Three days after the conversation, however, a horseman from Plymouth rode into the little village, and inquired for the house of Master Hearne.

Being directed thither, he rode up in haste to the gate.
"Here is a letter!" he cried, "for the son of the schoolmaster, who goes by the name of the Otter." "I am he," Ned cried.

"What is it, and who can have written to me ?" "It is a letter from His Honor, the Worshipful Mr.Francis Drake." Seizing the letter, Ned broke the seal, read a few lines, threw his cap into the air with a shout of joy, and rushed in to his father.
"Father," he said, "Captain Drake has written to acquaint me that one of the boys in his ship has been taken ill, and cannot go; and that it has pleased him to appoint me to go in his place; and that I am to be at Plymouth in three days, at the utmost, bringing with me what gear I may require for the expedition." The schoolmaster was a little taken aback at this sudden prospect of departure, but he had always been wholly indulgent to his son, and it was not in his nature to refuse to allow him to avail himself of an opportunity which appeared to be an excellent one.
The danger of these expeditions was, no doubt, very great; but the spoils were in proportion, and there was not a boy or man of the seafaring population of Devon who would not gladly have gone with the adventurous captains..