r and myself we got together in a few
days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable--not pretty to
look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable
spirit. I declare we could fight a frigate.

"Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I had already
engaged. He showed me in a moment that they were just the sort of
fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an adventure of importance.

"I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating like a
bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment till I
hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan. Seaward ho! Hang
the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head. So
now, Livesey, come post; do not lose an hour, if you respect me.

"Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with Redruth for a
guard, and then both come full speed to Bristol.

"JOHN TRELAWNEY.

"P.S.--I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the way, is to send
a consort after us if we don't turn up by the end of August, had
found an admirable fellow for sailing-master--a stiff man, which I
regret, but, in all other respects, a treasure. Long John Silver
unearthed a very competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have
a boatswain who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-o'-war
fashion on board the good ship _Hispaniola_.

"I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of
my own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never
been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is
a woman of color, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be
excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the
health, that sends him back to roving.

"J. T.

"P.P.S.--Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.

"J. T."

You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half
beside myself with glee, and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom
Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the
under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him; but such
was not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure was like law
among them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dar