The Devil and Tom Walker

Setting: Deep inlet, winding through Charles Bay, dark grove, gigantic tree, Massachusetts

• Old stories tell of a pirate called Pirate Kidd who buried treasure under a big tree; people say the devil hid the money. Kidd never returned to the treasure because he was hung for being a pirate.
• 1727, Tom Walker and his wife; they are miserable together and cheat on each other. She is very secretive. They live in an old, abandoned, moss covered house.
• Tom's wife was fierce of temper, loud of tongue & strong of arm.
• One day Tom takes a shortcut home, through a swamp. There is an old Indian fort in the swamp. He stopped there to take a break from walking. He is about to sit on the ground when he sees something halfway buried in the ground. It is an old Indian axe, so he goes to pick it up. As he does, he hears a voice say, "Leave that skull alone."
  
• Tom looks up and sees a black man sitting not far from him. The man is neither black, nor Indian. His skin seems to be covered by soot.
  
• The ground they are on belongs to Deacon Peabody, but the Indian man says Peabody is dead so it's his land. The Indian does not feel bad for cutting down Peabody's timber.
  
• The man goes by various names; black miner, wild huntsman. He talks to the Quakers & Anabaptists.
• Tom thinks the man is Old Scratch who is talked about in old stories. The two talk for a long time and become friends.
  
• The man tells Tom of Kidd's treasure. The man owns the tree it is buried underneath. The man burns his thumb print in Tom's head before he part. (Showing he is the Devil)
• Tom goes home, tells his wife of the stories, and she wants to go and find Kidd's money. Tom tells her no, just to make her mad, so she sets off on her own to go find it.
  
• Stories came about of her going to the swamp. She spoke of the black man. Eventually she disappears in the swamp. Rumors of her death flared, but the most famous story was a man with an axe on his shoulder was seen coming out of the swamp carrying a bundle in an apron.
  
• Another rumor is that Tom goes in search of her. He is about to give up when he sees an apron and a vulture hanging in the tree. Tom retrieves the apron because it looks like his wife's. He unfolds the apron to reveal a heart and liver inside.
  
• Tom thinks the man helped him because his wife was dying. Tom wanted to give the man thanks.
• He sees the black man, they talk, say thanks & begin talking about the treasure again. Tom wants to give the money to a slave ship, but the man said no. The man says to open a broker's shop in Boston.
• Later, Tom begins to attend church, he still believes the devil has something in store for him. One day, Tom says he just wants the devil to take him. He goes a little insane. Just then, the devil appears on his doorstep on a black horse. The devil sweeps Tom away never to be seen again.