In this place, to my dismay, I stumbled upon a
man, who, from the character he had in the neighbourhood,
I was afraid was hunting the treasure,
as well as myself. He was an old German doctor,
called Feuerteufel, which extraordinary name, as I
had been told, signified, in German, Fire-devil.
He had come to our village about two weeks before,
and nobody knew for what reason. All day long
he wandered about among the woods, swamps, and
marshes, collecting plants and weeds, stones, animals,
and snakes, which he seemed to value very
highly. Some thought he was a counterfeiter in
disguise, and others called him a conjurer. Many
were of opinion he was hunting for gold-mines, or
precious stones; while others had their thoughts,
and said he was the devil, his appearance being
somewhat grim and forbidding. As for myself,
having lighted upon him once or twice in the woods,
I did not know what to think of him; but I did
not like his looks. He was very tall and rawboned,
with long arms, and immense big hands; his skin
was extremely dark and pock-marked, and he had
a mouth that ran from ear to ear, and long, bushy,
black hair. His eyes were like saucers, and deep

[figure description] Page 048.[end figure description]

sunk in their sockets, with tremendous big black
eyebrows ever frowning above them; and what
made him look remarkable was, that although he
was ever frowning with his eyes, his mouth was
as continually grinning in a sort of laugh, such as
you see in a man struck with a palsy in the head.
He was the terror of all the children, and it was
said the dogs never barked at him.

I found him in the hollow, hard by the beech-tree,
and had scarce time to fling my implements
among the bushes before he saw me. He was
standing looking over towards the old church, where
there was a funeral procession; for that morning
the neighbours were burying a young man that
had taken laudanum for love two days before, but
had only expired the previous evening.

As soon as the German beheld me, he started
like a guilty man, and made as if he would have
run away; but suddenly changing his mind, he
stepped towards me, and just as we met he stooped
down and pulled a flower that struck his eye. Then
rising up, he grinned at me, and nodding, said,
“Gooten morrow, mine prudder; it ish gooten
dag!”—though what he meant by “gooten dag”
I know no more than the man in the moon, having
never studied German. I did not at all like his appearance
in this spot at such a time; but I reflected
at last that he was only culling simples, and had
paused near the beech-tree to look at the funeral, as
would have been extremely natural in any man.
But I liked the appearance of the funeral still less at

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such a particular time, and I thought there was
something ominous in it.

But my mind was fixed upon the treasure I was
soon to enjoy too firmly to be long drawn off by
any such doleful spectacle; and accordingly, having
waited impatiently until the attendants on the
funeral had all stalked away, as well as the German
doctor, I stole towards the beech-tree, and surveyed
the ground at its roots. There were some stones
lying among them, which I removed, as well as the
long grass that waved over their tops; and looking
closely, I thought I could see among some of the
smaller roots of the tree, that were pleached together
on the surface of the earth, a sort of arrangement
very much in shape of a grave. This was a new
proof to me that the treasure lay below, and I considered
that my good angel had platted these roots
together, in order to direct me in what spot to dig.

I could scarce avoid beginning on the instant;
but, I remembered, that was not the hour. I therefore
concealed my spade and mattock, and went
home; when the first thing I did was to hunt me
up a book that had the Lord's prayer in it (for I
feared to trust to my memory alone), and write this
out backwards with the greatest care; and I then
spent the remainder of the day in committing the
words to memory in that order; but I found it a
difficult task.

As the evening drew nigh, I found myself growing
into such a pitch of excitement, that, fearing I
should betray the secret to Jim Jumble, who was

p016-059 [figure description] Page 050.[end figure description]

constantly prying in upon me, I resolved to walk
to the village, and there remain until the hour for
seeking the treasure should draw nigh. I had another
reason for this step; for my watch having
gone, some month or two before Julius Cesar, to
satisfy a hungry fellow to whom I owed money, I
knew not how to be certain of the hour, unless by
learning it of some one in the village; and to the
village I accordingly went soon after sunset.