By this time he had forgotten probably why his victim was dumb.

“Prisoner at the bar, hand back to me the soul o’ Gavin Dishart.  You winna?  Did the devil, your master, summon you to him and say, ‘Either that noble man or me maun leave Thrums?’ He did.  And did you, or did you no, drag that minister, when under your spell, to the hill, and there marry him ower the tongs?  You did.  Witnesses, Rob Dow and Tammas Whamond.”

She was moving from him on her knees, meaning when out of arm’s reach to make a dash for life.

“Sit down,” he grumbled, “or how can you expect a fair trial?  Prisoner at the bar, you have been found guilty of witchcraft.”

For the first time his voice faltered.

“That’s the difficulty, for witches canna die, except by burning or drowning.  There’s no blood in you for my knife, and your neck wouldna twist.  Your master has brocht the rain to put out a’ the fires, and we’ll hae to wait till it runs into a pool deep enough to drown you.

“I wonder at You, God.  Do You believe her master’ll mak’ the pool for her?  He’ll rather stop his rain.  Mr. Dishart said You was mair powerful than the devil, but—­it doesna look like it.  If You had the power, how did You no stop this woman working her will on the minister?  You kent what she was doing, for You ken a’ things.  Mr. Dishart says You ken a’ things.  If You do, the mair shame to You.  Would a shepherd, that could help it. let dogs worry his sheep?  Kill her!  It’s fine to cry ‘Kill her,’ but whaur’s the bonfire, whaur’s the pool?  You that made the heaven and the earth and all that in them is, can You no set fire to some wet whins, or change this stane into a mill-dam?”

He struck the stone with his fist, and then gave a cry of exultation.  He raised the great slab in his arms and flung it from him.  In that moment Babbie might have run away, but she fainted.  Almost simultaneously with Dow she knew this was the stone which covered the Caddam well.  When she came to, Dow was speaking, and his voice had become solemn.

“You said your master was mair powerful than mine, and I said it too, and all the time you was sitting here wi’ the very pool aneath you that I have been praying for.  Listen!”

He dropped a stone into the well, and she heard it strike the water.

“What are you shaking at?” he said in reproof.  “Was it no yoursel’ that chose the spot?  Lassie, say your prayers.  Are you saying them?”

He put his hand over her face, to feel if her lips were moving, and tore off the neckerchief.

And then again the rain came between them.  In that rain one could not think.  Babbie did not know that she had bitten through the string that tied her hands.  She planned no escape.  But she flung herself at the place where Dow had been standing.  He was no longer there, and she fell heavily, and was on her feet again in an instant and running recklessly.  Trees intercepted her, and she thought they were Dow, and wrestled with them.  By and by she fell into Windyghoul, and there she crouched until all her senses were restored to her, when she remembered that she had been married lately.