Scratch's deal, as he considered his abusive wife's death a good thing. Because he can only use the treasure in Old Scratch's service, Tom agrees to become a usurer (today commonly called a loan shark), after refusing to become a slave trader. During the governorship of Jonathan Belcher (1730–1741), speculation runs rampant and Walker's business flourishes. Becoming a member of the local stock exchange, Tom buys a big house and a coach but furnishes neither, even though he has the money (he is so miserly that he even half-starves his horses). Tom never tires of swindling people until he suddenly becomes fearful about the afterlife. He then becomes an obsessive church-goer, singing hymns in church in a much louder voice than all of the other parishioners, and always keeping two Bibles at hand—thinking that any sin on his neighbor's "account" is a "credit" to his own. He is said to have even had his best riding horse saddled and buried upside down in the belief that in the last days the world will be turned upside down and he will then try to "outride" Old Scratch (although the narrator adds that this is "probably a mere old wives' fable"). One day a "poor land stock jobber" (land speculator) who had borrowed money from him asks for "a few months' indulgence" and irritates Tom who says, "The d___l take me if I have made a farthing!" (the smallest currency of the time, 1/4 of a penny). There are three loud knocks at the door. Tom is drawn towards a black-cloaked figure and realizes, in horror, that he has left his Bibles at his desk. Old Scratch tosses Tom Walker on the back of a black horse, which dashes "down the street ... striking fire out of the pavement at every bound". Tom is never seen again. All his assets become worthless—his coach horses become skeletons, the gold and silver Tom hoarded turns into wood chips and shavings, his mortgages and deeds become cinders, and his great house burns to the ground. Since that day, his ghost haunts the site of the old fortress. His only legacy is a New England saying, "The Devil and Tom Walker". Adaptations In 2019, the story was adapted into audio drama as part of the debut season of Shadows at the Door: The Podcast. In 2022, a one act version of "The Devil and Tom Walker"