The stranger turned a corner and was out of sight. Clifford, muttering, "Yes, I was the cause of their apprehension; it was I who was sought; it is but fair that I should strike a blow for their escape before I attempt my own," continued his course till he came to the door of a public-house. The sign of a seaman swung aloft, portraying the jolly tar with a fine pewter pot in his hand, considerably huger than his own circumference. An immense pug sat at the door, lolling its tongue out, as if, having stuffed itself to the tongue, it was forced to turn that useful member out of its proper place. The shutters were half closed, but the sounds of coarse merriment issued jovially forth. Clifford disconcerted the pug; and crossing the threshold, cried in aloud tone, "Janseen!" "Here!" answered a gruff voice; and Clifford, passing on, came to a small parlour adjoining the tap. There, seated by a round oak table, he found mine host,--a red, fierce, weather-beaten, but bloated-looking personage, like Dick Hatteraick in a dropsy. "How now, Captain!" cried he, in a gutteral accent, and interlarding his discourse with certain Dutch graces, which with our reader's leave we will omit, as being unable to spell them; "how now!--not gone yet!" "No! I start for the coast to-morrow; business keeps me to-day. I came to ask if Mellon may be fully depended on?" "Ay, honest to the back-bone." "And you are sure that in spite of my late delays he will not have left the village?" "Sure! What else can I be? Don't I know Jack Mellon these twenty years! He would lie like a log in a calm for ten months together, without moving a hair's-breadth, if he was under orders." "And his vessel is swift and well manned, in case of an officer's chase?" "The 'Black Molly' swift? Ask your grandmother. The 'Black Molly' would outstrip a shark." "Then good-by, Janseen; there is something to keep your pipe alight. We shall not meet within the three seas again, I think. England is as much too hot for me as Holland for you!" "You are a capital fellow!" cried mine host, shaking Clifford by the hand; "and when the lads come to know their loss, they will know they have lost the bravest and truest gill that ever took to the toby; so good-by, and be d---d to you!" With this valedictory benediction mine host released Clifford; and the robber hastened to his appointment at the Three Feathers. He found all prepared. He hastily put on his disguise; and his follower led out his horse,--a noble animal of the grand Irish breed, of remarkable strength and bone, and save only that it was somewhat sharp in the quarters (a fault which they who look for speed as well as grace will easily forgive), of most unequalled beauty in its symmetry and proportions.