Today in Salem: The judges are grilling three women. The afflicted girls suffer their usual fits, and resentful neighbors make the typical complaints. But this time a small group of confessed witches is here, including the fortuneteller Samuel Wardwell.
Samuel has been in jail since Thursday and will be on trial for his life soon. But everyone knows that confessed witches who can see other witches are usually spared execution, at least for the time being. So he tries to make himself useful.
The accusations against Samuel include a burning house; the one that contained the body of his brother-in-law. Now he pounces. “You had an argument,” he asks the first woman. “Didn’t he fire you as a wet nurse? Were you angry enough to murder him?” he asks sharply. He turns to the magistrates. “Maybe it was she who burned the house. To cover up a murder.”
The woman protests her innocence, but soon confesses to signing a birch bark that the Devil had brought to her. Nothing else though! But Samuel won’t let it go, and brings it up when the second woman is in front of the judges. Once again he describes the blaze, the stolen wine, the gleeful shouting.But like the previous woman she denies it.
The women aren’t quite convincing, but neither is Samuel. The judges send all of them to jail to wait for trial.