I
attempt my own," continued his course till he came to the door of a
public-house. The sign of a seaman swung aloft, portraying the jolly
tar with a fine pewter pot in his hand, considerably huger than his own
circumference. An immense pug sat at the door, lolling its tongue out,
as if, having stuffed itself to the tongue, it was forced to turn that
useful member out of its proper place. The shutters were half closed,
but the sounds of coarse merriment issued jovially forth.

Clifford disconcerted the pug; and crossing the threshold, cried in
aloud tone, "Janseen!"

"Here!" answered a gruff voice; and Clifford, passing on, came to a
small parlour adjoining the tap. There, seated by a round oak table,
he found mine host,--a red, fierce, weather-beaten, but bloated-looking
personage, like Dick Hatteraick in a dropsy.

"How now, Captain!" cried he, in a gutteral accent, and interlarding his
discourse with certain Dutch graces, which with our reader's leave we
will omit, as being unable to spell them; "how now!--not gone yet!"

"No! I start for the coast to-morrow; business keeps me to-day. I came
to ask if Mellon may be fully depended on?"

"Ay, honest to the back-bone."

"And you are sure that in spite of my late delays he will not have left
the village?"

"Sure! What else can I be? Don't I know Jack Mellon these twenty years!
He would lie like a log in a calm for ten months together, without
moving a hair's-breadth, if he was under orders."

"And his vessel is swift and well manned, in case of an officer's
chase?"

"The 'Black Molly' swift? Ask your grandmother. The 'Black Molly' would
outstrip a shark."

"Then good-by, Janseen; there is something to keep your pipe alight. We
shall not meet within the three seas again, I think. England is as much
too hot for me as Holland for you!"

"You are a capital fellow!" cried mine host, shaking Clifford by the
hand; "and when the lads come to know their loss, they will know they
have lost the bravest and truest gill that ever took to the toby; so
good-by, and be d---d to you!"

With this valedictory benediction mine host released Clifford; and the
robber hastened to his appointment at the Three Feathers.

He found all prepared. He hastily put on his disguise; and his follower
led out his horse,--a noble animal of the grand Irish breed, of
remarkable strength and bone, and save only that it was somewhat sharp
in the quarters (a fault which they who look for speed