“Then service you shall have; nor will you find us niggardly in the operation.  You cannot expect an advance, for a run of no more than a month; nor any perquisites in the way of stowage, since the ship is now full to her hatches; nor, indeed, any great price in the shape of wages, since we take you chiefly to accommodate so worthy a youth, and to honour the recommendations of so respectable a house as Spriggs, Boggs and Tweed; but you will find us liberal, excessive liberal.  Stay—­how know we that you are the person named in the invoi—­I should say, recommendation?”

“Does not the fact of possessing the letters establish my character?”

“It might in peaceable times; when the realm was not scourged by war.  A description of the person should have accompanied the documents, like a letter of advice with the bill.  As we take you at some risk in this matter, you are not to be surprised that the price will be affected by the circumstance.  We are liberal; I believe no house in the colonies pays more liberally; but then we have a character for prudence to lose.”

“I have already said, sir, that the price shall not interrupt our bargain.”

“Good:  There is pleasure in transacting business on such liberal and honourable views!  And yet I wish a notarial seal, or a description of the person, had accompanied the letters.  This is the signature of Robert Tweed; I know it well, and would be glad to see it at the bottom of a promissory note for ten thousand pounds; that is, with a responsible endorser; but the uncertainty is much against your pecuniary interest, young man, since we become, as it were, underwriters that you are the individual named.”

“In order that your mind may be at ease on the subject, Mr Bale,” said a voice from among the little circle that was listening, with characteristic interest, to the progress of the bargain, “I can testify, or, should it be necessary, qualify to the person of the gentleman.”

Wilder turned in some haste, and in no little astonishment, to discover the acquaintance whom chance had thrown in so extraordinary, and possibly in so disagreeable a manner, across his path; and that, too, in a portion of the country where he wished to believe himself an entire stranger.  To his utter amazement, he found that the new speaker was no other than the landlord of the “Foul Anchor.”—­Honest Joe stood with a perfectly composed look, and with a face that might readily have been trusted to confront a far more imposing tribunal, awaiting the result of his testimony on the seemingly wavering mind of the consignee.

“Ah! you have lodged the gentleman for a time and you can testify that he is a punctual paymaster and a civil inmate.  But I want documents fit to be filed with the correspondence of the owners at home”.

“I know not what sort of testimony you think fit for such good company,” returned the unmoved publican holding up his hand with an air of admirable innocence; “but, if the sworn declaration of a housekeeper is of the sort you need, you are a magistrate and may begin to say over the words at once.”