“Sst!” Erkki whispered. “Isn’t it time we got up and killed Erkki?”
“Yes,” the Devil answered, “it is. Come along.”
They got up quietly and the Devil reached down a great sword from the wall. Then they crept over to Erkki’s bed and the Devil with one blow cut off the head of the person who was lying there asleep.
“Now,” he said, “we’ll just carry out the bed and all and dump it in the lake.”
So Erkki took one end of the bed and the Devil the other and, stumbling and slipping in the darkness, they carried it down to the lake and pitched it in.
“That’s a good job done!” the Devil said with a laugh.
Then they went back to bed together and the Devil fell instantly asleep.
The next morning when he got up for breakfast, there was Erkki stirring the porridge.
“How—did you get here?” the Devil asked. “I mean—I mean where is my wife?”
“Your wife? Don’t you remember,” Erkki said, “you cut off her head last night and then we threw her into the lake, bed and all! But no one will be the wiser!”