"Count Dracula!" cried the burgomaster, a solid citizen of some fifty years, but looking older, as though wracked by years of grief.
“For your many crimes against the people, we have come to bring you judgment!"
The dread vampire lord gave a low, mocking laugh. "Buffoon!" he snorted, "there is nothing you can or dare do to me!"
"You are wrong," declared the burgomaster. "We have prepared well -- aided by the wise advice of our honored visitor -- and it is you who will find there is nothing you can do. We have garlic, mirrors,
the Holy Crucifix, the Host, the holy water and a specially large axe prepared for you. Seize him!"
At once the Count was seized by the brawny arms of half a dozen of the townsfolk, while the crowd parted to reveal a particularly burly man, head shrouded in a hood of black velvet and who was holding
a massive headsman's axe firmly in his two knotted hands.
Screaming in rage, the Count was swiftly pinioned with his head on the block as the burgomaster leaned forward, his face creased in pain and fury.
"Your time is come, monster! Only one thing can save you now - the location of all the treasure you have plundered from our town over the centuries!"
Despite the danger of his perilous position Dracula laughed "So we come to the true purpose of this charade -- pure naked greed. You will get no treasure from me!"
"Then your head shall be cut off
on the count of three," answered the the burgomaster. "Headsman, raise your axe, and prepare to strike."
"You are bluffing!" sneered the Count. "The treasure is where you will never find it!"
"One"
"Cut my head off and the treasure is lost for ever!"
"Two"
"I defy you, burgomaster! I defy you!"
"Three!"
"Wait! It is in the --"
Even as the vampire's nerve broke, the heavy axe was swinging down and could not be halted, and with one clean strike the headsman took off Count Dracula's head.
There was a gasp from the crowd at the realization that in another second they would have known where the treasure was, but the burgomaster drew himself up.
"Have no fear," he said, "we have ample leisure to search, and we are sure to find the treasure with care and patience."
He could not, however, suppress a slight flicker of apprehension at the thought that the Count might have told the truth.
And so it proved when a month later he was forced to admit it after they had turned over every stone in Castle Dracula, with never a sign of the treasure.
van Helsing nodded philosophically. “I feared it would be so," he said. "You see, you should never hatchet your Count before he chickens."
Dog=K9 Kate=K8
// stolen from a friend...
Wooden start
"Let our ideal be less seizures and more of exchange, less government methods in business and more business methods in government." - Spencer Heath
