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The
revengeful
youth
began
a
systematic
study
of
the
man
and
his
doings
whenever
he
was
in
port
;
spending
hours
at
night
by
the
wharves
with
a
dory
in
readiness
when
he
saw
lights
in
the
Curwen
warehouses
,
and
following
the
small
boat
which
would
sometimes
steal
quietly
off
and
down
the
bay
.
He
also
kept
as
close
a
watch
as
possible
on
the
Pawtuxet
farm
,
and
was
once
severely
bitten
by
the
dogs
the
old
Indian
couple
loosed
upon
him
.
In
1766
came
the
final
change
in
Joseph
Curwen
.
It
was
very
sudden
,
and
gained
wide
notice
amongst
the
curious
townsfolk
;
for
the
air
of
suspense
and
expectancy
dropped
like
an
old
cloak
,
giving
instant
place
to
an
ill-concealed
exaltation
of
perfect
triumph
.
Curwen
seemed
to
have
difficulty
in
restraining
himself
from
public
harangues
on
what
he
had
found
or
learned
or
made
;
but
apparently
the
need
of
secrecy
was
greater
than
the
longing
to
share
his
rejoicing
,
for
no
explanation
was
ever
offered
by
him
.
It
was
after
this
transition
,
which
appears
to
have
come
early
in
July
,
that
the
sinister
scholar
began
to
astonish
people
by
his
possession
of
information
which
only
their
long-dead
ancestors
would
seem
to
be
able
to
impart
.
But
Curwen
's
feverish
secret
activities
by
no
means
ceased
with
this
change
.
On
the
contrary
,
they
tended
rather
to
increase
;
so
that
more
and
more
of
his
shipping
business
was
handled
by
the
captains
whom
he
now
bound
to
him
by
ties
of
fear
as
potent
as
those
of
bankruptcy
had
been
.
He
altogether
abandoned
the
slave
trade
,
alleging
that
its
profits
were
constantly
decreasing
.
Every
possible
moment
was
spent
at
the
Pawtuxet
farm
;
although
there
were
rumors
now
and
then
of
his
presence
in
places
which
,
though
not
actually
near
graveyards
,
were
yet
so
situated
in
relation
to
graveyards
that
thoughtful
people
wondered
just
how
thorough
the
old
merchant
's
change
of
habits
really
was
.
Ezra
Weeden
,
though
his
periods
of
espionage
were
necessarily
brief
and
intermittent
on
account
of
his
sea
voyaging
,
had
a
vindictive
persistence
which
the
bulk
of
the
practical
townsfolk
and
farmers
lacked
;
and
subjected
Curwen
's
affairs
to
a
scrutiny
such
as
they
had
never
had
before
.
Many
of
the
odd
maneuvers
of
the
strange
merchant
's
vessels
had
been
taken
for
granted
on
account
of
the
unrest
of
the
times
,
when
every
colonist
seemed
determined
to
resist
the
provisions
of
the
Sugar
Act
which
hampered
a
prominent
traffic
.
Smuggling
and
evasion
were
the
rule
in
Narragansett
Bay
,
and
nocturnal
landings
of
illicit
cargoes
were
continuous
commonplaces
.
But
Weeden
,
night
after
night
following
the
lighters
or
small
sloops
which
he
saw
steal
off
from
the
Curwen
warehouses
at
the
Town
Street
docks
,
soon
felt
assured
that
it
was
not
merely
His
Majesty
's
armed
ships
which
the
sinister
skulker
was
anxious
to
avoid
.
Prior
to
the
change
in
1766
these
boats
had
for
the
most
part
contained
chained
negroes
,
who
were
carried
down
and
across
the
bay
and
landed
at
an
obscure
point
on
the
shore
just
north
of
Pawtuxet
;
being
afterward
driven
up
the
bluff
and
across
country
to
the
Curwen
farm
,
where
they
were
locked
in
that
enormous
stone
outbuilding
which
had
only
five
high
narrow
slits
for
windows
.
After
that
change
,
however
,
the
whole
program
was
altered
.
Importation
of
slaves
ceased
at
once
,
and
for
a
time
Curwen
abandoned
his
midnight
sailings
.
Then
,
about
the
spring
of
1767
,
a
new
policy
appeared
.
