Wolfert's Curiosity Was Awakened To Know Who And What Was This Stranger
Who Had Thus Usurped Absolute Sway In This Ancient Domain.
He could get
nothing, however, but vague information.
Peechy Prauw took him aside,
into a remote corner of the hall, and there in an under-voice, and with
great caution, imparted to him all that he knew on the subject. The inn
had been aroused several months before, on a dark stormy night, by
repeated long shouts, that seemed like the howlings of a wolf. They
came from the water-side; and at length were distinguished to be
hailing the house in the seafaring manner. "House-a-hoy!" The landlord
turned out with his head-waiter, tapster, hostler, and errand boy - that
is to say with his old negro Cuff. On approaching the place from whence
the voice proceeded, they found this amphibious-looking personage at
the water's edge, quite alone, and seated on a great oaken sea-chest.
How he came there, whether he had been set on shore from some boat, or
had floated to land on his chest, nobody could tell, for he did not
seem disposed to answer questions, and there was something in his looks
and manners that put a stop to all questioning. Suffice it to say, he
took possession of a corner room of the inn, to which his chest was
removed with great difficulty. Here he had remained ever since, keeping
about the inn and its vicinity. Sometimes, it is true, he disappeared
for one, two, or three days at a time, going and returning without
giving any notice or account of his movements. He always appeared to
have plenty of money, though often of very strange, outlandish coinage;
and he regularly paid his bill every evening before turning in.
He had fitted up his room to his own fancy, having slung a hammock from
the ceiling instead of a bed, and decorated the walls with rusty
pistols and cutlasses of foreign workmanship. A great part of his time
was passed in this room, seated by the window, which commanded a wide
view of the Sound, a short old-fashioned pipe in his mouth, a glass of
rum toddy at his elbow, and a pocket telescope in his hand, with which
he reconnoitred every boat that moved upon the water. Large
square-rigged vessels seemed to excite but little attention; but the
moment he descried any thing with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, or that a
barge, or yawl, or jolly boat hove in sight, up went the telescope, and
he examined it with the most scrupulous attention.
All this might have passed without much notice, for in those times the
province was so much the resort of adventurers of all characters and
climes that any oddity in dress or behavior attracted but little
attention. But in a little while this strange sea monster, thus
strangely cast up on dry land, began to encroach upon the
long-established customs and customers of the place; to interfere in a
dictatorial manner in the affairs of the ninepin alley and the
bar-room, until in the end he usurped an absolute command over the
little inn.
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