‘Matter!’ said the sailor, ’piracy is the matter.  I was making for this ere port, charged with despatches from my commanding officer, when this ere shark ranges alongside and pops his barking iron into my face, and wants me to break cargo and hand over to him, but I brought my harpoon handle to bear on his figure head and he capsized, and his barker got foul of his rigging, then I roused him up and brought him along to this port.’

‘Highway robbery and attempt at murder,’ said the agent.  ’Simpkins, you are constable, take this man in charge, while I make out his committal.  Stay!’ he added, ’the cage is very insecure, and this is no trifling case.  You had better take him up to the castle, my lord will examine him in the morning, and there is a strong room there; meantime, Mrs. Ally will perhaps see to his wound, it looks an ugly one.’

The kind hearted landlady readily undertook this latter office, even for so repulsive a being; his head had indeed received a terrific blow, a fur cap had somewhat deadened the force or he must have been killed on the spot; she bound his head up, and in charge of the constable and two stout laborers he was marched up to the castle.  The agent after warning the mariner to attend in the morning at his examination, going with them, well pleased, not only to have found the man he sought, but also to have him in such a situation that he could only choose between doing his bidding or the gallows.  The boy, had never stirred from his sleep during this scene.  The company at the ale house also broke up, and each wended his way home, where, no doubt, each in his own way, regaled his family with the marvels of the evening, and the seaman alone remained, eating his supper as coolly as though nothing had happened, a combat of life and death seeming to him a thing too common to excite any emotion in his breast.  Had it been daylight it is not likely he would have been attacked by one man; few that gazed upon his square muscular form, his brawny chest and strong hard hands, would have liked to cope with him in personal conflict, though his iron grey beard told that more than fifty years of storm had rolled over his head.  His face had been handsome, scarred with storm and conflict, it still bore the impress of manly beauty, and there was a look of settled determination, upon it, that told was indeed,

‘In close fight a warrior grim,’

and traces of fierce passion also showed him to be one whom no one would like for an enemy.  His dress was finer than an ordinary seaman’s, and though perfectly nautical, was free from any stain of tar or pitch, generally considered absolutely necessary in a sailor’s attire.  The boy gazed intently on him as he took his meal, closing his eyes however whenever the sailor looked at him, and preserving the appearance of slumber.

Mrs. Ally waited with becoming patience while her guest ate his fill and then approaching him with a brimming tumbler of punch said, ’Drink to the memory of old times, Walter.’