ay, a great fellow, so prodigiously hairy of head and
face that little was there to see of features, save two round eyes and
a great, hooked nose.

"And who d'ye seek, Faithful Friend?" says he.

"Master Adam Penfeather."

"Why then, Faithful Friend, heave ahead!" says he, and, making way for
me to enter, closed the door (the which I noticed was mighty stout and
strong) and, having locked and bolted it, barred it with a stout iron
set into massy sockets in either wall.

"You go mighty secure!" says I.

"Cock," quoth the giant, eyeing me over slowly, "Cock, be ye a
cackler--because if so be you do cackle overly here's we as won't love
ye no whit, my cock."

"Good!" says I, returning his look. "I seek no man's love!"

"Cock," quoth he, plunging huge fist into his beard and giving it a
tug, "I begin to love ye better nor I thought! This way, cock!"
Herewith he led me along a wide, flagged passage and up a broad stair
with massy, carven handrail; and as I went I saw the place was much
bigger than I had deemed it, the walls, too, were panelled, and I
judged it had once formed part of a noble house. At last we reached a
door whereon the fellow knocked softly, and so presently ushered me
into a fair chamber lit by wax candles; and here, seated at a table
with papers before him and a pen in his fingers, sat Master Adam
Penfeather.

"Ha, shipmate," says he, motioning to a chair, "you be something
earlier than I expected. Suffer me to make an end o' this
business--sit ye, comrade, sit! As for you, Bo'sun, have up a flask o'
the Spanish wine--the black seal!"

"Aye, cap'n!" says he, and seizing a fistful of hair above his eyebrow,
strode away, closing the door behind him.

Now beholding Penfeather as he bent to his writing--the lean, aquiline
face of him so smooth and youthful in contrast to his silver hair--I
was struck by his changed look; indeed he seemed some bookish student
rather than the lawless rover I had thought him, despite the pistols at
his elbow and the long rapier that dangled at his chair-back; moreover
there was about him also an air of latent power I had not noticed ere
this.

At length, having made an end of his writing, he got up and stretched
himself:

"So, shipmate, art ready to swear the blood-fellowship wi' me?"

"Aye!" says I. "When do we sail?" At this he glanced at me swiftly
from the corners of his eyes:

"So ho!" he murmured, pinching his chin. "The wind's changed it seems,
y