Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 1.djvu/136

 and then a quarrel arose, every thing was soon settled by his interference.

A man who thus powerfully could influence a set of people, who admit no law but that of superiority, soon engaged my admiration in the highest degree, and I concluded he would be the fittest person to assist me in the execution of my design, to unfold the mystery of the Haunted Castle, if I could but gain his confidence; yet I was sensible that it would be no easy task to ingratiate myself so far with him, that he should not refuse believing a tale like mine, which bore such glaring marks of fiction: I apprehended an old veteran of so much experience, and so serious a turn of mind would laugh at my narrative, and treat it as a nursery tale.

I was the more inclined to fear this apprehension might prove true, when I learned by experience that his curiosity was always guided by cool and just reasoning: His cheerfulness never exceeded the limits of mode-