Dead Men's Money

eon I looked out of my mother's front parlour window in the main street of Berwick-upon-Tweed and saw, standing right before the house, a man who had a black patch over his left eye, an old plaid t

nd the very devil himself coming in close attendance upon him as he crossed the pavement. But as it was

"Lodgings! You've lodgings to let for a single gentleman. I'm a single gentleman, and I want lodgings. For a month-maybe more. Mo

g for my invitation, lurched heavily-he was a big, heavy-moving fellow-into the parlour, where he set down

ight in the world to walk into folks' houses and ask his qu

him. "If you want to know about lodgings you must wait till my mother

ever. This is a comfortable anchorage. Qui

said I

e, of course!-any young children in the house? Because yo

a servant lass," I said. "This is a quie

If not more. As I say, a comfortable anchorage. And time, too!-when you've seen as many queer places a

ly one being visible-that looked as if it had been on the watch ever since he was born. He was a fellow of evident great strength and stout muscle, and his hands, which he had clasped in front of him as he sat talking to me, were big enough to go round another man's throat, or to fell a

ce that he was a man of some politeness and manners, for he got himself up out of his chair and made

at the door-light, and your son's face at the window, I came in. Nice, quiet lodgings for a few weeks is what I'm wanting-a bit of pla

al to do since my father died, smiled at the corners of

now who I'm taking in. You're a st

ut as to who and what I am-name of James Gilverthwaite. Late master of as good a ship as ever a man sailed. A quiet, respectable man

ingers he extended the gold-laden palm towards us. We were poor folk at that time, and it was a strange sight to us, all t

a month," he exclaimed. "And don't be afra

d, and motioned him

'm asking at you is just to know who it is I'm taking

ust by, and it's a fancy of my own to take a look at their resting-places, d'ye see, and to wander round the old quar

her, who was fond of visiting graveyards herself, and she t

ent into another room to attend to some of my own, and after a while my mother came there to me. "I've let him the rooms, Hugh," she said, with a note of satisfaction in her voice which told me that the big man was going to pay well for them. "He's

r seen a chest like that before, nor had the man who had fetched it, either. It was made of some very hard and dark wood, and clamped at all the corners with brass, and underneath it there were a couple of bars of iron, and though it was no

, or on the old town walls, or taking a walk across the Border Bridge; now and then we heard of his longer excursions into the country, one side or other of the Tweed. He took his dinner in the evenings, having made a special arrangement with my mother to that effect, and a very hearty eater he was, and fond of good things, which he provided generously for himself; and when t

ntance in the town. He was never seen in even brief conversation with any of the men that hung about the pier, on the walls, or by the shipping. He n

bed with a bad pain in his chest, and not over well able to talk. My mother kept him in his bed and began to doctor him; that day, about noon, came for him the first and only letter he ever had while he was with us-a letter that came in a registered envelope. The servant-maid took it up to him when it was delivered, and she said later that he started a bit when he saw it.

red hoarsely. "There's a wor