'The old Nick,' added Wanzer.
'Your namesake,' replied the stranger.
'And you have charge of Kidd's money?' inquired Nick.
The stranger nodded again.
'But can you tell me where it is?' asked Nick in an insinuating
tone. 'It's of no use to any one now.'
The stranger looked about him, and then said in a cautious tone: I
suppose I might, but it would be a breach of trust; I promised never
to reveal it.'
'I think you observed that you are the Old Boy,' remarked Nick.
'The Old Boy, Old Nick, Old Harry, Old Scratch, among friends! My
enemies are less courteous in their titles,' replied the other.
'Well,' said Nick, in a very insinuating tone, 'that being the case,
a trifling breach of trust can't hurt _you_. You know that your
character is none of the best; I don't mean to say that you deserve
what is said of you,' added he in an apologetic tone, 'but people
_will_ talk, and they sometimes make very free with you.'
'I know it,' replied the other. 'I'm used to it; I don't mind it.'
'Well,' said Nick, returning to the subject of the gold, 'if you
could put me in the way of getting that money, I would do something
for you d--d handsome.'
'I can't venture,' replied the other resolutely; 'I don't mind Kidd
so much. He's bad enough, and has some desperate fellows leagued
with him; but the worst of all is a hard-headed Dutchman, one Teunis
Van Gelder. Since he came into our quarters, he and Kidd have struck
up a kind of partnership: I've led a dog's life.'
'But they can't use the money,' urged Nick.
'Can any miser use his money?' inquired the other, 'yet no miser
will part with it. They like to know it's there. I tell you, Sir,'
said he, striking his club hard on the ground, and speaking with
much emphasis, 'if they lost that money, they'd make my quarters too
hot to hold me.'
'Well,' said Nick, 'I did not think that they could increase the
temperature there; but if they did kick you out, would you mind it?'
'I was brought up there,' answered the other, 'and am somewhat used
to the climate. I don't think I would feel at home any where else.'
Nick was unwilling to give up the chance of getting hold of the
freebooter's treasure. 'Who is to tell them that you revealed it?'
asked he; 'I would not.'
The stranger seemed impressed by this promise. 'Can I rely on you,
Mr. Wanzer?'
Nick was vociferous in vindication of his trustworthiness.
'But there must be a consideration,' suggested the stranger. 'I
never do any thing without it.'
'Just as you please,' said Nick, who was becoming reckless; 'I agree
to any thing.'
'You know what my price is?'
'I've heard,' replied Nick. 'Give me the money, and make your own
terms.'
'Enough,' answered the other.
'Jump in your boat, and pull for Sand's Point. I'll meet you there.'
Nick waited for no second bidding. He sprang into his boat, pushed
off from the shore, and tugged away lustily at the oar. The exercise
had the effect of taking off some of the fumes of the liquor which
he had drank, and of bringing him to his senses. He began to think
over his promise, and to wonder if he had not got himself into a
scrape; but before he had settled the matter to his satisfaction,
the boat grounded on the beach, and he found the stranger standing
at his side, with a shovel in his hand. He beckoned to Nick, who
followed him until they came to where a huge boulder, known as
Kidd's Rock, juts out from the Point. Here he paused, threw the
shovel to Nick, and told him to dig.
Nick was disposed to parley, but he felt the glowing eyes on him,
and his heart failed him. He dug lustily, throwing out the sand in
great shovelsfull. At last he struck something solid. He eagerly
cleared away the dirt, and discovered a chest, secured with iron
bands. He struck it with the shovel, and could hear the jingle of
coin. All his scruples vanished at the sound.
'Now then, Nick, you remember your promise--about your soul,' said
the stranger, jumping in the hole and planting himself firmly on the
chest. 'There's the money.'
'Ay, ay,' said Nick recklessly; 'devil take the soul. I want the
money.'
'Give me your hand,' said the other. 'It's no bargain until we have
crossed hands.'
Nick had extended his hand, and already was that of the Great
Adversary reached to grasp it, when a loud unearthly shout rang
through the air.
