"He wills it not to hurt you," cried Leah Herrick. "He is looking at
you, but his spectre has its back towards you."

There was quite a roar of applause through the crowded house at such an
exposure of the old Captain's trickery. He was very cunning to be sure;
but the "afflicted" girls could see through his knavery.

"Make him touch the poor girls," said the Reverend Master Noyes. For it
was the accepted theory that by doing this, the witch, in spite of
himself, reabsorbed into his own body the devilish energy that had gone
out of him, and the afflicted were healed. This was repeatedly done
through the progress of these examinations and the after trials; and was
always found to be successful, both as a cure of the sufferers, and an
undeniable proof that the person accused was really a witch.

In this case the "afflicted" girls were brought up to Captain Alden, one
after the other and upon his being made to touch them with his hand,
they invariably drew a deep breath of relief, and said they felt
entirely well again.

"You see Captain Alden," said Squire Gedney solemnly, "none of the
tests fail in your case. If there were only one proof, we might doubt;
but as the Scripture says, by the mouths of two or three witnesses shall
the truth be established. If you were innocent a just God would not
allow you to be overcome in this manner."

"I know that there is a just God, and I know that I am entirely
innocent" replied the noble old seaman in a firm voice. "But it is not
for an uninspired man like me, to attempt to reconcile the mysteries of
His providence. Far better men than I am, even prophets and apostles,
have been brought before magistrates and judges, and their good names
lied away, and they condemned to the prison and the scaffold and the
cross. Why then, should I expect to fare better than they did? All I can
do, like Job of old, is to maintain my integrity--even though Satan and
all his imps be let loose for a time against me."

Here the Reverend Master Noyes rose excitedly, and said that the
decisions of heathen courts and judges were one thing; and the decisions
of godly magistrates, who were all members of the church of the true
God, and therefore inspired by his spirit, was a very different thing.
He said it was simply but another proof of the guilt of the accused,
that he should compare himself with the apostles and the martyrs; and
these worshipful Christian magistrates with heathen magistrates and
judg