off by the Long Room.

N.B.--No gentlemen can possibly be admitted in boots, or
otherwise improperly dressed.


Well, in a spirit of mutiny--in which I am, in a sense, an expert--
I went in boots and otherwise "improperly dressed," for I wore my
hair in a queue, like a peasant. What is more, I danced with a
negress in the great quadrille, and thereby offended the governor
and his lady aunt, who presides at his palace. It matters naught to
me. On my own estate it was popular enough, and that meant more to
me than this goodwill of Lord Mallow.

He does not spare me in his recitals to his friends, who carry his
speech abroad. His rancour against me is the greater, I know,
because of the wealth I got in the treasure-ship, to prevent which
he tried to prohibit my leaving the island, through the withholding
of a leave-ticket to me. His argument to the local authorities was
that I had no rights, that I am a murderer and a mutineer, and
confined to the island, though not on parole. He almost succeeded;
but the man to whom I went, the big rich man intervened,
successfully--how I know not--and I was let go with my permit-
ticket.

What big things hang on small issues! If my Lord Mallow had
prevented me leaving the island, I shouldn't now own a great
plantation and three hundred negroes. I shouldn't be able to pay
my creditors in good gold Portuguese half-johannes and Spanish
doubloons, and be free of Spanish silver, and give no heed to the