he man round, and listened at his back between
the shoulder-blades before making him open his mouth, and ended by
looking into his eyes, while the father and son watched him.

"Ha! that will do," said the doctor dryly. "Sleep well, I suppose?"

"Oh yes, sir."

"And you can eat and drink well?"

The man's face expanded in a broad smile.

"Goes without saying. There, put on your coat."

Edward began to put it on.

"Sound as a bell," said the doctor. "Strong as a horse."

"Yes, but we want something besides a healthy man."

"Of course: a good handy, willing fellow, who would not want to come
home as soon as he had to rough it and do everything."

"There ain't anything I wouldn't do, gentlemen," cried Edward. "If you
take me, Sir John, I'll serve you faithful, and you shan't repent it.
May I tell the doctor, Sir John, what I can do?"

"There is no need. He boasts, Instow."

"Beg pardon, Sir John, it ain't boasting, it's honest truth."

"Yes, Edward, I believe you feel that it is. Well, Instow, he says he
has been accustomed to outdoor life with his father from boyhood. His
father was a gamekeeper and woodman. That he can shoot, fish, clean
guns, manage nets, ride, sail boats, punt and row. Do everything,
including building huts and cooking."

"Don't want any cooking. I shall do that myself."

"In addition, he can skin birds and beasts."

"Ha!" ejaculated the doctor. "Well, if we engage a stranger, we don't
know how he'll turn out, and it would be very awkward to have a man who
would turn tail at the first bit of discomfort. Look here, sir, it will
be a rough life."

"If you only knew, doctor, how hungry I am for a bit of rough outdoor
time, you'd put in a word for me," cried the man excitedly.

"And suppose we get in a hot corner, and have to fight for our lives
against black fellows?"

There was a grim look in the man's face at once--a regular British
bull-dog aspect, as he tightened his lips, and made wrinkles at the
corners, as if putting his mouth in a parenthesis, and then he began to
tuck up his cuffs and double his fists.

"That will do, Edward," said the doctor quietly. "We know him, Meadows,
for a steady, straightforward fellow, sound in wind and limb, who has
never given me a job since he tried to cut his hand off with a bit of
glass. What he don't know he'd soon learn; and I should say that we are
not likely to get a more suitable fellow if we tried for six months."

Edward