my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum
and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch
ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I
see what you're at--there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces
on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," said
he, looking as fierce as a commander.

And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke, he had
none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed
like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man
who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning
before at the "Royal George"; that he had inquired what inns there were
along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and
described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of
residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or
upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner
of the parlor next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly
he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and
blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came
about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, when he came back
from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the
road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind
that made him ask this question; but at last we began to see he was
desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the "Admiral Benbow" (as
now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol), he would
look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlor;
and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was
present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I
was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms.

He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the
first of every month if I would only keep my "weather eye open for a
seafaring man with one leg," and let him know the moment he appeared.
Often enough when the first of the month came round, and I applied to
him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me
down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it,
bring me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out fo