CHAPTER VI WHAT BEFELL AT THE QUEEN 'S FERRY As soon as we came to the inn , Ransome led us up the stair to a small room , with a bed in it , and heated like an oven by a great fire of coal . At a table hard by the chimney , a tall , dark , sober-looking man sat writing . In spite of the heat of the room , he wore a thick sea-jacket , buttoned to the neck , and a tall hairy cap drawn down over his ears ; yet I never saw any man , not even a judge upon the bench , look cooler , or more studious and self-possessed , than this ship-captain . He got to his feet at once , and coming forward , offered his large hand to Ebenezer . `` I am proud to see you , Mr. Balfour , '' said he , in a fine deep voice , `` and glad that ye are here in time . The wind 's fair , and the tide upon the turn ; we 'll see the old coal-bucket burning on the Isle of May before to-night . '' `` Captain Hoseason , '' returned my uncle , `` you keep your room unco hot . '' `` It 's a habit I have , Mr. Balfour , '' said the skipper . `` I 'm a cold-rife man by my nature ; I have a cold blood , sir . There 's neither fur , nor flannel -- no , sir , nor hot rum , will warm up what they call the temperature . Sir , it 's the same with most men that have been carbonadoed , as they call it , in the tropic seas . '' `` Well , well , captain , '' replied my uncle , `` we must all be the way we 're made . '' But it chanced that this fancy of the captain 's had a great share in my misfortunes . For though I had promised myself not to let my kinsman out of sight , I was both so impatient for a nearer look of the sea , and so sickened by the closeness of the room , that when he told me to `` run down-stairs and play myself awhile , '' I was fool enough to take him at his word . Away I went , therefore , leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle and a great mass of papers ; and crossing the road in front of the inn , walked down upon the beach . With the wind in that quarter , only little wavelets , not much bigger than I had seen upon a lake , beat upon the shore . But the weeds were new to me -- some green , some brown and long , and some with little bladders that crackled between my fingers . Even so far up the firth , the smell of the sea-water was exceedingly salt and stirring ; the Covenant , besides , was beginning to shake out her sails , which hung upon the yards in clusters ; and the spirit of all that I beheld put me in thoughts of far voyages and foreign places . I looked , too , at the seamen with the skiff -- big brown fellows , some in shirts , some with jackets , some with coloured handkerchiefs about their throats , one with a brace of pistols stuck into his pockets , two or three with knotty bludgeons , and all with their case-knives . I passed the time of day with one that looked less desperate than his fellows , and asked him of the sailing of the brig. He said they would get under way as soon as the ebb set , and expressed his gladness to be out of a port where there were no taverns and fiddlers ; but all with such horrifying oaths , that I made haste to get away from him .
This threw me back on XXXXX , who seemed the least wicked of that gang , and who soon came out of the inn and ran to me , crying for a bowl of punch .
Balfour Ebenezer Ransome VI day fiddlers fire sea-water ship-captain wavelets