"Thank you for the compliment, Mr Bowlegs--I beg your pardon-- Bowsprit," said the captain. "You seem to be somewhat of a philosopher; you carry out a plan with so much coolness, so much self-possession, beings always on your guard neither to act nor to speak hastily or unadvisedly." There was evidently sarcasm, if not irony, in the captain's remarks. The sailor bowed merely; he seemed to be, to use a common expression, "struck dumb." Young Coe laughed heartily. Yet he must doubtless have felt somewhat abashed at the conviction that Marston's course of treating the affair as a farce was decidedly more successful than his own, of viewing it as a melodrama. There was silence for a minute or two, during which all the pistols which had been drawn were put out of sight. At length the stillness was broken by a question from John. "How did you manage to get your card or note into my room?" he asked of the sailor. "Allow me to keep that secret to myself," answered Billy Bowsprit, with a smile, holding out in his hand at the same time, however, several skeleton keys. "But you are not to suppose, Mr Coe, that these keys show that I have any bad habits; I have never used them except in such innocent ventures as the present." John took the skeleton keys in his hand; he had never seen such instruments before. "I don't think," he remarked, returning the keys, "that any one of those could possibly unlock my outer door." "One must understand the use of them," replied Billy Bowsprit. "I have others, however." "How did you so readily make your way to this point!" asked Captain Marston of Billy Bowsprit. "Why, sir," was the reply, "I have been over this road before, many years ago now. On that occasion, I was for a short time at the houses of both your father and Mr Coe. I came here because this was the place where this boat here was to meet you two gentlemen and myself." "Who is this friend of ours who wants to see us, Mr Bowsprit--I mean Mr Brown?" asked John. "I beg your pardon, sir," was the answer. "My captain particularly ordered me not to tell you; he wanted, he said, to give you a pleasant surprise." "What do you say, John?" asked Captain Marston. "Shall we accept the invitation of this unknown friend?" "If we knew what to do with our horses," said John, "and I could get a note home to tell them what has become of me, I should say `yes' at once." "If that is all that is in the way, gentlemen," said Mr Brown, _alias_ Bowsprit, "get your notes ready at once. Here, Tom," he continued, addressing the youth who was sitting on the stern seat of the row-boat, "do you knew the way to Millmont and to Blue Oldfields?" "If I don't, I can inquire for it, sir," answered the boy.