Vitus.
I was disgusted by this interview; it struck me hard to
be suspected on all hands, and to hear again from this
trafficker what I had heard already from Jim's wife;
and yet my strongest impression was different, and
might rather be described as an impersonal fear. There
was something against nature in the man's craven
impudence; it was as though a lamb had butted me; such
daring at the hands of such a dastard implied
unchangeable resolve, a great pressure of necessity,
and powerful means. I thought of the unknown Carthew,
and it sickened me to see this ferret on his trail.
Upon inquiry I found the lawyer was but just disbarred
for some malpractice, and the discovery added
excessively to my disquiet. Here was a rascal without
money or the means of making it, thrust out of the
doors of his own trade, publicly shamed, and doubtless
in a deuce of a bad temper with the universe. Here, on
the other hand, was a man with a secret--rich,
terrified, practically in hiding--who had been willing
to pay ten thousand pounds for the bones of the
FLYING SCUD.
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