ng upon Dr.
Livesey.

Well, mother was up-stairs with father; and I was laying the
breakfast-table against the captain's return, when the parlour door
opened, and a man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He
was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand; and,
though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I had
always my eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember
this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the
sea about him too.

I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum; but
as I was going out of the room to fetch it he sat down upon a table and
motioned me to draw near. I paused where I was with my napkin in my hand.

"Come here, sonny," says he. "Come nearer here."

I took a step nearer.

"Is this here table for my mate Bill?" he asked, with a kind of leer.

I told him I did not know his mate Bill; and this was for a person who
stayed in our house, whom we called the captain.

"Well," said he, "my mate Bill would be called the captain, as like as
not. He has a cut on one cheek, and a mighty pleasant way with him,
particularly in drink, has my mate Bill. We'll put it, for argument like,
that your captain has a cut on one cheek--and we'll put it, if you like,
that that cheek's the right one. Ah, well! I told you. Now, is my mate
Bill in this here house?"

I told him he was out walking.

"Which way, sonny? Which way is he gone?"

And when I had pointed out the rock, and told him how the captain was
likely to return, and how soon, and answered a few other
questions,--"Ah," said he, "this'll be as good as drink to my mate Bill."

The expression of his face as he said these words was not at all
pleasant, and I had my own reasons for thinking that the stranger was
mistaken, even supposing he meant what he said. But it was no affair of
mine, I thought; and, besides, it was difficult to know what to do. The
stranger kept hanging about just inside the inn door, peering round the
corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I stepped out myself into the
road, but he immediately called me back, and, as I did not obey quick
enough for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his tallowy face,
and he ordered me in, with an oath that made me jump. As soon as I was
back again he returned to his former manner, half-fawning, half-sneering,
patted me on the shoulder, told me I was a good boy, and he