mill while the clock was striking twelve. Ha, ha, and so Yankel has gone! What a joke! Why, if I should tell it to any one, they'd call me a liar. But why should I lie? They'll find it out for themselves to-morrow. Perhaps I'd better not mention it at all. They would say I ought to have—but what's the use of arguing about it? If I had killed the Jew myself, or anything like that, I should have been responsible for what happened, but as it is, it doesn't concern me at all. What need had I to interfere? Let sleeping dogs lie, say I. A shut mouth plays safe. They won't hear anything from me."
So Philip the miller reasoned with himself, and tried to ease his conscience a little. It was only as he was on the verge of falling asleep that a thought crept out of some recess of his brain like a toad out of a hole, and that thought was:
"Now, Philip, now's your time!"
This thought chased all the others out of his mind and took possession of it.
With it he went to sleep.
VI
Early next morning, while the dew is still glittering on the grass, behold the miller dressed and on his way to the village. He found the people there buzzing like bees in a hive.
