Other songs were sung, and toasts drunk, when all of a sudden Captain de Vere sprung up with an exclamation, and said he knew where he was off to, and, relighting his black little pipe, he strode towards the door. "Where are you going, De Vere?" said young Pringle. "What is that to you? Ask no questions--you know the rest." "I only asked because I thought I might accompany you." "Your room, in this instance, is preferable to your company, old boy! So don't any of you follow." And he left the room without even saying good bye. "What mischief can he be after now?" said Pringle. "Heaven only knows," answered the Major. CHAPTER VIII. "Ye, that the rising morn invidious mark, And hate the light--because your deeds are dark." _Pleasures of Hope._ "Ye are baith a pair o' the deevil's peats, I trow--hard token whilk deserves the hettest corner o' his ingle side."--_Heart of Mid Lothian._ We left L'Estrange waiting at the door of Stacy's cabin; he heard the bolts within being unbarred, and in another moment the door was opened by Bill himself, who beckoned L'Estrange to enter without even saying a word of recognition, and no sooner had admitted his guest than he began again to bar the door. Bill was somewhat beneath the average height, but this was fully compensated for by his immense breadth of chest, and prodigious physical strength. His hair was lank, black, and matted down on his head; beneath his shaggy eyebrows gleamed piercing grey eyes; he wore neither beard nor moustache, but his whiskers formed what is commonly called a "hangman's collar," and were jagged and dusty with snuff. In his early days Bill's features had not been ill-looking, but time, and a life of hardship and exposure, had made sad ravages. His face was bloated by constant use of intoxicating liquors, weather-beaten by a seafaring life, and bronzed by exposure to a fierce tropical sun. There was something brutal in his manners, sinister and forbidding in his appearance. His brow was disfigured by a ghastly scar, and he looked, what he was in reality, a pirate and smuggler. He was dressed in sailor's costume, a sou'-wester on his head, and a rough pilot jacket buttoned closely round his broad chest. In his mouth he carried a small black cutty pipe, and wore on one of the little fingers of his large tanned hand a diamond ring of immense value.