done that?' says the lootenant, standin' up.

"'The doll,' says the drunk. The lootenant looks at him, and sits back blinkin'. An' I tells him about

answerin' the drunk's yells, an' what he tells me, an' what I see. The sergeant laughs an' the flatties laugh

but the lootenant gets red in the face an' says, 'Are you tryin' to kid me, Shevlin?' An' I says, 'I'm tellin'

you what he tells me an' what I seen, an' there's the doll.' An' he says, 'This bootleg is fierce but I never

knew it was catchin'.' An' he crooks his finger at me an' says, 'Come up here, I want t' smell your breath.'

An' then I knows it's all up, because t' tell the truth the drunk had a flask an' I'd took one wit' him. Only

one an' the only one I'd had. But there it was on me breath. An' the lootenant says, 'I thought so. Get

down."

"An' then he starts bellerin' an' hollerin' at the drunk, 'You wit' your soup-an'-nuts an' your silk hat, you

ought to be a credit to your city an' what t' hell you think you can do, corrupt a good officer an' kid me?

You done the first but you ain't doin' the second,' he yelps. 'Put him in the cooler,' he yelps. 'An' throw

his damned doll in wit' him t' keep him company!' An' at that the drunk lets out a screech an' drops t' the

floor. He' out good an' plenty. An' the lootenant says, 'The poor damned fool by God he believes his

own lie! Bring him around an' let him go.' An' he says t' me, 'If you weren't such a good man, Tim, I'd

have you up for this. Take your degen'ret doll an' go home,' he says, 'I'll send a relief t' your beat. An'

take t-morrow off an' sober up,' says he. An' I says t' him, 'All right, but I seen what I seen. An' t' hell

wit' you all," I says t' the flatties. An' everybody's laughin' fit t' split. An' I says t' the lootenant, 'If you

break me for it or not, t' hell wit' you too.' But they keep on laughin', so I take the doll an' walk out."

He paused.

"I take the doll home," he resumed. "I tell it all t' Maggie, me wife. An' what does she tell me? 'T' think

you've been off the hard stuff or near off so long,' she says, 'an' now look at you!' she says, 'wit' this talk

of stabbin' dolls, an' insultin' the lootenant, an' maybe gettin' sent t' Staten Island,' she says. 'An' Jenny

just gettin' in high school! Go t' bed,' she says, 'an' sleep it off, an' throw the doll in the garbage,' she says.

But by now I am gettin' good an' mad, an' I do not throw it in the garbage but I take it with me. An'