all it, what I says--we
turns into a certain old-fashioned place there is there in Hull, in a
bit of an alley off High Street--you'll know Hull, no doubt, you
gentlemen?"

"Never been there," replied Scarterfield.

"I have," said I. "I know it well--especially the High Street."

"Then you'll know, guv'nor, that all round about that High Street
there's still a lot o' queer old places as ancient as what it is,"
continued Fish. "Me and my mate, Shanks, knew one, what we'd oft used
in times past--the Goose and Crane, as snug a spot as you'll find in
any shipping-town in this here country. Maybe you'll know it?"

"I've seen it from outside, Fish," I answered. "A fine old front--half
timber."

"That's it, guv'nor--and as pleasant inside as it's remarkable
outside," he said. "Well, my mate and me we goes in there for a
morning glass, and into a room where you'll find some interesting folk
about that time o' day. There's a sign on the door o' that room,
gentlemen, what reads 'For Master Mariners Only,' but it's an old
piece of work, and you don't want to take no heed of it--me and Shanks
we ain't master mariners, though we may look it in our shore rig-out,
and we've used that room whenever we've been in Hull. Well, now we
gets our glasses, and our cigars, and we sits down in a quiet corner
to enjoy ourselves and observe what company drops in. Some queer old
birds there is comes in to that place, I do assure you, gentlemen, and
some strange tales o' seafaring life you can hear. Howsomever, there
wasn't nothing partic'lar struck me that morning until it was getting
on to dinner-time, and me an Shanks was thinking o' laying a course
for our lodgings, where we'd ordered a special bit o' dinner to
celebrate our happy meeting, like, when in comes the man I'm a talking
about. And if he wasn't Netherfield Baxter, what I'd known ever since
he was the heighth o' six-pennorth o' copper, then, says I, a man's
eyes and a man's ears isn't to be trusted!"

"Fish!" said Scarterfield, who was listening intently. "It'll be best
if you give us a description of this man. Tell us, as near as you can,
what he's like--I mean, of course the man you saw at the Goose and
Crane."

Our visitor seemed to pull his mental faculties together. He took
another pull at his glass and several at his cigar.

"Well," he said, "t'aint much in my line, that, me not being a
scholar, but I can give a general idea, d'ye see, master. A tallish,
good-looking cha