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be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was intended
for a kid."
"Ha! ha!" said I, "to be sure I have no right to laugh at you--a million
and a half of money is too serious a matter for mirth--but you are not
about to establish a third link in your chain--you will not find any
especial connexion between your pirates and a goat--pirates, you know,
have nothing to do with goats; they appertain to the farming interest."
"
"
"
But I have just said that the figure was not that of a goat."
Well, a kid then--pretty much the same thing."
Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand. "You may have heard of
one Captain Kidd. I at once looked upon the figure of the animal as a
kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature. I say signature; because
its position upon the vellum suggested this idea. The death's-head at
the corner diagonally opposite, had, in the same manner, the air of a
stamp, or seal. But I was sorely put out by the absence of all else--of
the body to my imagined instrument--of the text for my context."
"I presume you expected to find a letter between the stamp and the
signature."
"Something of that kind. The fact is, I felt irresistibly impressed with
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