Higginbotham. The pedlar meditated with much fervor on the charms of
the young schoolmistress, and swore that Daniel Webster never spoke
nor looked so like an angel as Miss Higginbotham, while defending
him from the wrathful populace at Parker's Falls.
Dominicus was now on the Kimballton turnpike, having all along
determined to visit that place, though business had drawn him out of
the most direct road from Morristown. As he approached the scene of
the supposed murder, he continued to revolve the circumstances in
his mind, and was astonished at the aspect which the whole case
assumed. Had nothing occurred to corroborate the story of the first
traveller, it might now have been considered as a hoax; but the yellow
man was evidently acquainted either with the report or the fact; and
there was a mystery in his dismayed and guilty look on being
abruptly questioned. When, to this singular combination of
incidents, it was added that the rumor tallied exactly with Mr.
Higginbotham's character and habits of life; and that he had an
orchard, and a St. Michael's pear-tree, near which he always passed at
nightfall: the circumstantial evidence appeared so strong that
Dominicus doubted whether the autograph produced by the lawyer, or
even the niece's direct testimony, ought to be equivalent.
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