ne pass the
bridge to-night astride of two wheels, one before the other, riding
post-haste?"

There was a long pause as the watchman sought to comprehend this
extraordinary question.

"Come--come!" cried the officer, who had remained on the boat. "Canst
not say yes or no, man?"

"Ay, can I, master!" was the reply. "But you had as well ask had I seen
a witch riding across the moon on a broomstick. We have no been asleep
to dream of flying wheels."

"Well--well!" said he who had landed. "Go you now straight and stand at
the bridge head. We shall follow anon."

The watch moved slowly away and Rebecca was helped ashore by the last
speaker.

"Our speed hath brought us hither in advance, my lady," he said. "Now
shall we doubtless come in before the fugitive."

"Well, I hope so!" said Rebecca. Then, with a smothered cry: "Oh, Land
o' Goshen! I've dropped my umbrella!"

They stooped together and groped about on the wharf in silence for a few
moments. The landing was encumbered with lumber and stones for building,
and, as the moon was just then covered by a thick cloud, the search was
difficult.

"I declare, ain't this provokin'!" Rebecca cried, at length.

"These beams and blocks impede us," said the officer. "We must have
light, perforce. Ho there! The watch, ho! Bring your lanthorn!"

"Why, 'tain't worth while to trouble the watchman," said Rebecca. "I'll
jest strike a light myself."

She fumbled in her satchel and found a card of old-fashioned silent
country matches, well tipped with odorous sulphur. The officer at her
side saw nothing of her movements, and his first knowledge of her
intention was the sudden and mysterious appearance of a bluish flame
close beside him and the tingle of burning brimstone in his nostrils.

With a wild yell, he leaped into the air and then, half crazed by fear,
tumbled into the boat and cut the mooring-rope with his sword.

"Cast off--cast off!" he screamed. "Give way, lads, in God's name! A
witch--a witch! Cast off!"

A gentle breeze off the shore carried the sulphurous fumes directly over
the boat, and these, together with their officer's terror-stricken tones
and the sight of that uncanny, sourceless light, struck the crew with
panic. Fiercely and in sad confusion did they push and pull with
boat-hook and oar to escape from that unhallowed vicinity, and, even
after they were well out in the stream, it was with the frenzy of
superstitious horror that they bent their stout