In his small room he sat and read by his one candle—read those portions of the Old Testament and the New which he wished to read. Had a spirit queried his choice he would have answered, “Is it not all his Word? And are not these the indicated circumstances and this very passage the Answer and Direction?” When he had finished reading he knelt and prayed long and fervently. His prayer told his God who He was, his attributes, and what was his usual and expected conduct; it told Him who were his enemies and rehearsed the nature of the ill they would do Him; then changed to a vehement petition that if it was his will He would discover his enemies and bring them to confusion—and if by means of the worm Thomas Clement— He prayed in terrible earnest, his hands locking and unlocking, beads of sweat upon his brow, prayed for the better part of an hour. Finally he rose from his knees, and standing by the table read yet another passage, then paced the floor, then sat down, and, drawing forth the tablets upon which he had made his own notes of the examination that day, fell to studying them, the open book yet beside him. He read over a list of questions with the answers Aderhold had given. He had not been quick to give the answers—he had fenced—he had striven to shift the ground—but at last, with a desperate quietness, he had given them. _Qu._ Do you believe in God? _Ans._ In my sense, yes. In your sense, no. _Qu._ In God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? _Ans._ No. _Qu._ Then you do not believe in the Trinity? _Ans._ No. There were other questions—a number of them—and the answers. But the very beginning was enough—enough. Master Clement, sitting rigidly, stared at the opposite wall. A sentence formed itself clearly before his eyes, the letters well made, of a red colour. Only the last of the three words wavered a little. CONVICTED AND HANGED. Or it might be CONVICTED AND BURNED. The first two words stood steady, and above them the name, GILBERT ADERHOLD. The concern was now to prove the sorcery—and to take all confederates in the net—to lop Satan in all his members. The minister stared at the wall. Another name formed itself as though it were stained there—MOTHER SPURAWAY....