The Cripple, at the time when I have chosen to present him to my reader, was seated, as I have said, immediately beneath the window. A pair of spectacles assisted his vision as he perused a pacquet of papers, several of which lay scattered around him. The dim light for a while perplexed his labour, and he had directed the door to be thrown wide open that he might take advantage of the last moment before the approaching twilight should arrest his occupation. Whilst thus employed, the deadened sound of a shot boomed across the bay. "Ha!" he exclaimed as he threw aside the paper in his hand and directed his eyes towards the water; "there is a signal--by my body, a signal gun!--an ill bird is flying homeward. Did you not hear that shot, woman?" "I had my dream of the brigantine two nights ago," replied the servitress; "and of the greedy kite that calls himself her master;--the shot must be his." "Whose can it be else?" demanded the Cripple sharply, as he swung himself forward to the doorsill and shook his locks from his brow in the act of straining his sight across the dim surface of the bay. "Ay, ay; there it is. Hark--another shot!--that is the true pass word between us:--Dickon, sure enough!--The brigantine is in the offing. Cocklescraft is coming in with the speed of a gull. He comes full freighted--full freighted, as is his wont, with the world's plunder. What dole hath he done this flight?--what more wealthy knave than himself hath he robbed? Mischief, mischief, mischief--good store of it, I'll be sworn:--and a keener knave than himself he hath not found in his wide venture. He will be coming ashore to visit the Cripple, ha!--he shall be welcome--as he ever hath been. We are comrades,--we are cronies, and merry in our divisions--the Skipper and the Cripple!--there is concord in it--the Skipper and the Cripple--merry men both!" These uprisings of the inner thoughts of the man were uttered in various tones--one moment scarce audible, the next with an emphatic enunciation, as if addressed to his companion in the hut,--and sometimes with the semblance of a laugh, or rather chuckle, which was wormwood in its accent, and brought the rheum from his eye down his cheek. The beldam, accustomed to this habit of self-communion in the Cripple, apparently heeded not these mutterings, until he, at length, accosted her with a command.--"Mistress Kate, double the contents of your pot;--the skipper and some of his men will be here presently, as keen and trenchant as their own cutlasses. They will be hungry, woman,--as these saltwater monsters always are for earthy provender." "Such sharp-set cattle should bring their provender with them," replied the domestic, as she went about increasing her store of provision in compliance with her master's directions.