“Could an ignorant fellow smelt?” continued Richard.
“Bess hints that he was reduced even to his last shilling when we took him into our dwelling.”
“He had been buying tools. And would he spend his last sixpence for a shot at a turkey had he not known where to get more?”
“Can I have possibly been so long a dupe? His manner has been rude to me at times, but I attributed it to his conceiving himself injured, and to his mistaking the forms of the world.”
“Haven't you been a dupe all your life, 'Duke, and an't what you call ignorance of forms deep cunning, to conceal his real character?”
“If he were bent on deception, he would have concealed his knowledge, and passed with us for an inferior man.”
“He cannot. I could no more pass for a fool, myself, than I could fly. Knowledge is not to be concealed, like a candle under a bushel.”
“Richard,” said the Judge, turning to his cousin, “there are many reasons against the truth of thy conjectures, but thou hast awakened suspicions which must be satisfied. But why are we travelling here?”
“Jotham, who has been much in the mountain latterly, being kept there by me and Hiram, has made a discovery, which he will not explain, he says, for he is bound by an oath; but the amount is, that he knows where the ore lies, and he has this day begun to dig. I would not consent to the thing, 'Duke, without your knowledge, for the land is yours; and now you know the reason of our ride. I call this a countermine, ha!”
“And where is the desirable spot?” asked the Judge with an air half comical, half serious.