The hint was electrical; he picked up his cap and ran aft, and with one desperate leap reached the wharf in safety, when he turned and danced as before with rage, and his last audible words were, “Be gar, I shall go to the sperm court and try it out.”
“In the world before the Flood, you see, Doctor,” said I, “they knew how to cheat as well as the present race do; the only improvement this fellow has made on the antediluvian race is, he can take himself in, as well as others.”
“I have often thought,” said the doctor, “that in our dealings in life, and particularly in trading, a difficult question must often arise whether a thing, notwithstanding the world sanctions it, is lawful and right. Now what is your idea of smuggling?”
“I never smuggled,” said I: “I have sometimes imported goods and didn’t pay the duties; not that I wanted to smuggle, but because I hadn’t time to go to the office. It’s a good deal of trouble to go to a custom-house. When you get there you are sure to be delayed, and half the time to git sarce. It costs a good deal; no one thanks you, and nobody defrays cab-hire, and makes up for lost time, temper, and patience to you—it don’t pay in a general way; sometimes it will; for instance, when I left the embassy, I made thirty thousand pounds of your money by one operation. Lead was scarce in our market, and very high, and the duty was one-third of the prime cost, as a protection to the native article. So what does I do, but go to old Galena, one of the greatest dealers in the lead trade in Great Britain, and ascertained the wholesale price.
“Sais I, ‘I want five hundred thousand dollars worth of lead.’
“‘That is an immense order,’ said he, ‘Mr Slick. There is no market in the world that can absorb so much at once.’
“‘The loss will be mine,’ said I. ‘What deductions will you make if I take it all from your house?’
“Well, he came down handsome, and did the thing genteel.
“‘Now,’ sais I, ‘will you let one of your people go to my cab, and bring a mould I have there.’
“Well, it was done.