The Press., 1917-01-18
An Ingenious Woman
A Story of the Days of
 WitChCraft.
By F. A. MITCHELL

of baron who owned and ruled over
 a great territory. The man and the
 woman were both poor, and thei1
 neighbOrs wondered how they would
 get on. Nevertheless they prOspered
 and their prosperity was all on account
 of Joan, who was very Shrewd. One
 thing puzzled those who knew her. She
 did everything in a way so queer that
 some of them thought her demented And yet her acts resulted to her bene- q fit.
 One person, and one person alone,
 came to understand her-her husband | Conrad was stupid man. and it is I likely this was the reason why he came I to be an excellent auxiliary to his wife I Having no ideas of his own. he was 4 readily recipient of hers. For ten q years she kept instilling her way of I doing things into him, so that at last
 not only could she trust him to follow
 her lead, but at times to take the ini- | tiative on her methods.
 There was much warfare in a small way in those days, attacks being made l by one suZerain upon another. Tn one ! of these incuISiOnS upon the domain ot
 Baron ElginbrOd, where Conrad and
 his wife lived, Count Hastings, the in cursiOnist, took Conrad away with him.
 having learned thai he and his wife
 had accumulated money. and held his l prisoner for ransom.
 l Conrad was thrown into prison and
 told that he should stay there till he paid the ransom. He remained q cap | tive some time. then sent word to his
 captOr to say that if he would give him
 a messenger he would send him to his wife with an order 10 pay the ransom, l The count at once furnished the mes | Srugcr and Conrad wrote the fOllOwin-. 1 message to Joan:
 l My Dear Wife-I wish you to pay the fali,om demanded by Count Hastings for 1 my release, I will wait for you to do SO 1 for one week. One week from tonight if 1 I am not liberated l will hang myself in 1 the chimney of the room where I am con l fined. Your loving husband, CONRAD. This letterwas submitted to the count who read it with satisfaction. ''fOr.' said 1 he. If the woman iS inclined to dicker as to the amount she shall pay, the
 threat of her husband to hang himself
 will influence her to pay any sum l ! ask" And he doubled the amount de
 manded for the ransom.
 When the messenger delivered the
 note to Joan and she read her hus- | bands threat to hang himself she fell rover in a faint The messenger did { what he could to revive her and en- deAvOred to reassure her by pointing out the impOssibility of the prisoner Hanging himself in the chimney, since in the first place, he had no rope, and, AIn the second place. even if he had
 there was nothing in the chimney to
 which he could attach a rope. This seemed to comfort Joan. and sg,,sssssa;;iraS Der strea gtiaRtss-. .. :. husband note staT1ng that she would
 e unable to raise the money required Sfor the ransom in so short a time. but Bshe would do so as soon as possible | She added a note begging him not to hang himself. thus depriving her and r the children of his care and the pleas ure of having him with them. The messenger went back to the count with loans letter. and it was
 read with satisfaction. for it was evi-
 dent that she was so terrified at her husbands threat, notwithstanding the fact that it would be impossible to carry it out. that she would do all in her power to raise the money for the ransom. So the message was deliver ed to Conrad, who read it, evidently pleased at the prospect of getting his liberty.
 \ week passed, and the night came on which Conrad had threatened to commit suicide unless his wife had by that time paid the ransom and set him free. His jailcr. when he brought in the prisoners supper and set it down on the table, said jOkingly:
 Well, Conrad, are you going to hang yourself tonight?"
 "W'hy should 1? My wife has said that she might not be able to raise the money for my ransom so soon, but am sure she will do so in time 1 am aware that she must sell everything we have, including our home, to raise so large an amount, and I don't eX- pect that she will be able to turn it all into ready money in less than anothe! week. at least"
 "Why, then, did you name q period insufficient for her to raise the ran Sum!"
 "Because l did not wish her to lose any time
 'Wen, I'm glad you have no reason to hang yourself. For if you did l should have to sit up and watch you tonight, and I prefer to be asleep in my bed."
 So the jailer left his prisoner to eat his supper, and when he returned Con- rad was snoring loudly on his cot. The keeper went away satisfied that there was no danger of the prisoner cheat ing the count out of his ransom by kill ing himself, and he, too, betook him self to his bed and was soon snoring as loudly as Conrad.
 When the next morning the iailer took COIfrad'S breakfast to him, ex- pecting to see his prisoner sitting, as usual. at tho table waiting for it, he was aStOniShed not to see him at all. Moreover, there was d strange stiffness In the room, the silence of essence of any living thing. The man, thinking that, after all, his prisoner might have carried out his threat, went to the l chimney, fearing that he might see his l body dangling therr There was nOth- l ing in the lower part. and. looking up, he saw only small patch of blue sky. 1
 With fear and trembling the .iailer l sent word to the count that his prison 1 CT had vanished. In order to shield l he declared that he had heard 1 strange sounds overhead during the night. He believed that his prisoner had carried out his threat to hang him. self and that witches had carried off the body.
 That was all age when people. instead of looking for natural causes. inferred everything to supernatural interfer- nnre. The count so far leaned to the jailer'S opinion that lie dil not look far for means of tle eprisOners escape. He