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essential in any case, for this was no matter that the town constables or
militia could cope with; and above all else the excitable crowd must be kept in
ignorance, lest there be enacted in these already troublous times a repetition
of that frightful Salem panic of less than a century before which had first
brought Curwen hither.
The right persons to tell, he believed, would be Dr. Benjamin West, whose
pamphlet on the late transit of Venus proved him a scholar and keen thinker;
Rev. James Manning, President of the College which had just moved up from Warren
and was temporarily housed in the new King Street schoolhouse awaiting the
completion of its building on the hill above Presbyterian-Lane; ex-Governor
Stephen Hopkins, who had been a member of the Philosophical Society at Newport,
and was a man of very broad perceptions; John Carter, publisher of the Gazette;
all four of the Brown brothers, John, Joseph, Nicholas, and Moses, who formed
the recognised local magnates, and of whom Joseph was an amateur scientist of
parts; old Dr. Jabez Bowen, whose erudition was considerable, and who had much
first-hand knowledge of Curwen's odd purchases; and Capt. Abraham Whipple, a
privateersman of phenomenal boldness and energy who could be counted on to lead
in any active measures needed. These men, if favourable, might eventually be
brought together for collective deliberation; and with them would rest the
responsibility of deciding whether or not to inform the Governor of the Colony,
Joseph Wanton of Newport, before taking action.
The mission of Capt. Mathewson prospered beyond his highest expectations; for
whilst he found one or two of the chosen confidants somewhat sceptical of the
possible ghastly side of Weeden's tale, there was not one who did not think it
necessary to take some sort of secret and coördinated action. Curwen, it was
clear, formed a vague potential menace to the welfare of the town and Colony;
and must be eliminated at any cost. Late in December 1770 a group of eminent
townsmen met at the home of Stephen Hopkins and debated tentative measures.
Weeden's notes, which he had given to Capt. Mathewson, were carefully read; and
he and Smith were summoned to give testimony anent details. Something very like
fear seized the whole assemblage before the meeting was over, though there ran
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through that fear a grim determination which Capt. Whipple's bluff and resonant
profanity best expressed. They would not notify the Governor, because a more
than legal course seemed necessary. With hidden powers of uncertain extent
apparently at his disposal, Curwen was not a man who could safely be warned to
leave town. Nameless reprisals might ensue, and even if the sinister creature
complied, the removal would be no more than the shifting of an unclean burden to
another place. The times were lawless, and men who had flouted the King's
revenue forces for years were not the ones to balk at sterner things when duty
impelled. Curwen must be surprised at his Pawtuxet farm by a large raiding-party
of seasoned privateersmen and given one decisive chance to explain himself. If
he proved a madman, amusing himself with shrieks and imaginary conversations in
different voices, he would be properly confined. If something graver appeared,
and if the underground horrors indeed turned out to be real, he and all with him
must die. It could be done quietly, and even the widow and her father need not
be told how it came about.
While these serious steps were under discussion there occurred in the town an
incident so terrible and inexplicable that for a time little else was mentioned
for miles around. In the middle of a moon-light January night with heavy snow
underfoot there resounded over the river and up the hill a shocking series of
cries which brought sleepy heads to every window; and people around Weybosset
Point saw a great white thing plunging frantically along the badly cleared space
in front of the Turk's Head. There was a baying of dogs in the distance, but
this subsided as soon as the clamour of the awakened town became audible.
Parties of men with lanterns and muskets hurried out to see what was happening,
but nothing rewarded their search. The next morning, however, a giant, muscular
body, stark naked, was found on the jams of ice around the southern piers of the
Great Bridge, where the Long Dock stretched out beside Abbott's distil-house,
and the identity of this object became a theme for endless speculation and
whispering. It was not so much the younger as the older folk who whispered, for
only in the patriarchs did that rigid face with horror-bulging eyes strike any
chord of memory. They, shaking as they did so, exchanged furtive murmurs of
wonder and fear; for in those stiff, hideous features lay a resemblance so
marvellous as to be almost an identity - and that identity was with a man who
had died full fifty years before.
Ezra Weeden was present at the finding; and remembering the baying of the night
before, set out along Weybosset Street and across Muddy Dock Bridge whence the
sound had come. He had a curious expectancy, and was not surprised when,
reaching the edge of the settled district where the street merged into the
Pawtuxet Road, he came upon some very curious tracks in the snow. The naked
giant had been pursued by dogs and many booted men, and the returning tracks of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]