¡Quémate, bruja! (Clark Carrados)

"¡Quémate, bruja!" by Clark Carrados is a supernatural revenge tale set in nineteenth-century Kittsburgh, a declining New England whaling port. The story unfolds in two chapters. Judge Fergus Padderhorn orchestrates the execution by fire of Edwina Byngton, a healer and physician's daughter, falsely condemning her for witchcraft. His motives are revealed as sexual rejection, professional revenge, and covetous desire for her wealthy sea-captain husband's fortune. Edwina curses the town before her death; her thirteen-year-old daughter Nancy flees. When Captain Byngton returns from whaling eleven months later, he kills Padderhorn with a harpoon at the execution site. Byngton's ship subsequently sinks in a storm. In Chapter II, insurance investigator Derek Tate arrives in Kittsburgh seeking information, checked in by hotel proprietor Lena Green and accosted by a disreputable local named Dick Sholl, who cryptically mentions "the witch's treasure."