"What do the people of North End say about the disappearance of Governor Rothsay?"
"Some say he was beguiled away by that man who called on him late at night, and that he was murdered and his body made away with. But I beg your pardon, sir, for repeating such dreadful things."
"Go on! What else do they say?"
"Well, sir, one says one thing, and one another; but they all agree that Old Scythia could tell something if she chose."
"Old Scythia? And what has she to do with the loss of the governor?"
"Nothing that I know of, sir. But the people at North End say that she has."
"Because, sir, on the day of the wedding, and the eve of the inauguration, she did foretell, in the hearing of a score, that Mr. Rothsay would never take his seat as governor."
"What! Absurd! Preposterous!"
"Of course it was, sir! Yet she did say that, sir, in the hearing of twenty or more of us, and it was a strange coincidence, to say the least, that her words came true. She said it in the presence of many witnesses on the day before the intended inauguration, and when there seemed no possibility of her words coming true. And strange to say, they have come true."