Higginbotham's corpse were not yet discovered by his own family, how
came the mulatto, at above thirty miles' distance, to know that he was
hanging in the orchard, especially as he had left Kimballton before
the unfortunate man was hanged at all? These ambiguous
circumstances, with the stranger's surprise and terror, made Dominicus
think of raising a hue and cry after him, as an accomplice in the
murder; since a murder, it seemed, had really been perpetrated.
"But let the poor devil go," thought the pedlar. "I don't want
his black blood on my head; and hanging the nigger wouldn't unhang Mr.
Higginbotham. Unhang the old gentleman! It's a sin, I know; but I
should hate to have him come to life a second time, and give me the
lie!"
With these meditations, Dominicus Pike drove into the street of
Parker's Falls, which, as everybody knows, is as thriving a village as
three cotton factories and a slitting mill can make it. The
machinery was not in motion, and but a few of the shop doors unbarred,
when he alighted in the stable yard of the tavern, and made it his
first business to order the mare four quarts of oats. His second duty,
of course, was to impart Mr. Higginbotham's catastrophe to the
hostler.
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