SOME DOUBTS.
Twenty years later, to the minute, the devil appeared and demanded his pay. But he did not know Caspar, who had been thinking the matter over for some two years, and being hale and hearty, had no idea of going at all, and especially of going where he had rashly ticketed himself. He had consulted an abbott of rare power in such cases, and the abbott had shown him how to evade the contract. The writer of the legend does not state just what this was, but it was sufficient.
Caspar declined to fulfil his contract, and the devil saw he was foiled. He recognized the superior power of the abbott, but he couldn’t help himself. He merely lashed his tail around, and smiling sarcastically, remarked:
“Very good, my fine fellow, you have won the first point in this game, but I shall proceed to show you that there are things over which the abbott has no control. Good night.”
He sailed out into the night, Caspar jeering him. He jeered too soon. For just then there came a horrible darkness, with terrible thunder and flashes of frightful lightning, and the mountain was rent in twain, and Caspar’s mill with himself and his live stock all went down into the chasm, and the Gorge du Trient was made.
Caspar’s body was found in the river below, with ugly marks about the throat, with the debris of his mill. There was not a splinter left of anything.
This is the legend. I don’t believe it, for several reasons.
If the devil had sufficient knowledge of the intention of men in advance to bring with him a contract all drawn up, (which must have cost him some trouble unless he kept them printed in blank) he would also have known that Caspar would outwit him in the end.
If he had the power to catch Caspar by destroying his mill by splitting the mountain, he had the same power before, and was just as sure of the miller before as after this exhibition of his power.
Going through all this rigmarole of signing and making contracts would be totally unnecessary. Satan is supposed to be cunning. What sense was there in laying traps for Caspar when Caspar was doing his level best to get to him anyhow? Had he let him alone, Caspar would have come to him of his own accord.