“I hadn’t the remotest idea of any such thing, most august and ghostly strangers,” chimed in the terrified clerk, as his legs almost gave way from under him.
“As we know you are lying, parson’s man as you are, why, you might as well come forward first. We intend to make an example of.”
The poor clerk was dragged out from among his fellows.
Two of the skeletons pulled down the heaviest bell, and much of its slack rope was coiled on the floor.
They held it down.
“That bell is too heavy to swing up one,” said the chief. “Take the apothecary, and make a ‘sandwich’ of him and the lying clerk.”
Much to the astonishment of all present, the clerk and the apothecary were placed back to back.
The slack rope of the great bell was twisted and tied round their bodies, and fastened into a knot.
At a given signal the two skeletons who held down the great bell let go the rope.
Up went the two unfortunate devils, shouting at the top of their voices, and dangling in mid-air, like a couple of spiders on a single thread of web.