Part 2 (1/2)
”Come with me into the office. There I will show you in black and white. You, there, supercargo, see to it that the thieving vagabonds do not slip from aboard. And you, Mr. Jones, do not leave the gangplank; and keep with you Jean and Jacob, and knock any one down who tries to leave the s.h.i.+p without a pa.s.s. Should any one ask for me, he must wait a moment. I have to speak with this gentleman. Will you follow me, Mr.
Sternberg?”
The captain opened the door of a low and s.p.a.cious cabin which was built on the deck. A dark-complexioned man, with immense bra.s.s rings in his ears, sat at a table covered with thick books and papers, diligently writing. Near him stood Mr. Pitcher, with his red, bloated, flabby cheeks, and on his wig-covered head his three-cornered hat, looking over his shoulder.
”Ah!” said the captain, ”here you are, too, Mr. Pitcher. That fits charmingly. Now we can make the matter clear at once. This is Mr.
Charles Pitcher, our general agent for New York. This--”
”I think I already have the honor,” said Mr. Pitcher, lifting his hat.
”Are not you Mr. Sternberg from Canada Creek, whom I met two years ago in Albany? Have you transacted your business with Mr. Brown? I lately saw you with him on Broadway. Well, other people want to live too.
Excuse me, Mr. Sternberg; excuse me. Take a seat. What brings you to us at this time, Mr. Sternberg?”
”It is on account of Catherine Weise,” said the captain, in whose eyes the simple countryman, with whom the rich Mr. Pitcher desired to have dealings, had a.s.sumed a quite different appearance. ”I told you about her yesterday, Mr. Pitcher.”
Between Mr. Pitcher and the captain there now took place a short but earnest conversation, of which Lambert understood nothing, as it was carried on in Dutch. They ought to have let the girl go free, but the hateful man at the desk opened a large book and said: ”Catherine Weise, folio 470 to 475, beginning September sixth of last year, in Rotterdam, brought until to day, April fifteenth, 1758, port of New York, amounting to 89, 10s.--”
”Ninety-nine pounds,” corrected Captain Van Broom.
”Ninety-nine pounds,” repeated the man with the ear-rings. ”The gentleman will require a conveyance from us to which the proper signatures are attached. For this we charge one pound. Here is the form. Please give me the specifications as I write.”
The dark-complexioned man took a sheet of parchment and read, in a leaden, business-like voice:
”_In nomine dei_: Between Lambert Sternberg, of Canada Creek, and Joanna Catherine Weise, of Zellerfeld, in the electorate of Hanover, aged twenty years, single, the following service contract--shall we say six years, Mr. Sternberg.” It is the usual period--for six successive years from this date, under the following conditions mutually agreed upon:
”_Pro primo_: Joanna Catherine Weise, born, etc.; agrees of her own free will, and after due consideration, to bind herself to Mr. Lambert Sternberg to go with him, or under his direction, to West Canada Creek, in the province of New York, and there, from the day on which she shall have arrived in the before-named district, for six successive years to give him true and faithful required maid-service, under no pretense to relax it, much less, without the consent of Lambert Sternberg, to forsake his service.
”To this, _pro secundo_, Lambert Sternberg promises--”
”It is enough,” said Lambert.
”How?” said he with the ear-rings.
”It is enough,” said Lambert. ”I wish first to talk over the conditions with the maiden.”
”My dear sir, consider the circ.u.mstances,” called out Mr. Pitcher, in a friendly, helpful tone. ”When a man pays 99 he can dictate the conditions.”
”That may be,” replied Lambert. ”However, it is my privilege to deal in my own way.”
”As you wish--altogether as you wish,” said Mr. Pitcher. ”We force n.o.body. You also wish--”
”Simply a receipt in full for Catherine Weise.”
”As you please,” said Mr. Pitcher.
While he with the ear-rings wrote out the receipt, and Lambert counted out the money on the table--it was the same that he had received an hour before from Mr. Brown--Mr. Pitcher and the captain grimaced sneeringly behind the back of the simpleton who was so easily limed, and never once looked at the famous account he was satisfying.
”So,” said Mr. Pitcher, ”this is finished. Now we will--”
”Drink to your happy journey,” said the captain, as he reached for a rum-flask which stood near on the rack.