Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

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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 burn-
ing 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.