“If you plan to kill me,” said Purity, “you’d better do it quick, because I’m going now to denounce you and send them after you.”

“Then be off,” said Verily. “They’ll either find us or they won’t, depending on what Alvin decides. And if they do find us, keep this in mind: All he wants is for people to have a chance at happiness. Even you.”

“My happiness doesn’t depend on a witch!”

“Does so,” said Verily. “But up to now, the witches it depended on were dead.”

Tears appeared in her eyes; her face reddened; she would have slapped him again except she remembered that it did no good. Instead she turned and ran from him into the woods, almost bumping into Alvin and Mike Fink, who were returning along the path. A moment later she was gone.

“I think you lost, Very,” said Alvin. “Or was that your plan?”

“She’s not at her best,” said Verily. He looked from Mike to Arthur to Alvin. “Well, is it time for us to put on seven-league boots?”

Alvin grinned at him. “Wouldn’t you rather we tied you to the mast as we sailed on past the siren?”

Verily was startled. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that I saw how you were looking at her. She struck something in you.”

“Of course she did,” said Verily. “She’s been strangled by the need to hide her very considerable knack, and now she finds that her parents were killed for the same cause. She has to distinguish between herself and those who knowingly do witchcraft. She has to draw the line of virtue and stand on the right side of it without denying what she is and what she knows. I lived that life, except that my parents were fortunate enough to stay alive. I understand something of what she’s going through.”

“Inconvenient time for her to come to her crisis of faith, don’t you think?” said Alvin.

“Don’t make more of this than it is,” said Verily. “As I told her, if she denounces us the authorities will either find us or not, depending on what you decide.”

Mike snorted. “That’s an easy one.”

At that moment Arthur Stuart and a dripping, somewhat-dressed Audubon appeared. “She’s gone,” Arthur Stuart said.

“That is good, the way I am dress,” said Audubon.

“She’s gone to report us,” said Mike Fink, “and here we are jawing.”

“It’s up to Alvin whether we run or wait,” said Verily. “She might not denounce us.”

“But then she might,” said Mike. “And if she does, let’s not be here.” But Verily and Alvin were looking at each other, deciding some question that the others hadn’t heard.

“Is there some reason,” Alvin asked, “why I might choose to let them find us?”

Still Verily declined to answer.

“To save her,” said Arthur Stuart.

Now they all looked at Arthur. He looked at Alvin, just as intently as Verily had the moment before. Alvin had the distinct impression that he was supposed to understand some unspoken explanation.