Nick bounded from the hole at a single leap. The next instant, with
a yell, two figures pounced upon the stranger in the pit. There
were appalling screams and cries and all the struggle of fierce
encounter. They seemed to breathe fire and smoke at each other: at
one time the fight raged in the hole, then it seemed to be up the
bank near Kidd's Rock, at another time in the air. In the moonlight
Nick could see his friend hard beset, and he noticed that he
suffered most from a grim old fellow in a cocked hat, with a slash
across his nose. The other was square-built, with pistols in his
belt, and a hanger at his side.
As Nick began to doubt how the battle would terminate, he quietly
slipped into his boat, put off a short distance from the shore, and
rested on his oars to watch the result.
In a few minutes he heard his name shouted from the beach. Nick was
too wary to be entrapped by any feeling of sympathy. He kept a dead
silence. The noise and uproar lasted for a short time longer, and
then grew more and more distant, until it died away in the woods of
Great Neck.
Nick now plied his oars vigorously, occasionally pausing to listen.
At the same time he was not free from an apprehension that on
looking round he might find his late visitor stationed in the bow of
his boat. But he reached Matinecock in safety.
As he stepped ashore he was not a little dismayed at discovering
the stranger seated on a rock, apparently as cool as if nothing had
happened; but on closer examination Nick observed that his dress was
very much dilapidated, and his face begrimed with smut and dirt.
'I hope you're not hurt,' said he, in a tone which was meant to be
sympathizing. 'Those fellows were a little too much for you.'
'I told you how it would be,' said the other in a savage voice.
'They got wind of it somehow.'
'Who were they?'
'No matter. They are the most troublesome of all my boarders.'
'And the money?' inquired Nick.
'It's where you left it,' replied the other. 'You can get it if you
like. You know our bargain: you're mine.'
'Not until I finger the cash,' replied Nick. 'And unless you are
more lucky than you have been to-night, I don't think you'll put me
in the way of doing it in a hurry.'
'Mr. Wanzer,' said the other, 'do you mean to break our bargain?'
'Where's the money?' demanded Nick in reply. 'If you mean that I
should take it while those two pleasant gentlemen are mounting guard
over it, you are much mistaken. I will see you to the ---- yourself
first. And if you mean that I am to get it as I can, and be pestered
by them while I live, and by you afterward, I won't do it. Do you
think I did not recognize old Teunis Van Gelder: I've seen his
picture too often. If he's too much for you, I'd like to know how
I would come off in a scuffle with him; and if he and Kidd hunt in
couples why damme I'll have nothing to do with it.'
Nick struck his feet resolutely on the side of his boat.
'You're resolved?' said the other sternly.
'I am,' said Nick.
'Then take the consequences.'
He raised his club, but at that moment the same loud unearthly yell
which had startled him before broke through the air, and two figures
sprang toward them: the one in a cocked hat gray and grim, the other
armed to the teeth. Before the club could descend, the stranger
bounded from the rock, and disappeared in the direction of Dosoris,
the two following in full cry at his heels.
Nick hurried off, and made the best of his way to his cabin, where
he was found in the morning in a sleep so sound that some thought it
might have been the result of deep potations, but which Nick himself
attributed entirely to the excitement of the scene which he had gone
through at Sand's Point and Matinecock.
* * * * *
IN a note in the margin of the above manuscript my respected
relative remarked, that Mr. Volkert Van Gelder, after full and
mature investigation of the matter, had come to the conclusion that
the adventure of Nick Wanzer was not a mere fabrication, but an
actual occurrence.
He was forced to this conclusion by strong circumstantial evidence;
for it was established beyond a doubt that Wanzer was at a
husking-frolic on the very night alluded to, that he set out for
home late, and somewhat involved in liquor; and also that he did own
a boat which usually lay in a creek at Peacock's Point.
Nick Wanzer himself pointed out the rock on which the stranger sat
when he first made overtures to him; and the situation of Kidd's
Rock at Sand's Point is a matter of public notoriety. Under these
circumstances, Mr. Van Gelder felt that to express farther doubt
would be to cast an unjust imputation upon the character of a worthy
and well-meaning citizen.
In commenting farther my respected relative observed, with his usual
discrimination and acuteness, that it was a very nice point to
decide. That there certainly was strong corroborative evidence of
the truth of the story; and that although it was out of the usual
course of things, yet that Matinecock was an unusual kind of place,
and events might transpire there which would not happen elsewhere.
Under these circumstances, and after fully weighing the evidence, he
thought that Wanzer's statement was worthy of full credence from all
persons of strong faith.