“Tell me, Mother Witch,” said he, “are you the one who has visited our hut for three days past, and each time spirited away our dinner and the pot to cook it in?”
The little old woman broke into a cackling laugh. “Indeed, yes,” said she, “and your three fine companions had not wit enough to save their dinner! One taste of their food gave me power to carry away all that they had, and I tell you, it was very pity for their stupid heads which kept me from bearing them away also, to be my slaves and water carriers! A likely tale they made up when they were ashamed to own that a little old woman had got the better of them! Band of horsemen! Ha! Ha! And it was only little me! But come, the second test, and if you fail in that, young man, as you surely will, you will die; there will be no mercy for you!” With that, she snatched from her bundle the [[65]]wooden mallet, not stopping to notice that it was not her own iron one. She flew savagely at Massang and began to beat upon his head with it, shouting:
“There, now! There, now! Cry for mercy before I hammer out your brains!” But the blows fell upon Massang’s head as lightly as the blows of a tiny stick, and he laughed aloud, bidding her hammer away,—it quite amused him!
At length, weary and breathless, she paused. “And now,” said Massang, “you must let me do the same to you!” Taking the witch’s iron hammer from his pocket, he brought it down upon her head with great force.
The old woman clapped her hands to her head, uttered a shriek, leaped into the air and flew out through the window. Just at that minute the Black Man, the Green Man and the White Man, having returned from the hunt, appeared in the doorway.
“Quick! Quick!” cried Massang, pushing past them. “Let us follow the [[66]]little witch woman! She is wounded and will fly right to her lair. Come with me, quick, and follow her!” So the four dashed out of the hut and after the old witch as fast as they could go. She flew low in the sky like a great bird, and every now and then a drop of black blood fell to the ground from the wound in her head. At first she flew so fast that Massang, with the other three behind him, had great difficulty in keeping up with her, but after awhile she began to waver and fly unevenly. By this time the four found themselves running over a barren stretch of land, very rough and uneven, and they stumbled and fell more than once, but as the flight of the witch became ever slower, they managed to keep her in sight. At last they saw her fall to the ground and lie quite still, and running up to her, they found she was dead.
“An evil old witch,” said Massang, “yet I meant not to kill her—only to wound and drive her away.” [[67]]
“She would have killed you quickly enough,” said the three, “and us too, if we had let her!”
Looking around them, they saw near by the mouth of a deep, dark cave.
“This must be her lair,” said Massang, “and no doubt it is filled with treasure; let us go down and see.” But apparently there was no way of getting down. The cave was so deep they could scarcely see the bottom of it, and the sides were steep and smooth as polished marble.