Once
more
the
lighters
grew
wont
to
put
out
from
the
black
,
silent
docks
,
and
this
time
they
would
go
down
the
bay
some
distance
,
perhaps
as
far
as
Namquit
Point
,
where
they
would
meet
and
receive
cargo
from
strange
ships
of
considerable
size
and
widely
varied
appearance
.
Curwen
's
sailors
would
then
deposit
this
cargo
at
the
usual
point
on
the
shore
,
and
transport
it
overland
to
the
farm
;
locking
it
in
the
same
cryptical
stone
building
which
had
formerly
received
the
negroes
.
The
cargo
consisted
almost
wholly
of
boxes
and
cases
,
of
which
a
large
proportion
were
oblong
and
heavy
and
disturbingly
suggestive
of
coffins
.
Weeden
always
watched
the
farm
with
unremitting
assiduity
;
visiting
it
each
night
for
long
periods
,
and
seldom
letting
a
week
go
by
without
a
sight
except
when
the
ground
bore
a
footprint-revealing
snow
.
Even
then
he
would
often
walk
as
close
as
possible
in
the
traveled
road
or
on
the
ice
of
the
neighboring
river
to
see
what
tracks
others
might
have
left
.
Finding
his
own
vigils
interrupted
by
nautical
duties
,
he
hired
a
tavern
companion
named
Eleazar
Smith
to
continue
the
survey
during
his
absence
;
and
between
them
the
two
could
have
set
in
motion
some
extraordinary
rumors
.
That
they
did
not
do
so
was
only
because
they
knew
the
effect
of
publicity
would
be
to
warn
their
quarry
and
make
further
progress
impossible
.
Instead
,
they
wished
to
learn
something
definite
before
taking
any
action
.
What
they
did
learn
must
have
been
startling
indeed
,
and
Charles
Ward
spoke
many
times
to
his
parents
of
his
regret
at
Weeden
's
later
burning
of
his
notebooks
.
All
that
can
be
told
of
their
discoveries
is
what
Eleazar
Smith
jotted
down
in
a
non
too
coherent
diary
,
and
what
other
diarists
and
letter-writers
have
timidly
repeated
from
the
statements
which
they
finally
made
--
and
according
to
which
the
farm
was
only
the
outer
shell
of
some
vast
and
revolting
menace
,
of
a
scope
and
depth
too
profound
and
intangible
for
more
than
shadowy
comprehension
.
It
is
gathered
that
Weeden
and
Smith
became
early
convinced
that
a
great
series
of
tunnels
and
catacombs
,
inhabited
by
a
very
sizeable
staff
of
persons
besides
the
old
Indian
and
his
wife
,
underlay
the
farm
.
The
house
was
an
old
peaked
relic
of
the
middle
seventeenth
century
with
enormous
stack
chimney
and
diamond-paned
lattice
windows
,
the
laboratory
being
in
a
lean-to
toward
the
north
,
where
the
roof
came
nearly
to
the
ground
.
This
building
stood
clear
of
any
other
;
yet
judging
by
the
different
voices
heard
at
odd
times
within
,
it
must
have
been
accessible
through
secret
passages
beneath
.
These
voices
,
before
1766
,
were
mere
mumblings
and
negro
whisperings
and
frenzied
screams
,
coupled
with
curious
chants
or
invocations
.
After
that
date
,
however
,
they
assumed
a
very
singular
and
terrible
cast
as
they
ran
the
gamut
betwixt
dronings
of
dull
acquiescence
and
explosions
of
frantic
pain
or
fury
,
rumblings
of
conversations
and
whines
of
entreaty
,
pantings
of
eagerness
and
shouts
of
protest
.
They
appeared
to
be
in
different
languages
,
all
known
to
Curwen
,
whose
rasping
accents
were
frequently
distinguishable
in
reply
,
reproof
,
or
threatening
.
Sometimes
it
seemed
that
several
persons
must
be
in
the
house
;
Curwen
,
certain
captives
,
and
the
guards
of
those
captives
.
There
were
voices
of
a
sort
that
neither
Weeden
nor
Smith
had
ever
heard
before
despite
their
wide
knowledge
of
foreign
parts
,
and
many
that
they
did
seem
to
place
as
belonging
to
this
or
that
nationality
.
The
nature
of
the
conversations
seemed
always
a
kind
of
catechism
,
as
if
Curwen
were
extorting
some
sort
of
information
from
terrified
or
rebellious
prisoners
.
