The clink of irons was immediately afterwards heard upon the stair, and
in two or three minutes a man was introduced, handcuffed and fettered.
He was thick, brawny, and muscular, and although his shagged and
grizzled hair marked an age somewhat advanced, and his stature was
rather low, he appeared, nevertheless, a person whom few would have
chosen to cope with in personal conflict. His coarse and savage
features were still flushed, and his eye still reeled under the
influence of the strong potation which had proved the immediate cause
of his seizure. But the sleep, though short, which Mac-Guffog had
allowed him, and still more a sense of the peril of his situation, had
restored to him the full use of his faculties. The worthy judge and the
no less estimable captive looked at each other steadily for a long time
without speaking. Glossin apparently recognised his prisoner, but
seemed at a loss how to proceed with his investigation. At length he
broke silence.--'Soh, Captain, this is you? you have been a stranger on
this coast for some years.'
'Stranger?' replied the other. 'Strange enough, I think; for hold me
der deyvil, if I been ever here before.'
'That won't pass, Mr. Captain.'
'That MUST pass, Mr. Justice, sapperment!'
'And who will you be pleased to call yourself, then, for the present,'
said Glossin, 'just until I shall bring some other folks to refresh
your memory concerning who you are, or at least who you have been?'
'What bin I? donner and blitzen! I bin Jans Jansen, from Cuxhaven; what
sall Ich bin?'
Glossin took from a case which was in the apartment a pair of small
pocket pistols, which he loaded with ostentatious care. 'You may
retire,' said he to his clerk, 'and carry the people with you, Scrow;
but wait in the lobby within call.'
The clerk would have offered some remonstrances to his patron on the
danger of remaining alone with such a desperate character, although
ironed beyond the possibility of active exertion, but Glossin waved him
off impatiently. When he had left the room the Justice took two short
turns through the apartment, then drew his chair opposite to the
prisoner, so as to confront him fully, placed the pistols before him in
readiness, and said in a steady voice, 'You are Dirk Hatteraick of
Flushing, are you not?'
The prisoner turned his eye instinctively to the door, as if he
apprehended some one was listening. Glossin rose, opened the door, so
that from the chair in which his prisoner sate he might satisfy himself
there was no eavesdropper within hearing, then shut it, resumed his
seat, and repeated his question, 'You are Dirk Hatteraick, formerly of
the Yungfrauw Haagenslaapen, are you not?'
'Tousand deyvils! and if you know that, why ask me?' said the prisoner.
'Because I am surprised to see you in the very last place where you
ought to be, if you regard your safety,' observed Glossin, coolly.
'Der deyvil! no man regards his own safety that speaks so to me!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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