"Stop!" cried the headman in an excited voice, and slammed the door again. "Sirs, Satan is behind this!" he continued. "Bring fire quickly! Never mind the hut! Set it alight and burn it up so that not even the witch's bones remain." "Wait a minute, brother!" exclaimed the distiller. "Your hair is grey, but you are not very intelligent; no ordinary fire will burn a witch. Only the fire of a pipe can do it. I will manage it all right." So saying, he shook some glowing ashes from his pipe on to a bundle of straw, and began to fan the flame. Despair gave the unfortunate woman courage; she began to implore them in a loud voice. "Stop a moment, brother! Perhaps we are incurring guilt needlessly. Perhaps she is really no witch!" said the notary. "If the person sitting in there declares herself ready to make the sign of the cross, then she is not a child of the devil." The proposal was accepted. "Look out, Satan!" continued the notary, speaking at a chink in the door. "If you promise not to move, we will open the door." The door was opened. "Cross yourself!" exclaimed the headman, looking round him for a safe place of retreat in case of necessity. His sister-in-law crossed herself. "The deuce! It is really you, sister-in-law!" "What evil spirit dragged you into this hole, friend?" asked the notary. The headman's sister related amid sobs how the rioters had seized her on the street, and in spite of her resistance, pushed her through a large window into the hut, on which they had closed the shutters. The notary looked and found that the bolt of the shutter had been wrenched off, and that it was held in its place by a wooden bar placed across it outside. "You are a nice fellow, you one-eyed Satan!" she now exclaimed, advancing towards the headman, who stepped backwards and continued to contemplate her from head to foot. "I know your thoughts; you were glad of an opportunity to get me shut up in order to run after that petticoat, so that no one could see the grey-haired sinner making a fool of himself. You think I don't know how you talked this evening with Hanna. Oh, I know everything. You must get up earlier if you want to make a fool of me, you great stupid! I have endured for a long time, but at last don't take it ill if----" She made a threatening gesture with her fist, and ran away swiftly, leaving the headman quite taken aback. "The devil really has something to do with it!" he thought, rubbing his bald head. "We have him!" now exclaimed the two village councillors as they approached. "Whom have you?" asked the headman. "The devil in the sheepskin." "Bring him here!" cried the headman, seizing the prisoner by the arm. "Are you mad? This is the drunken Kalenik!"