`` is there a prisoner here kept , '' laurence said , `` who would have been brought today : a man not thirty years of age , dark-haired - `` `` aye , sir , '' the seaman said , `` brought him in with a guard like he was the king , and to the finest bedroom but the one old boney copped for himself : there was a noise about it right enough : and that beast of his out front wailing fit to end the world .