Free Flower of Scotland 2 by William Meikle Page A

door. "I need to call on some friend's of the missus. They need to be here. I’ll be back anon."
    Jack sat with his coffee, but he wrapped the hand up in the handkerchief first. Somehow it looked worse, more real, in the cold light of day.
    The house was quiet around him. At one point he heard a moan from upstairs. He put a hand on the silver knife, but the sound wasn’t repeated. He had just finished his drink when the mill owner returned. The man looked grim and gaunt, but there was a determined glint in his eye that would brook no argument. He brought a large barrel of pitch in with him that he stood on the kitchen table.
    "You've proved already that you have a stout heart Jack," he said. "Can I ask you to bring your knife? I need you to stand beside me should I falter in what needs to be done."
    Before Jack could enquire further the man led him out of the kitchen and upstairs to the door of a bedchamber.
    "The missus is inside," the man said, looking Jack in the eye. "She stayed abed this morning."
    Jack was starting to get a bad feeling, and the coffee roiled in the pit of his stomach as the man pushed the door open.
    The man's wife lay on the bed, her face ashen.
    "Shall we send for the doctor?" her husband asked, but there was little concern in his voice.
    "No," the woman said, her voice weak and thready.
    The man nodded.
    "I have sent for your friends. They will be here presently. But first... I need to take a look at your right hand."
    The woman snuggled deeper under the covers, cowering away in protest, but the man was insistent and forced her arm out from beneath the eiderdown. He motioned Jack forward for a look. There was no hand on the end of the arm... only a bloody stump where Jack’s silver knife had done its job.
    The man nodded.
    "I done recognised the stone in yon ring, he said. And well I should... for I bought it for our wedding day."
    The woman made to rise out of the bed.
    "Show her your knife, Jack," the man said softly.
    Jack did as he was bid, and as soon as he took out the weapon the woman scurried back beneath the sheets, eyes wide in fear, mewling like a frightened cat. There was a knock on the bedchamber door. The man opened it to show eleven women standing in the hallway beyond.
    "Come in, ladies," he said with a smile that showed no hint of humor. "Your mistress is waiting."
    Two or three were loath to enter, but quietened down right smart like when Jack showed them the silver knife. Soon all eleven stood around the bed, all staring straight at the silver in Jack’s hand. Jack had seen those twelve sets of eyes before.
    "Sop, doll," he said, and grinned. The man shooed him out and the pair of them closed the door tight and locked it. The mewling started up from inside right away, and the house shook as if buffeted by a storm. But the door held. Jack followed the man to the kitchen and helped him spread the pitch all across the floor. He stood well back as the mill-owner started the fire.
    The flames took fast, and soon Jack and the man were forced out into the yard where they stood watching as the upper-floor took hold. The man smiled grimly as the screams of the burning witches reached a crescendo and their bones popped in the heat of the blaze. They waited there all day, until the house fell in on itself and the wind started to sift the ashes.
    The next day the man set to starting work on a new home and Jack went back to working the mill.
    He stayed there all summer, and never saw another cat.
    　
    　
    ~-oO0Oo-~
　
Total Mental Quality
    　
    I’d never heard him so excited. Not even when he got his first CD player.
    "Ye’ve goat tae come and hear this," he said on the phone. "Total dead mental, so it is."
    I was used to John’s enthusiasm, but I couldn’t prevent a small sigh escaping. He caught it, even over the crackling line.
    "No. Ah mean it man. It’s pure dead brilliant."
    On the way over I wondered what it was this time. Last time it had been the new speakers - the ones