As I stood lookin' at you, wonderin' what to do, though, I had twelve
shillin's in my pocket from the watch I'd pawned, there came four men,
and I knew from their looks they were recruitin' officers of the navy.
I saw what was in their eyes. They knew--as why shouldn't they, when
they saw a gentleman like you in peasant clothes?--that luck had been
agin' us.

"What the end would have been I don't know. It was you that solved the
problem, not them. You looked at the first man of them hard. Then you
got to your feet.

"'Michael,' says you quietly, 'I'm goin' to sea. England's at war, and
there's work to do. So let's make for a king's ship, and have done with
misery and poverty.'

"Then you waved a hand to the man in command of the recruitin' gang, and
presently stepped up to him and his friends.

"'Sir,' I said to you, 'I'm not going to be pressed into the navy.'

"'There's no pressin', Michael,' you answered. 'We'll be quota men.
We'll do it for cash--for forty pounds each, and no other. You let them
have you as you are. But if you don't want to come,' you added, 'it's
all the same to me.'

"Faith, I knew that was only talk. I knew you wanted me. Also I knew
the king's navy needed me, for men are hard to get. So, when they'd paid
us the cash--forty pounds apiece--I stepped in behind you, and here we
are--here we are! Forty pounds apiece--equal to three years' wages of
an ordinary recruit of the army. It ain't bad, but we're here for three