ction, Abigail's story began to
commend itself even to the older and cooler heads of the village. For if
the elfish creature had not vanished in the black cloud, to the sound
of thunder, where was she?

Joseph Putnam, and his household however held a different view of the
subject, but they wisely kept their own counsel; though they had many a
sly joke among themselves at the credulity of their neighbors. They knew
that a little while after dark, a strange noise had been heard at the
barn, and that one of the hired men going out, had found Dulcibel's
horse, without saddle or bridle, pawing at the door of the stable for
admission. As this was a place the animal had been in the habit of
coming to, and where she was always well treated and even petted, it was
very natural that she should fly here from her persecutors, as she
doubtless considered them.

Upon being told of it, and not knowing what had occurred Master Joseph
thought it most prudent not to put the animal into his stable, but
ordered the man to get half-a-peck of oats, and some hay, and take the
mare to a small cow-pen, in the woods in an out of the way place, where
she might be for years, and no one outside his own people be any the
wiser for it. The mare seemed quite docile, and was easily led, being in
company with the oats, of which a handful occasionally was given to
her; and so, being watered at a stream near by and fed daily, she was
no doubt far more comfortable than she would have been in the black
cloud that Abigail Williams was perfectly ready to swear she had seen
her enter and where though there might be plenty of water, oats
doubtless were not often meet with.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Master Raymond Also Complains of an "Evil Hand."

Master Raymond had everything now prepared upon his part, and was
awaiting a message from Captain Alden, to the effect that he had made a
positive engagement with the Danish captain.

He had caught a serious cold on his return from Boston and, turning the
matter over in his mind--for it is a wise thing to try to get some good
result out of even apparently evil occurrences--he had called in the
village doctor.

But the good Doctor's medicine did not seem to work as it ought to--for
one reason, Master Raymond regularly emptied the doses out of the
window; thinking as he told Master Joseph, to put them where they would
do the most good. And when the Doctor came, and found that neither
purging nor vomiting had bee