oat touch. Captain Crail
himself was steering, a thing not usual; by his side there sat a
passenger; and the men gave way with difficulty, being hampered with
near upon half a dozen portmanteaus, great and small. But the business
of landing was briskly carried through; and presently the baggage was
all tumbled on shore, the boat on its return voyage to the lugger, and
the passenger standing alone upon the point of rock, a tall slender
figure of a gentleman, habited in black, with a sword by his side and a
walking-cane upon his wrist. As he so stood, he waved the cane to
Captain Crail by way of salutation, with something both of grace and
mockery that wrote the gesture deeply on my mind.

No sooner was the boat away with my sworn enemies than I took a sort of
half courage, came forth to the margin of the thicket, and there halted
again, my mind being greatly pulled about between natural diffidence and
a dark foreboding of the truth. Indeed, I might have stood there
swithering all night, had not the stranger turned, spied me through the
mists, which were beginning to fall, and waved and cried on me to draw
near. I did so with a heart like lead.

"Here, my good man," said he, in the English accent, "here are some
things for Durrisdeer."

I was now near enough to see him, a very handsome figure and
countenance, swarthy, lean, long, with a quick, alert, black look, as of
one who was a fighter, and accustomed to command; upon one cheek he had
a mole, not unbecoming; a large diamond sparkled on his hand; his
clothes, although of the one hue, were of a French and foppish design;
his ruffles, which he wore longer than common, of exquisite lace; and I
wondered the more to see him in such a guise when he was but newly
landed from a dirty smuggling lugger. At the same time he had a better
look at me, toised me a second time sharply, and then smiled.

"I wager, my friend," says he, "that I know both your name and your
nickname. I divined these very clothes upon your hand of writing, Mr.
Mackellar."

At these words I fell to shaking.

"O," says he, "you need not be afraid of me. I bear no malice for your
tedious letters; and it is my purpose to employ you a good deal. You may
call me Mr. Bally: it is the name I have assumed; or rather (since I am
addressing so great a precisian) it is so I have curtailed my own. Come
now, pick up that, and that"--indicating two of the portmanteaus. "That
will be as much as you are fit to bear,