'Your most obedient, very humble servant,
'BARNABAS STURK.'
Then he sealed it with a great red seal, large enough for a patent
almost, impressed with the Sturk arms--a boar's head for crest, and a
flaunting scroll, with 'Dentem fulmineum cave' upon it. Then he peeped
again from the window to see if the gray of the morning had come, for he
had left his watch under his bolster, and longed for the time of action.
Then up stairs went Sturk; and so, with the note, like a loaded pistol,
over the chimney, he popped into bed, where he lay awake in agitating
rumination, determined to believe that he had seen the last of those
awful phantoms--those greasy bailiffs--that smooth, smirking, formidable
attorney; and--curse him--that bilious marshal's deputy, with the
purplish, pimply tinge about the end of his nose and the tops of his
cheeks, that beset his bed in a moving ring--this one pushing out a
writ, and that rumpling open a parchment deed, and the other fumbling
with his keys, and extending his open palm for the garnish. Avaunt. He
had found out a charm to rout them all, and they sha'n't now lay a
finger on him--a short and sharp way to clear himself; and so I believe
he had.
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