Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/272

 his appearance, with the letter in his hand; the sweat running down his face, and the poor man trembling in an agony of terror, that went far to raise grave suspicions against both him and me. The letter happened to be from Tappan, Wentworth, & Co., well-known bankers, of Liverpool. No sooner had the chairman read the signature, than his face, though quite long and serious enough before, underwent a very sudden elongation; his eyebrows rising up like those of a man who had just seen a ghost, or something else very terrible — "Tappan! Tappan!" he repeated to himself several times, in a sharp, quick, but snivelling tone — "Tappan! Tappan! there we have it; a bloody emissary, no doubt! That, you know," he continued, turning to his colleagues, "is the name of the New York silk merchant, who is one of the leaders in this nefarious conspiracy, and who has given I don't know how many thousand dollars to circulate these horrid incendiary tracts. How I wish I had the rascal here now! I should rejoice to be one to help put a rope round his neck. Ah, Mr Doeface," he added, with an ominous nod to the poor trembling merchant to whom the letter was addressed, and a look in which indignation and commiseration were about equally mingled — "ah, Mr Doeface, I am very sorry to find that you have any such correspondents."

Exclamations, threats, and oaths resounded from all sides of the crowded hall, and before either Mr Doeface, who seemed indeed past speaking, or I, could get in a word, messengers were despatched to search the merchant's house from garretto cellar, and his warehouses also, in hopes of discovering some of the obnoxious tracts, while others were deputed to break open and examine my trunks; which breaking open, however, I prevented by handing out my keys. Meanwhile, with very great difficulty, I brought the honorable chairman and his colleagues to perceive that the letter which had produced so great a commotion was dated, not at New York,