We were alone, and he had been staring at me a long time, when all at once, up he got, as pale as death, and came close up to me, to my great terror.

But I had no cause to be afraid of him.
"You were not here before ?" he asked.
"No, sir," said I." "There was another boy ?" he asked again; and when I had answered him, "Ah!" says he, "I thought that," and went and sat down, without another word, except to call for brandy.
You may think it strange, but for all the horror I had, I was still sorry for him.

He was a married man, with a wife in Leith; but whether or no he had a family, I have now forgotten; I hope not.
Altogether it was no very hard life for the time it lasted, which (as you are to hear) was not long.

I was as well fed as the best of them; even their pickles, which were the great dainty, I was allowed my share of; and had I liked I might have been drunk from morning to night, like Mr.Shuan.I had company, too, and good company of its sort.

Mr.Riach, who had been to the college, spoke to me like a friend when he was not sulking, and told me many curious things, and some that were informing; and even the captain, though he kept me at the stick's end the most part of the time, would sometimes unbuckle a bit, and tell me of the fine countries he had visited.
The shadow of poor Ransome, to be sure, lay on all four of us, and on me and Mr.Shuan in particular, most heavily.