ese vampires and their prey. I know of only one exception."

"Ah, who is that?"

"Yourself."

Master Joseph smiled grimly. "They value their own lives very highly,
friend Raymond; and know that to arrest me would be no child's play.
Besides, Sweetbriar is never long unsaddled; and he is the fastest horse
in Salem."

"Yes, and to add to all that, you are a Putnam; and your wife is closely
connected with Squire Hathorne."

"There may be something in that," said his friend.

"Yes, even Mistress Ann has her limits, which her husband--submissive in
so many things--will not allow her to pass. But we are both a little
tired, after such an eventful day. Good night!"

CHAPTER XLVI.

Mistress Ann's Opinion of the Matter.

While the foregoing conversation was taking place, one of a very
different kind was passing between Mistress Ann and her worthy husband.
He had gathered up all the particulars he could of the examination and
had brought them home to his wife for her instruction.

After listening to all that he had to tell, with at least outward
calmness, she said bitterly: "The whole thing was a trick, you see, to
keep you and me away from Salem."

"Do you think so? Do you think then, that no man really wanted to see me
at Ipswich?"

"It is as plain as the nose on your face," replied his wife. "You were
to be decoyed off to Ipswich, my horse sent out of the way, and then
Joseph's madcap horse offered to me, they knowing well that the
worthless creature would not behave himself with any woman on his back."

"Oh, pshaw, Ann; you do not mean that my simple-hearted brother, Joseph
Putnam, ever planned and carried out a subtle scheme of that kind?" said
honest Thomas, with an older brother's undervaluation of the
capabilities of a mere boy like Joseph.

"I do not say that Joseph thought it all out, for very probably he did
not; doubtless that Master Raymond put him up to it--for he seems
cunning and unprincipled enough for anything, judging, by what you have
told me of his ridiculous doings."

"You may call them ridiculous, Ann; but they impressed everybody very
much indeed. Dr. Griggs, told me that he had no doubt whatever that an
'evil hand' was on him."

"Dr. Griggs is an old simpleton," said his wife crossly.

"And even Squire Hathorne says that he never saw a stronger case of
spectral persecution. Why, when one of the young men thrust the point of
his rapier at the yellow bird, some of its feathers