Now that the shock and humor had passed, Nat was deeply worried. He couldn't take Abby back to his own time and announce that he hadn't the heart to see her hanged, on the other hand, he simply could not take her back to 17th century New England to be hanged for witchcraft. If he dropped her off in any other time, they'd think she was insane.
Nat had been making a routine historical survey, part of the work on his thesis about life in 17th century New England. And on his first venture into time, he had ended up committing one of the most serious crimes possible in his society—Time Meddling.
Earlier in the day, just before leaving Earth University in the 25th century, tall, ascetic Anton Bor, Chief of the Time Inspection Corps, had impressed on him the penalties for Time Meddling. Fixing Nat with cold grey eyes, Bor had recited the familiar warning in calculated tones: "At no time, and under no circumstance, are people in past ages to know they are being observed."
It was Nat's first solo adventure into time, and his indoctrination, as thorough as it was, had not prepared him for the shock he experienced a few hours later.
He had been completely unprepared for the scene that lay before his eyes as he came out of the thick woods into a clearing.
A gallows had been erected on a mound in the center of the cleared space and a large crowd had gathered to watch what seemed to be an execution.
Checking his invisibility shield, Nat moved closer.
A tall, gaunt man, with a look of righteous wrath on his face was reading from a scroll. Except for his clothing, the man looked exactly like Anton Bor, Chief of the TIC. Nat shook his head in disbelief, but strained his ears to hear what the man was reading.
"... she was found guilty of felonyes and witchcrafts whereof she stood indicted and sentence of death accordingly passed that she be hanged by the neck until she be dead...."
Nat tore his eyes from the man with the scroll and looked at the witch.