He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that he gave it quite a wring. “If you was sent by Long John,” he said, “I’m as good as pork and I know it. But where was you, do you suppose?”

I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way of answer told him the whole story of our voyage and the predicament in which we found ourselves. He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I had done he patted me on the head.

“You’re a good lad, Jim,” he said, “and you’re all in a clove hitch, ain’t you? Well, you just put your trust in Ben Gunn⁠—Ben Gunn’s the man to do it. Would you think it likely, now, that your squire would prove a liberal-minded one in case of help⁠—him being in a clove hitch, as you remark?”

I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.