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these things, didn't he?"
    I nodded again.
    "Fine," said Mr. Cassidy, pressing my shoulder. "You see, we do understand each other now. So I won't blame you for anything you tell me."
    "What do you want to know?" I asked.
    "Oh, lots of things. I'm interested in Enoch, you see. Just how many people did he ask you to kill—all together, that is?"
    "Nine," I said.
    "And they're all buried in the quicksand?"
    "Yes."
    "Do you know their names?"
    "Only a few." I told him the names of the ones I knew. "Sometimes Enoch just describes them for me and I go out to meet them," I explained.
    Mr. Cassidy sort of chuckled and took out a cigar. I frowned.
    "Don't want me to smoke, eh?"
    "Please—I don't like it. My mother didn't believe in smoking; she never let me."
    Mr. Cassidy laughed out loud now, but he put the cigar away and leaned forward.
    "You can be a big help to me, Seth," he whispered. "I suppose you know what a District Attorney must do."
    "He's a sort of lawyer, isn't he—at trials and things?"
    "That's right. I'm going to be at your trial, Seth. Now you don't want to have to get up in front of all those people and tell them about—what happened. Right?"
    "No, I don't, Mr. Cassidy. Not those mean people here in town. They hate me."
    "Then here's what you do. You tell me all about it, and I'll talk for you. That's friendly enough, isn't it?"
    I wished Enoch was there to help me, but he was asleep. I looked at Mr. Cassidy and made up my own mind.
    "Yes," I said. "I can tell you."
    So I told him everything I knew.
    After a while he stopped chuckling, but he was just getting so interested he couldn't bother to laugh or do anything but listen.
    "One thing more," he said. "We found some bodies in the swamp. Emily Robbins' body we could identify, and several of the others. But it would be easier if we knew something else. You can tell me this, Seth.
    "Where are the heads?"
    I stood up and turned away. "I won't tell you that," I said, "Because I don't know."
    "Don't know?"
    "I give them to Enoch," I explained. "Don't you understand—that's why I must kill people for him. Because he wants their heads."
    Mr. Cassidy looked puzzled.
    "He always makes me cut the heads off and leave them," I went on. "I put the bodies in the quicksand, and then go home. He puts me to sleep and rewards me. After that he goes away—back to the heads. That's what he wants."
    "Why does he want them, Seth?"
    I told him. "You see, it wouldn't do you any good if you could find them. Because you probably wouldn't recognize anything anyway."
    Mr. Cassidy sat up and sighed. "But why do you let Enoch do such things?"
    "I must. Or else he'll do it to me. That's what he always threatens. He has to have it. So I obey him."
    Mr. Cassidy watched me while I walked the floor, but he didn't say a word. He seemed to be very nervous, all of a sudden, and when I came close, he sort of leaned away.
    "You'll explain all that at the trial, of course," I said. "About Enoch, and everything."
    He shook his head.
    "I'm not going to tell about Enoch at the trial, and neither are you," Mr. Cassidy said. "Nobody is even going to know that Enoch exists."
    "Why?"
    "I'm trying to help you, Seth. Don't you know what the people will say if you mention Enoch to them? They'll say you're crazy! And you don't want that to happen."
    "No. But what can you do? How can you help me?"
    Mr. Cassidy smiled at me.
    "You're afraid of Enoch, aren't you? Well, I was just thinking out loud. Suppose you gave Enoch to me?"
    I gulped.
    "Yes. Suppose you gave Enoch to me, right now? Let me take care of him for you during the trial. Then he wouldn't be yours, and you wouldn't have to say anything about him. He probably doesn't want people to know what he does, anyway."
    "That's right," I said. "Enoch would be very angry. He's a secret, you know. But I hate to give him to you without asking—and he's asleep now."
    "Asleep?"
    "Yes. On top of my skull. Only you can't see him, of course."
    Mr. Cassidy gazed at my