"
The company drew closer together and formed themselves in a more compact
mass about the speaker. It was evident that they were beginning to feel an
unusual interest in this extraordinary person, who had come among them
unheralded and unknown. Even Shylock stopped calculating percentages for
an instant to listen.
"Do you mean to tell us," demanded Shakespeare, "that the unsmoked stub of
a cigar will suggest the story of him who smoked it to your mind?"
"I do," replied the stranger, with a confident smile. "Take this one, for
instance, that I have picked up here upon the wharf; it tells me the whole
story of the intentions of Captain Kidd at the moment when, in utter
disregard of your rights, he stepped aboard your House-boat, and, in his
usual piratical fashion, made off with it into unknown seas."
"But how do you know he smoked it?" asked Solomon, who deemed it the part
of wisdom to be suspicious of the stranger.
"There are two curious indentations in it which prove that. The marks of
two teeth, with a hiatus between, which you will see if you look closely,"
said the stranger, handing the small bit of tobacco to Sir Walter, "make
that point evident beyond peradventure. The Captain lost an eye-tooth in
one of his later raids; it was knocked out by a marline-spike which had
been hurled at him by one of the crew of the treasure-ship he and his
followers had attacked.
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