hings _prosper_,'
and Elzevir marked the last word a little as he said it.

The man looked harder at him, and asked, 'Prosper what?' as if he were
hard of hearing.

'_Prosper the Bonaventure_,' was the answer, and then the landlord caught
Elzevir by the hand, shaking it hard and saying, 'Why, you are Master
Block, and I expecting you this morn, and never knew you.' He laughed as
he stared at us again, and Elzevir smiled too. Then the landlord led us
in. 'And this is?' he said, looking at me.

'This is a well-licked whelp,' replied Elzevir, 'who got a bullet in the
leg two months ago in that touch under Hoar Head; and is worth more than
he looks, for they have put twenty golden guineas on his head--so have a
care of such a precious top-knot.'

So long as we stopped at the Bugle we had the best of lodging and the
choicest meat and drink, and all the while the landlord treated Elzevir
as though he were a prince. And so he was indeed a prince among the
contrabandiers, and held, as I found out long afterwards, for captain of
all landers between Start and Solent. At first the landlord would take no
money of us, saying that he was in our debt, and had received many a good
turn from Master Block in the past, but Elzevir had got gold from
Dorchester before we left the cave and forced him to take payment. I was
glad enough to lie between clean sweet sheets at night instead of on a
heap of sand, and sit once more knife and fork in hand before a
well-filled trencher. 'Twas thought best I should show myself as little
as possible, so I was content to pass my time in a room at the back of
the house whilst Elzevir went abroad to make inquiries how we could find
entrance to the Castle at Carisbrooke. Nor did the time hang heavy on my
hands, for I found some old books in the Bugle, and among them several to
my taste, especially a _History of Corfe Castle_, which set forth how
there was a secret passage from the ruins to some of the old marble
quarries, and perhaps to that very one that sheltered us.

Elzevir was out most of the day, so that I saw him only at breakfast and
supper. He had been several times to Carisbrooke, and told me that the
Castle was used as a jail for persons taken in the wars, and was now full
of French prisoners. He had met several of the turnkeys or jailers,
drinking with them in the inns there, and making out that he was himself
a carter, who waited at Newport till a wind-bound ship should bring
grindstones f