Then he receives a letter from India which gives him a great fright.

What was that ?" "A letter to say that the men whom he had wronged had been set free." "Or had escaped.

That is much more likely, for he would have known what their term of imprisonment was.

It would not have been a surprise to him.

What does he do then?
He guards himself against a wooden-legged man,--a white man, mark you, for he mistakes a white tradesman for him, and actually fires a pistol at him.