the green table. In truth, I was huffed with you when last we parted,
but I have had you in my mind for all that.'

'A seat and a glass, Captain Clarke,' cried the skipper. 'Od's bud! I
should think that you would be glad to raise your little finger and wet
your whistle after what you have gone through.'

I seated myself by the table with my brain in a whirl. 'This is more
than I can fathom,' said I. 'What is the meaning of it, and how comes it
about?'

'For my own part, the meaning is as clear as the glass of my binnacle,'
quoth the seaman. 'Your good friend Colonel Saxon, as I understand his
name to be, has offered me as much as I could hope to gain by selling
you in the Indies. Sink it, I may be rough and ready, but my heart is in
the right place! Aye, aye! I would not maroon a man if I could set him
free. But we have all to look for ourselves, and trade is dull.'

'Then I am free!' said I.

'You are free,' he answered. 'There is your purchase-money upon the
table. You can go where you will, save only upon the land of England,
where you are still an outlaw under sentence.'

'How have you done this, Saxon?' I asked. 'Are you not afraid for
yourself?'

'Ho, ho!' laughed the old soldier. 'I am a free man, my lad! I hold my
pardon, and care not a maravedi for spy or informer. Who should I meet
but Colonel Kirke a day or so back. Yes, lad! I met him in the street,
and I cocked my hat in his face. The villain laid his hand upon his
hilt, and I should have out bilbo and sent his soul to hell had they not
come between us. I care not the ashes of this pipe for Jeffreys or any
other of them. I can snap this finger and thumb at them, so! They would
rather see Decimus Saxon's back than his face, I promise ye!'

'But how comes this about?' I asked.

'Why, marry, it is no mystery. Cunning old birds are not to be caught
with chaff. When I left you I made for a certain inn where I could count
upon finding a friend. There I lay by for a while, en cachette, as the
Messieurs call it, while I could work out the plan that was in my head.
Donner wetter! but I got a fright from that old seaman friend of yours,
who should be sold as a picture, for he is of little use as a man. Well,
I bethought me early in the affair of your visit to Badminton, and of
the Duke of B. We shall mention no names, but you can follow my meaning.
To him I sent a messenger, to the effect that I purposed to purchase my
own pardon by letting out all that