Its irony, if the man is so great why would he hang him
C - the Sheriff did not understand the true meaning of what Mrs. Hale
said. There were multiple ways to make what she was making and the men
walking in did not know the intricacies of the process and assumed it
was just what the word phonetically sounded like.
The book always is longer and has more Parts in it
I think it was when they started the point of telling stories of the witches and what they did with the people it just started to spook them out and they feared that maybe they were honestly true. And I think at that time it really wasn't the best time to stand out and/or say/do something out of their league because they would think you were a witch.
(And we all saw Sleepy Hollow sooo) :)
