"Ay, there was a good deal to be said for Prince Rupert," answered Astbury, judicially--"a good deal. He were a proper man--a very proper man, and valiant. But, caramba, we had no luck! Luck don't run in his family, folks say. We overhauled a many good ships, and many a pretty bout of fighting we had; and when we went ashore, well, there wasn't any of old Noll's provost marshals after us. But for all the ships we took, we didn't seem to get no richer; so being a prudent man, I thought the time had come to shift for myself, and I slipped off one fine morning without troubling nobody. And there I found my luck! Those islands in the Caribee Sea are a very paradise, and no mistake! And all around there and down the Mosquito Coast the Indians are very good folk, and civil. And plenty to eat there--turtle and wild pigs, and pineapples and bananas, and more fruits than I can count; and drink too--wines very curious and hearty, made both of grapes and pineapples. And if we got tired of swinging in a hammock, and eating of fruit and smoking tobacco, why there was a many jolly fellows ready to whip into a little sloop we had handy, and off to--to--to spoil the papishers. There is a many papishers in those seas, sir--black idolaters all on 'em." "Spaniards?" asked Dick, idly, amused by the ne'er-do-well's yarn. "I reckon they were mostly Spaniards, or Portugees, or some such sort of outlandish cattle; but soon we got so as it wasn't only ships we made prize of. Why, I could talk all night if I was to start in telling you of all the brave sport we had! One time, I mind, we landed, there was a town, Santa Ysabel they called it, as it might be here"--arranging a tankard at the corner of the table--"with a good high road leading up to it from the sea, as it might be my tobacco pipe"--laying it down with care; "and if you'll believe me, sir, we took and run races, as it might be along my tobacco pipe, and as soon as them Spaniards was 'ware of our coming, they took and ran out by 'tother gate, and left the town empty! There was seven churches all chock full of gold and silver idols and candle-sticks, and such like: 'twas just who'd fill his pockets fastest!" "But how is it you left such a prosperous life?" interrupted Dick, who had some recollection of Astbury's powers of imagination. "Ay, indeed! There it was that luck was against me. Shipwrecked we was, me and four others, on a little sandy key, where there was nought to eat or drink, and the rest, they died, and a Bristol ship come along and took me off, and I wish I was back again!"