"Well now, let me see," said Mr. Mildmay, who had heard the story a score of times. "Did you ever hear it, Polwhele?"
"In Jamaica, wasn't it, Joe?" said the riding-officer, who having been on the coast ten times as long as Mr. Mildmay, had probably heard the story ten times as often.
"No, 'twas on Plymouth Hoe, sir. I was cruisin' theer one day when who should I see beatin' up but Lord Admiral Rodney, convoyin' two handsome females—ah! as clippin' craft as ever I seed. While I was standin' by, all of a sudden he put up his helm and steered right across my bows. 'Get out of the way, you cross-eyed son of a sea-cook!' says he, and the two females laughed like a brook in June. Ah! 'tidn' every common mariner as could say he'd been spoke to special by sech a fine man-o'-war as Lord Admiral Rodney."
"You're right, Joe," said Mr. Mildmay. "No admiral at all, let alone a great man like Rodney, ever spoke to me, worse luck. Well then, you'll let matters rest, old fellow, and you won't be sorry for it."
"But I may crack un over the skull if he gets in my way, I s'pose?"
"Well, yes, but not too hard; dead men tell no tales, you know."
"I'll mind o' that, and not gie un a whole broadside. Dear life! What a mix-up of a world it is, to be sure?"
CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH
The Last Deal
For a week or two there was a lull in events. One day the Squire received a letter from John Trevanion's attorney, demanding that he should give up the property of his client which had been feloniously abstracted from the abandoned mine. The Squire swore, a rare occurrence with him, and sent Dick with the letter to his own lawyer in Truro. Dick returned with a piece of news that staggered his father. The attorney had died suddenly a few days before. He was the holder of the mortgage on the Towers and the Beal; it was almost certain that his executors would demand payment of the advance. For the first time the Squire was faced with the absolute loss of his ancestral home. He waited some days in torturing suspense: then the dread letter came. The amount of a hundred pounds must be paid within a month.