f which you
may have heard."

"Do you mean piracy?" asked the Reverend Pettibones; and Captain
Obadiah nodded his head.

"'Tis a lie!" cried Colonel Belford, smacking his hand upon the table.
"He never possessed spirit enough for anything so dangerous as piracy
or more mischievous than slave-trading."

"Sir," quoth Captain Obadiah to the reverend gentleman, "again I say
'tis to you I address my confession. Well, sir, one day we sighted a
Spanish caravel very rich ladened with a prodigious quantity of plate,
but were without so much as a capful of wind to fetch us up with her.
'I would,' says I, 'offer the Devil my soul for a bit of a breeze to
bring us alongside.' 'Done,' says a voice beside me, and--alas that I
must confess it!--there I saw a man with a very dark countenance, whom
I had never before beheld aboard of our ship. 'Sign this,' says he,
'and the breeze is yours!' 'What is it upon the pen?' says I. "'Tis
blood,' says he. Alas, sir! what was a poor wretch so tempted as I to
do?"

"And did you sign?" asked Mr. Pettibones, all agog to hear the
conclusion of so strange a narration.

"Woe is me, sir, that I should have done so!" quoth Captain Obadiah,
rolling his eyes until little but the whites of them were to be seen.

"And did you catch the Spanish ship?"

"That we did, sir, and stripped her as clean as a whistle."

"'Tis all a prodigious lie!" cried Colonel Belford, in a fury. "Sir,
can you sit so complacently and be made a fool of by so extravagant a
fable?"

"Indeed it is unbelievable," said Mr. Pettibones.

At this faint reply, Captain Obadiah burst out laughing; then renewing
his narrative--"Indeed, sir," he declared, "you may believe me or not,
as you please. Nevertheless, I may tell you that, having so obtained my
prize, and having time to think coolly over the bargain I had made, I
says to myself, says I: 'Obediah Belford! Obadiah Belford, here is a
pretty pickle you are in. 'Tis time you quit these parts and lived
decent, or else you are damned to all eternity.' And so I came hither
to New Hope, reverend sir, hoping to end my days in quiet. Alas, sir!
would you believe it? scarce had I finished my fine new house up at the
Point when hither comes that evil being to whom I had sold my sorrowful
soul. 'Obadiah,' says he, 'Obadiah Belford, I have a mind to live in
New Hope also,' 'Where?' says I. 'Well,' says he, 'you may patch up the
old meetinghouse; 'twill serve my turn for a while.' 'Well,