oing there.

"I got down at about three-thirty, and, feeling pretty hungry--for I had
had nothing to eat since breakfast--I went into a small place within
hail of the dock gates, and asked for some bread and cheese and beer.
The landlady, a kindly old soul, seeing, I suppose, that I looked cold,
and as though I could do with a rest, showed me into a little sanctum
labelled _Captains' Room_, where, I was glad to see, there blazed a fine
big fire, before which stood two or three very cosy-looking arm-chairs.

"Throwing myself into one, I began to discuss my frugal luncheon with
considerable appetite, and had nearly finished when the door opened, and
in came the most curious-looking little man I have ever set eyes on.
That he was a seaman was perfectly apparent to the meanest intelligence,
and I at once set him down as the first officer--as they call themselves
nowadays--or perhaps even the skipper, of a tramp steamer. He was
certainly not more than five feet in height, but his breadth of shoulder
and depth of chest were so enormous as to amount, literally, to a
deformity; and I should judge that his strength must be herculean, as
the novelists say. He was bronzed to the colour of deep mahogany, and
had a heavy black moustache and a beard which grew right up to his
eyes--deep-set, black, and as brilliant as diamonds. Added to this he
wore gold ear-rings, and, altogether, was as like my conception of one
of the pirates of old, about whom we used to read in our young days, as
any man possibly could be.

"From the moment the man entered the room I began to feel deeply
interested in him, and could scarcely refrain from staring at him
openly. `Here,' I said to myself, `is a personality; a man who has
knocked about the world during most of his life; a man who has seen
things and done things, some of which, probably, would not bear too
close scrutiny.' For he gave me the impression of being a person who
would make a good, stanch friend, but who would prove to be a thoroughly
bad and dangerous enemy.

"Apparently he was a bit surprised to find anybody else in the captains'
sanctum at that time of day; and, after the first hasty glance, it
seemed as though he, too, was taking more than usual interest in your
humble servant; for every time I raised my eyes to take a quiet look at
him, I found his black, glittering orbs fixed on me, with that curious,
unblinking stare that you may have noticed among certain species of
birds.