'True, my dear Dirk; well noticed, my friend Hatteraick! But there is
ground enough for a temporary imprisonment till he fetch his proofs
from England or elsewhere, my good friend. I understand the law,
Captain Hatteraick, and I'll take it upon me, simple Gilbert Glossin of
Ellangowan, justice of peace for the county of---, to refuse his bail,
if he should offer the best in the country, until he is brought up for
a second examination; now where d'ye think I'll incarcerate him?'
'Hagel and wetter! what do I care?'
'Stay, my friend; you do care a great deal. Do you know your goods that
were seized and carried to Woodbourne are now lying in the custom-house
at Portanferry? (a small fishing-town). Now I will commit this
younker--'
'When you have caught him.'
'Ay, ay, when I have caught him; I shall not be long about that. I will
commit him to the workhouse, or bridewell, which you know is beside the
custom-house.'
'Yaw, the rasp-house; I know it very well.'
'I will take care that the redcoats are dispersed through the country;
you land at night with the crew of your lugger, receive your own goods,
and carry the younker Brown with you back to Flushing. Won't that do?'
'Ay, carry him to Flushing,' said the Captain, 'or--to America?'
'Ay, ay, my friend.'
'Or--to Jericho?'
'Psha! Wherever you have a mind.'
'Ay, or--pitch him overboard?'
'Nay, I advise no violence.'
'Nein, nein; you leave that to me. Sturmwetter! I know you of old. But,
hark ye, what am I, Dirk Hatteraick, to be the better of this?'
'Why, is it not your interest as well as mine?' said Glossin; 'besides,
I set you free this morning.'
'YOU set me free! Donner and deyvil! I set myself free. Besides, it was
all in the way of your profession, and happened a long time ago, ha,
ha, ha!'
'Pshaw! pshaw! don't let us jest; I am not against making a handsome
compliment; but it's your affair as well as mine.'
'What do you talk of my affair? is it not you that keep the younker's
whole estate from him? Dirk Hatteraick never touched a stiver of his
rents.'
'Hush! hush! I tell you it shall be a joint business.'
'Why, will ye give me half the kitt?'
'What, half the estate? D'ye mean we should set up house together at
Ellangowan, and take the barony ridge about?'
'Sturmwetter, no! but you might give me half the value--half the gelt.
Live with you? nein. I would have a lusthaus of mine own on the
Middleburgh dyke, and a blumengarten like a burgomaster's.'
'Ay, and a wooden lion at the door, and a painted sentinel in the
garden, with a pipe in his mouth! But, hark ye, Hatteraick, what will
all the tulips and flower-gardens and pleasure-houses in the
Netherlands do for you if you are hanged here in Scotland?'
Hatteraick's countenance fell. 'Der deyvil! hanged!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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