n his appraising eyes swept over
Robert.

"'Twould be hard to find a nobler youth," he said.

"I thought you would say so, and now lead us, without further delay,
to Master Hardy."

"Who is it who demands to be led to me?" thundered a voice from the
rear of the house. "I seem to know that voice! Ah, it's Willet! Good
old Willet! Honest Dave, who wields the sharpest sword in North
America!"

A tall, heavy man lunged forward. "Lunged" was the word that described
it to Robert, and his impetuous motion was due to the sight of Willet,
whom he grasped by both hands, shaking them with a vigor that would
have caused pain in one less powerful than the hunter, and as he shook
them he uttered exclamations, many of them bordering upon oaths and
all of them pertaining to the sea.

Robert's eyes had grown used to the half light of the hall, and he
took particular notice of Master Benjamin Hardy who was destined to
become an important figure in his life, although he did not then dream
of it. He saw a tall man of middle age, built very powerfully, his
face burnt almost the color of an Indian's by the winds and suns of
many seas. But his hair was thick and long and the eyes shining in the
face, made dark by the weather, were an intensely bright blue. Robert,
upon whom impressions were so swift and vivid, reckoned that here was
one capable of great and fierce actions, and also with a heart that
contained a large measure of kindness and generosity.

"Dave," said the tall man, who carried with him the atmosphere of the
sea, "I feared that you might be dead in those forests you love so
well, killed and perhaps scalped by the Hurons or some other savage
tribe. You've abundant hair, Dave, and you'd furnish an uncommonly
fine scalp."

"And I feared, Benjamin, that you'd been caught in some smuggling
cruise near the Spanish Main, and had been put out of the way by the
Dons. You love gain too much, Ben, old friend, and you court risks too
great for its sake."

Master Benjamin Hardy threw back his head and laughed deeply and
heartily. The laugh seemed to Robert to roll up spontaneously from his
throat. He felt anew that here was a man whom he liked.

"Perchance 'tis the danger that draws me on," said Master Hardy. "You
and I are much alike, Dave. In the woods, if all that I hear be true,
you dwell continually in the very shadow of danger, while I incur it
only at times. Moreover, I am come to the age of fifty years, the head
is stil