no denial to his hospitable proposal, so that I
accompanied him to the "Admiral Benbow," a snuggish little hostelry,
about which some half a score more stout fellows in blue frocks were
lounging. But these I noticed had broad leather belts round their
waists, in which were stuck pistols, and to which hung cutlasses.

When we had made ourselves comfortable in the little back parlour of the
"Admiral Benbow" over a steaming jug and a Pipe of Tobacco, my companion
began to ask me a few questions, to which, with the ingenuous candour of
youth, I made full replies. I told him that I was a young man seeking my
fortune, but had as yet come only on very scurvy luck; that I had spent
all my money; that I had but recently come from foreign parts, and that,
in despite of finding honest employment, I had made up my mind to list
for a soldier that very night.

"Don't do that, boy?" cried my friend the coxswain. "Curse pipeclay and
red blanketing, and the life of a swaddy. The sea, the blue glorious
sea's the place for a bold heart like you."

I answered that I knew not enough of seamanship to take the place of an
officer, and that I considered the condition of a common sailor as too
base for one of my bringing up.

"Ay, ay! you shall be an officer in time, my hearty," answered the
Coxswain--"Lord High Admiral, for a certainty; but you must creep
through the hawse-holes first. There's nothing like half-a-dozen cruises
before the mast for taking the conceit out of a maple-faced
hobbledehoy."

Whether I was maple-faced or not, I did not stay to argue; but there was
something about the mahogany face of the coxswain that misliked me much.
Now that I inspected him closely I recognised in him something of that
mangonising or slave-dealing expression which is burnt in as with a
Red-hot Iron upon the countenances of all those whose trade is
kidnapping and man-stealing. So without more ado I rose to go, thanking
him for his treat, and saying that if I went to sea it should be at my
own pleasure and in my own way.

"Stop abit," he answered, rising with me, and putting his back against
the door--"not so fast, my hearty! King George doesn't allow likely
young blades to slip through his fingers in this fashion. As you're in
such a deuce of a hurry, I think we'd better see the Midshipmite."

I measured him with my eye, but at once gave up all thoughts of
mastering him if I attempted violence in leaving the room. He was taller
than I, broade