m was a hard-minded fellow, not easily
daunted, and he had lived so long with a termagant wife that he did not
even fear the devil.

It is said that after this commencement they had a long and earnest
conversation together as Tom returned homeward. The black man told him of
great sums of money which had been buried by Kidd the pirate, under the
oak-trees on the high ridge not far from the morass. All these were under
his command and protected by his power, so that none could find them but
such as propitiated his favor. These he offered to place within Tom
Walker's reach, having conceived an especial kindness for him, but they
were to be had only on certain conditions.

What these conditions were may easily be surmised, though Tom never
disclosed them publicly. They must have been very hard, for he required
time to think of them, and he was not a man to stick at trifles where
money was in view. When they had reached the edge of the swamp the
stranger paused.

"What proof have I that all you have been telling me is true?" said Tom.

"There is my signature," said the black man, pressing his finger on Tom's
forehead. So saying, he turned off among the thickets of the swamp, and
seemed, as Tom said, to go down, down, down, into the earth, until he
totally disappeared.

When Tom reached home he found the black print of a finger burnt, as it
were, into his forehead, which nothing could obliterate.

The first news his wife had to tell him was the sudden death of Absalom
Crowninshield, the rich buccaneer. It was announced in the papers with the
usual flourish that "a great man had fallen in Israel."

Tom recollected the tree which his black friend had just hewn down, and
which was ready for burning. "Let the freebooter roast," said Tom; "who
cares!" He now felt convinced that all he had heard and seen was no
illusion.

He was not prone to let his wife into his confidence, but as this was an
uneasy secret he willingly shared it with her. All her avarice was
awakened at the mention of hidden gold, and she urged her husband to
comply with the black man's terms and secure what would make them wealthy
for life. However Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the
devil, he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife; so he flatly
refused out of the mere spirit of contradiction. Many and bitter were the
quarrels they had on the subject, but the more she talked the more
resolute was Tom not to be damned to please her