the steps without even looking at me, and their
carriage rolled away.

Inside the inn I found a couple of merchant captains, one asleep with
his head on the table and little rings shining in his great red ears;
the other very spick and span--of what they called the new school then.
His name was Williams--Captain Williams of the _Lion_, which he part
owned; a man of some note for the dinners he gave on board his ship. His
eyes sparkled blue and very round in a round rosy face, and he clawed
effusively at my arm.

"Well done!" he bubbled over. "You gave it them; strike me, you did! It
did me good to see and hear. I wasn't going to poke my nose in, not I.
But I admire you, my boy."

He was a quite guileless man with a strong dislike for the admiral's
blundering--a dislike that all the seamen shared--and for people of the
Topnambo kidney who affected to be above his dinners. He assured me that
I had burst upon those gentry roaring... "like the Bull of Bashan. You
should have seen!" and he drank my health in a glass of punch.

David Macdonald joined us, looming through wreaths of tobacco smoke. He
was always very nice in his dress, and had washed himself into a state
of enviable coolness.

"They won't touch me now," he said. "I wanted that assault and
battery...." He suddenly turned vivid, sarcastic black eyes upon me.
"But you," he said--"my dear Kemp! You're in a devil of a scrape!
They'll have a warrant out against you under the Black Act. I know the
gentry."

"Oh, he won't mind," Williams struck in, "I know him; he's a trump.
Afraid of nothing."

David Macdonald made a movement of his head that did duty for an ominous
shake:

"It's a devil of a mess," he said. "But I'll touch them up. Why did you
hit Topnambo? He's the spitefullest beast in the island. They'll make it
out high treason. They are capable of sending you home on this charge."

"Oh, never say die." Williams turned to me, "Come and dine with me on
board at Kingston to-morrow night. If there's any fuss I'll see what I
can do. Or you can take a trip with me to Havana till it blows over. My
old woman's on board." His face fell. "But there, you'll get round her.
I'll see you through."

They drank some sangaree and became noisy. I wasn't very happy;
there was much truth in what David Macdonald had said. Topnambo would
certainly do his best to have me in jail--to make an example of me as
a Separationist to please the admiral and the Duke of Manchester.