University of Virginia Library

12. CHAPTER XII.
Sheppard Lee visits the village, makes a patriotic speech, and
leaves the fence.

Having arrived at the village, I proceeded to a
tavern, which was the chief place of resort, especially
after nightfall, for all the idlers and topers of
the town, of whom there were great numbers, the village
at that time being a place of but little business.

I found some ten or a dozen already assembled
in the bar-room, drinking brandy, smoking, chewing,
talking politics, and swearing. I had no sooner
entered than some of them, who were discoursing
loudly concerning the purity and economy of
the government, and the honesty of those who supported
it, appealed to me (my electioneering pilgrimage
through the country having caused me to
be looked upon as quite a knowing politician) to
assist them in the argument they were holding.

Remembering the scurvy way in which I had
been treated by the party, I felt strongly tempted
to give them a piece of my mind on the other side
of the question; but I thought of my buried treasure,
and conceiving it unwise to begin the quarrel
at that time, I made them no answer, but sat down
in a corner, where I hoped to escape observation.
Here I employed myself conning over the prayer
backwards, until I was assured I was perfect in
the exercise.

I then—still keeping aloof from the company—
gave my mind up to a consideration of what I
should do when I had transferred Captain Kid's
hoards of gold from the coffin to my house.

The first thing I resolved to do was to pay my
debts, which, how greatly soever they oppressed
me, were not actually very fearful in amount; after
which I was determined to rebuild my house, restore
my fields to their original condition, and go
to law with Mr. Aikin Jones, who I had no doubt
had cheated me out of my property. It did not
occur to me that, by such a step, I should get rid
of my second fortune as expeditiously as I had the
first; all that I thought on was the satisfaction of
having my revenge on the villain, whom I should
have punished in perhaps a more summary way,
had it not been for my respect for the laws, and
my being naturally a peaceable man. But I did
not think long of Mr. Jones; the idea of the great
wealth I was soon to possess filled my mind,

and I gave myself up to the most transporting
reveries.

From these I was roused by hearing some one
near me pronounce the words “Captain Kid's
money”—the idea that was uppermost in my own
mind; and looking round in a kind of perturbation,
I saw a knot of people surrounding Feuerteufel, the
German doctor, one of whom was discoursing on the
subject of the treasure in the Owl-roost, and avowing
his belief that he—that is, the German doctor—
was conjuring after it; an imputation that gained
great credit with the company, there being no other
way to account for his visit to our village, and his
constant perambulations through the woods and
marshes in the neighbourhood of the Owl-roost.

The German doctor, to my great relief, replied
to this charge by expanding his jaws as if he would
have swallowed the speaker, though he was guilty
of nothing beyond a laugh, which was in depth and
quality of tone as if an empty hogshead had indulged
in the same diversion. His voice was indeed
prodigiously deep and hollow, and even his
laugh had something in it solemn and lugubrious.
“Mine friends,” said he, in very bad English, “I
fos can do men' creat t'ings; put I can no find no
Captain Kitt's money not at all. I toes neffer looks
for coldt, except in places fare Gott puts it; t'at
iss, in t'a coldt-mines!” With that, he laughed
again, and looking upon the people about him with
great contempt, he walked up stairs to his chamber
—for he lodged in the inn.

Soon after this occurrence, and just when I had
sunk again into a revery, a man stepped up to me,
and saluted me in a way well suited to startle me.

“Sir,” said he, “friend Kill-deer, before you
scratch your head any more on this bench, answer
me a question. What do you go for,—brandy-toddy
or gin-sling?”

It was Squire Higginson, and he looked very
good-humoured and waggish; but as I had dreamed
of him so often, and always as being in his grave-clothes,
I was rather petrified at his appearance, as
if it were that of a spectre, rather than a mortal
man. As for our quarrel in the meadow, it had
slipped my mind altogether, until, having recovered
my composure a little, it was recalled to my recollection
by the associations arising out of his words.

But I remembered the circumstance at last, and
being moreover offended by his present freedom,
which was nothing less than sheer impertinence, I
told him I desired to have nothing to say to him; on
which he fell into a passion, and told me “I might
go to the devil for a ragamuffin and a turncoat
politician.” But, mad as he was, he ended his
speech by bursting into a laugh, and then, tapping
his forehead as before, and nodding his head and
winking, he left the bar-room to seek his chamber
—for he put up at the tavern, as well as the German
doctor.

These insults threw me into some ferment, and
being irritated still farther by the remarks of the
company, especially when some one asked what

the squire meant by calling me “a turncoat politician,”
I allowed myself to be thrown into a passion;
in the course of which I gave such of my old
friends as were present to know that I had forsworn
their party, and considered it to be composed of a
pack of the corruptest scoundrels in the country.

This unexpected denunciation produced a great
explosion; my old friends fell upon me tooth and
nail, as the saying is, reviling me as a traitor and
apostate. But, on the other hand, those of the opposition
who happened to be present ranged themselves
on my side, applauding my honesty, judgment,
and spirit to such a degree, that I was more
than ever convinced I had been on the wrong side.
I met reproaches with contempt, and threats with
defiance; opposed words to words, and assertions
to assertions (for, in politics, we do not make use
of arguments); and finding myself triumphantly
victorious, I mounted into a chair, and made a
speech that was received by my new friends with
roars of applause. Intoxicated with these marks of
approbation, I launched at once into a sea of declamation,
in which I might have tossed about during
the whole night, had I not by chance, while balking
for a word, rolled my eyes upon the clock that
stood opposite to me in the bar, and perceived that
it wanted just a quarter of an hour to twelve
o'clock. In a moment I forgot every thing but the
treasure that awaited me in the Owl-roost; I stopped
short in the middle of a sentence, took one more look
at the clock, and then, leaping down from the chair,

rushed from the tavern without saying a word, and,
to the amazement of friend and foe, ran at full speed
out of the village; and this gait I continued until I
had reached the old Swedes' Church; for I had
taken the footpath that led in that direction.