parcels, as thou didst but a week agone, lest thou bring sundry of her
most glorious Majesty's lieges to an untimely end! There"--as the boy
seized the basket and hurried out of the shop--"that completes my day's
work. Now I have but to put up the shutters and lock the door; and
then, have with thee whither thou wilt. Help me with the shutters,
Dick, there's a good lad, so shall I be ready the sooner."

Five minutes sufficed the two to put up the shutters, and for Stukely to
wash his hands, discard his apron, change his coat, and lock up the
shop; then the two somewhat oddly contrasted friends wended their way
quickly down the narrow street on their way to the waterside.

As they go, let us take the opportunity to become better acquainted with
them both, for, although they knew it not, they were taking their first
steps on the road to many a strange and wild adventure, whither we who
also love adventure propose to accompany them.

Philip Stukely, the elder of the two, aged twenty-three and a half
years, tall, spare, sallow of complexion, with long, straight, black
hair, and dark eyes--the precise colour of which no man precisely knew,
for it seemed to change with his varying moods--was, as we have seen, by
some strange freak of fortune, an apothecary's assistant. But merely to
say that he was an apothecary's assistant very inadequately describes
the man; for, in addition to that, he was both a poet and a painter in
thought and feeling, if not in actual fact. He was also a voracious
reader of everything that treated of adventure, from the story of the
Flood, and Jonah's memorable voyage, to Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_,
and everything else of a like character that he could lay hands upon.
Altogether, he was a very strange fellow, who evidently thought deeply,
and originally, and held many very remarkable opinions upon certain
subjects.

This it was that made his friendship for and deep attachment to Dick
Chichester, and Chichester's equally deep attachment to him, so strange
a thing; for the two had not a trait in common. To begin with,
Chichester was much younger than Stukely, being just turned seventeen
years of age, although this difference in age was much less apparent
than usual, for while Stukely, in his more buoyant and expansive
moments, seemed considerably younger than his years, Chichester might
easily have been, and indeed often was, mistaken for a young man of
twenty-one or twenty-two. While Stuk