ed Bruton, where there is an
inn that will compare with most, and the skipper is a wench with a glib
tongue and a merry eye. I was drinking a glass of spiced ale, as is my
custom about six bells of the middle watch, when I chanced to notice a
great lanky carter, who was loading up a waggon in the yard with a cargo
o' beer casks. Looking closer it seemed to me that the man's nose,
like the beak of a goshawk, and his glinting eyes with the lids only
half-reefed, were known to me, but when I overheard him swearing to
himself in good High Dutch, then his figurehead came back to me in
a moment. I put out into the yard, and touched him on the shoulder.
Zounds, lad! you should have seen him spring back and spit at me like
a wildcat with every hair of his head in a bristle. He whipped a knife
from under his smock, for he thought, doubtless, that I was about to
earn the reward by handing him over to the red-coats. I told him that
his secret was safe with me, and I asked him if he had heard that you
were laid by the heels. He answered that he knew it, and that he would
be answerable that no harm befell you, though in truth it seemed to me
that he had his hands full in trimming his own sails, without acting as
pilot to another. However, there I left him, and there I shall find him
again if so be as he has done you an injury.'

'Nay,' I answered, 'I am right glad that he has found this refuge.
We did separate upon a difference of opinion, but I have no cause
to complain of him. In many ways he hath shown me both kindness and
goodwill.'

'He is as crafty as a purser's clerk,' quoth Solomon. 'I have seen
Reuben Lockarby, who sends his love to you. He is still kept in his bunk
from his wound, but he meets with good treatment. Major Ogilvy tells me
that he has made such interest for him that there is every chance that
he will gain his discharge, the more particularly since he was not
present at the battle. Your own chance of pardon would, he thinks, be
greater if you had fought less stoutly, but you have marked yourself
as a dangerous man, more especially as you have the love of many of the
common folk among the rebels.'

The good old seaman stayed with me until late in the night, listening to
my adventures, and narrating in return the simple gossip of the village,
which is of more interest to the absent wanderer than the rise and fall
of empires. Before he left he drew a great handful of silver pieces
from his pouch, and went round