midnight
I dressed myself as a common seaman , darkened my face , and dirtied myself a little , especially on the hands , and Bob Cross and I then went at night into one of the low public houses , with which the town is filled ; there we pretended to be much alarmed lest we should be pressed , and asked for a back-room to smoke and drink in . We called in the landlord , telling him we were second mates of vessels , and not secure from the impress ; that we never were at Plymouth before , our ships having put in damaged , and that the crew were discharged ; and asked if there was no safe place where we could be stowed until we could find another vessel ready to start . He replied , that there was a house at Stonehouse where we could be quite safe ; but that , of course , we must pay the crimps well for our board and lodging and that they would find us a ship when we wished to go ; and further , that we must give him something handsome for taking us there . To this we agreed , and at midnight we set off in company with our landlord , each of us carrying our bundles , and in less than an hour arrived at a sort of farm-house detached from the road . After a short parley we obtained entrance , and were taken into a small room where the crimp inquired of us what money we had , and then told us what his charges were . The reason of his doing this was , because if we had no money , or very little , he would have disposed of us very soon by sending us on board of some ship , and obtaining an advance of our wages from the captain as his indemnification ; but if we had plenty of money , he would then keep us as long as he could that he might make his profit of us ; his charges were monstrous , as may be supposed , and we had replied that we had very little money . We contrived to look as careless and indifferent as we could , agreed to everything , paid the landlord of the pothouse a guinea each for taking us to the house , and were then ushered into a large room , where we found about twenty seamen sitting at a long table , drinking , and playing cards and dominoes .