Nor was it until in the gray of the morning he had again viewed the bag of gold and the casket of treasure, that he could feel entirely assured that what had befallen him the night before was not an hallucination, such as those that had pursued him throughout the troubled sleep from which he had just aroused himself. It appeared to him incredible that such strange occurrences could really have happened to him, and it was above an hour before he could compose his mind to accept that which had occurred. Finding himself at the end of that time in no small degree exhausted by the several instances of extreme excitement through which he had just passed, and discovering that he was now assailed by a sharp and vehement appetite, he determined to visit an oyster-bay at the neighboring Oswego Market, where, so long as he had been able to obtain the necessary credit, he had been in the habit of taking an occasional meal. To this end, having extracted a piece of gold from the leathern bag, and having carefully hidden the rest in a drawer of his bureau, he sallied forth in quest of that with which to satisfy his appetite, carrying with him, for the sake of safe keeping, the treasure casket of jewels. Having satisfied the immediate pangs of his appetite by a breakfast of unusual elaborateness, and having nearly overwhelmed the keeper of the oyster-bay with the proffer of a double eagle of gold, from which he was requested to extract payment for the entertainment he had just received, he returned home refreshed in body and in mind, with renewed courage and possessed by a keen and vehement desire to follow out to its end the adventure upon which he now found himself embarked. Entering that bare and half-furnished apartment which he designated his office and which opened into his bedroom beyond, he discovered a stranger to be seated in a chair beside the desk, as though awaiting his coming. As our hero entered, this stranger arose with a profound salutation, and presented to our hero's view a person singularly tall and slender, a face of coppery yellow, straight hair, a hooked beak of a nose, and eyes of piercing blackness. He was clad with the utmost care in clothes of the latest cut of fashion. His linen was of immaculate whiteness, and the plaited frill of his shirt front exhibited the nicest and most elaborate laundry-work imaginable. In short, his costume was that of the most exquisite dandy. His countenance--the singularity of its appearance enhanced by a pair of gold ear-rings in his ears--was that of a remote foreigner of unknown nationality. Without giving our lawyer time for further observation, the stranger, in the most excellent and well-chosen English, and with hardly a touch of foreign accent, addressed him as follows:--