his jacket
and trousers a brace of curiously-fashioned pistols, which he now handed
to the young sailor, while he elevated the hilt of his dagger, so that,
without removing or disturbing the silken sash, he could use it in an
instant. Having fully ascertained this point, by drawing the weapon more
than once from its sheath, he again deposited the pistols in his belt,
and buttoned his vest nearly to the throat; then drew the ends of his
sash still more tightly, and placing a hand on either side, turned
towards the cliffs, measuring their altitude with an eye, which, though
deficient in dignity, was acute, and peculiarly fierce in expression.

The seaman, for such was his calling, was about five feet eight or nine
inches in height. His hair, as it appeared from beneath a cap singularly
at variance with the fashion of the time, curled darkly round a face,
the marked features of which were sufficiently prominent, even in that
uncertain light, to denote a person of no ordinary mind or character.
His figure was firm and well-proportioned, and, though he might have
numbered fifty years, it had lost neither strength nor elasticity. His
whole bearing was that of a man whom nothing could have turned from a
cherished purpose, were it for good or evil: though his eye was, as we
have described it, fierce and acute, it was also restless and impatient
as the waves upon which he had toiled from his earliest years.

Again he surveyed the cliff, and, stepping close to its base, applied
the point of a boat-spear to remove the sea-weed that spring and high
tides had heaped against it; he then summoned the youth to his
assistance: after a few moments' search, the lad exclaimed,--

"Here it is, master--here is one--here another--but, my eyes! are we to
trust our necks to such footing as this? I'd rather mount the
top-gallant of the good ship Providence in the fiercest Nor-wester that
ever blow'd, than follow such a lubberly tack."

"Then go back to the boat, sir," replied the elder, as he began, with
cautious yet steady daring, to ascend--a course attended with evident
danger, "Go back to the boat, sir--and, here, Jeromio! you have not
been taught your duty on board the Providence, and, I presume, have no
scruples, like our friend Oba Springall. Jeromio! I say, hither and up
with me!"

"I am ready, sir," replied the youth, whose momentary dread had been
dispelled by this attempt to promote a rival to the post of honour; "I
am ready, si