there was a pile of
rich-looking skins--bear, tiger, and white wolf--beneath him, and he
alone of all the company wore black clothes and a white shirt. He was a
short man, I judged, black-bearded and smooth-skinned, with a big nose,
almost an intellectual forehead, small, white-looking hands, all ablaze
with diamonds, about whose fine quality there could not be two
opinions; and, what was even more remarkable, there hung as a pendant
to his watch-chain a great uncut ruby which must have been worth five
thousand pounds. One trade-mark of the sea alone did he possess, in the
dark, curly ringlets which fell to his shoulders, matted there as long
uncombed, but typical in all of the man. This then was the fellow upon
whose every word that company of ruffians appeared to hang, who obeyed
him, as I observed presently, when he did so much as lift his hand, who
seemed to have in their uncouth way a veneration for him, inexplicable,
remarkable--the man of whom Martin Hall had painted such a fantastic
picture, who was, as I had been told, soon to be wanted by every
Government in Europe. And so I faced him for the first time, little
thinking that before many months had gone I should know of deeds by his
hand which had set the world aflame with indignation, deeds which
carried me to strange places, and among dangers so terrible that I
shudder when the record brings back their reality.

Hall was the first to speak, and it was evident to me that he cloaked
his own voice, putting on the nasal twang and the manner of an East-end
Jew dealer.

"I have come, Mister Black," he said, "as you was good enough to wish,
with a few little things--beautiful things--which cost me moosh
money----"

"Ho, ho!" sang out Captain Black, "here is a Jew who paid _much_ money
for a few little things! Look at him, boys!--the Jew with much money!
Turn out his pockets, boys!--the Jew with much money! Ho, ho! Bring the
Jew some drink, and the little Jew, by thunder!"

His merriment set all the company roaring to his mood. For a moment
their play was far from innocent, for one lighted a great sheet of
paper and burnt it under the nose of my friend, while another pushed
his dirty drinking-pot to my mouth, and would have forced me to drink.
But I remembered Hall's words, and held still, giving banter for
banter--only this, I learnt to my intense surprise that the pot did not
contain beer but champagne, and that, by its bouquet, of an infinitely
fine quality.