their ridicule. The person who pulled was a huge
negro. He must have been as tall as Peter Poplar, but considerably
stouter and stronger of limb. He was clothed in a striped cotton dress
and straw-hat. It would have been difficult to find two people
associated together more unlike each other. The old man took the helm,
and by the way he managed the boat it was clear that he was no novice in
nautical affairs. "What can he want with us!" exclaimed the captain.
"We'll treat him with politeness, at all events!" Side-ropes and a
ladder were therefore prepared; but scarcely had the bowman's boat-hook
struck the side, than the old gentleman had handed himself up by the
main-chains on deck with the agility of a monkey, followed by the big
negro. I then saw that he had a brace of silver-mounted pistols stuck
in his belt, and that he wore a short sword by his side; but the latter
was apparently more for ornament than use. The negro also had a large
brace of pistols and a cutlass. In the boat were two iron-clamped
chests, one of them being very large, the other small.

The old gentleman singled out the captain as soon as he reached the
deck, and walked up to him. "Ah, Captain Helfrich, I am glad to have
fallen in with you!" he exclaimed, in a singularly firm and full voice,
with nothing of the tremulousness of age in it. "I've come to ask you
for a passage to Jamaica, as I prefer entering Port-Royal harbour in a
respectable steady-going craft like yours, rather than in such a small
cockle-shell as is my little pet there!" As he spoke he pointed with a
smile--and such a smile! how wrinkled and crinkled did his face become--
to the wicked-looking little felucca.

"Impossible, sir," answered the captain; "my cabins are already so
crowded that I could not accommodate another person!"

"Oh! how are the places of Mr Wilmot and Mr Noel occupied then?" asked
the stranger with a peculiar look. They were the gentlemen who landed
at Saint Kitt's!

The captain started, and looked at his visitor with a scrutinising
glance; but he remained unabashed.

"How did you learn that?" asked the captain quickly.

"Oh, there are very few things which happen in these parts the which I
don't know," answered the stranger quietly. "However, captain, even if
all your cabins are full, that excuse will not serve you. I can stow
myself away anywhere. I've been accustomed to rough it, and Cudjoe here
won't object to prick for a soft plank!