I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance ; I know of my own knowledge that he has a banker 's account , which has never been overdrawn . He leaves his wife to manage the inn ; and as she is a woman of colour , a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be excused for guessing that it is the wife , quite as much as the health , that sends him back to roving . J. T. P.P.S. -- Hawkins may stay one night with his mother . J. T . You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me . I was half beside myself with glee ; and if ever I despised a man , it was old Tom Redruth , who could do nothing but grumble and lament . Any of the under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him ; but such was not the squire 's pleasure , and the squire 's pleasure was like law among them all . Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even to grumble . The next morning he and I set out on foot for the Admiral Benbow , and there I found my mother in good health and spirits . The captain , who had so long been a cause of so much discomfort , was gone where the wicked cease from troubling . The squire had had everything repaired , and the public rooms and the sign repainted , and had added some furniture -- above all a beautiful armchair for mother in the bar . He had found her a boy as an apprentice also so that she should not want help while I was gone . It was on seeing that boy that I understood , for the first time , my situation . I had thought up to that moment of the adventures before me , not at all of the home that I was leaving ; and now , at sight of this clumsy stranger , who was to stay here in my place beside my mother , I had my first attack of tears . I am afraid I led that boy a dog 's life , for as he was new to the work , I had a hundred opportunities of setting him right and putting him down , and I was not slow to profit by them . The night passed , and the next day , after dinner , Redruth and I were afoot again and on the road . I said good-bye to Mother and the cove where I had lived since I was born , and the dear old Admiral Benbow -- since he was repainted , no longer quite so dear . One of my last thoughts was of the captain , who had so often strode along the beach with his cocked hat , his sabre-cut cheek , and his old brass telescope . Next moment we had turned the corner and my home was out of sight . The mail picked us up about dusk at the Royal George on the heath .
I was wedged in between Redruth and a stout old gentleman , and in spite of the swift motion and the cold XXXXX air , I must have dozed a great deal from the very first , and then slept like a log up hill and down dale through stage after stage , for when I was awakened at last it was by a punch in the ribs , and I opened my eyes to find that we were standing still before a large building in a city street and that the day had already broken a long time .
Benbow George Hawkins P.P.S. Silver attack heath night right under-gamekeepers