"
"But I have said that the figure was _not_ that of a goat."
"Well, a kid, then--pretty much the same thing."
"Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand.
"You may have heard of one _Captain_ Kidd[19]. I at once looked on the
figure of the animal as a kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature.
I say signature because its position upon the vellum suggested this
idea. The death's-head at the corner diagonally opposite had, in the
same manner, the air of a stamp, or seal. But I was sorely put out by
the absence of all else--of the body to my imagined instrument--of the
text for my context."
"I presume you expected to find a letter between the stamp and the
signature."
"Something of the kind. The fact is, I felt irresistibly impressed
with a presentiment of some vast good fortune impending. I can
scarcely say why. Perhaps, after all, it was rather a desire than an
actual belief; but do you know that Jupiter's silly words, about the
bug being of solid gold, had a remarkable effect upon my fancy? And
then the series of accidents and coincidences--these were so _very_
extraordinary. Do you observe how mere an accident it was that these
events should have occurred upon the _sole_ day of all the year in
which it has been, or may be, sufficiently cool for fire, and that
without the fire, or without the intervention of the dog at the
precise moment in which he appeared, I should, never have become aware
of the death's-head, and so never the possessor of the treasure?"
"But proceed--I am all impatience.
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