Chapter XII · THE STORY OF ESTELLE. (continued 2)
Reading edition
My features had been so changed by suffering, that few recognized me. My operations were bold and successful. In four years I had accumulated a little fortune. Occasionally I would meet Ratcliff. Once I had him completely in my power. He was in the passage-way leading to my office. I could have dragged him in and——
No! The revenge seemed too poor and narrow. I craved something huge and general. The mere punishing of an individual was too puny an expenditure of my hoarded vengeance. But to strike at the “institution” which had spawned this and similar monsters, that would be some small satisfaction.
Closing up my affairs in New Orleans, I entered upon that career which has gained me such notoriety in the Southwest. 147I have run off many thousand slaves, worth in the aggregate many millions of dollars. My theatrical experience has made me a daring expert in disguising myself. At one time I am a mulatto with a gash across my face; at another time, an old man; at another, a mean whiskey-swilling hanger-on of the chivalry. My task is only just begun. It is not till we have given slavery its immedicable wound, or rather till it has itself committed suicide in the house of its friends, that I shall be ready to say, Nunc dimittas, domi-ne![21]
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