“But you won’t, Master Aleck? We are neighbours, you know.”
“Neighbours!” said Aleck, scornfully. “Pretty neighbours! There, I’m not going to alter my words. I shall make no promises at all.”
“Well, you are a young gentleman, and I’ll trust yer,” said the man; “for I s’pose I must. But I don’t know what some of our lads’ll say.”
“Then I’d better tell my uncle that if anything happens to me he’d better get the Revenue cutter’s men to hunt out the Eilygugg smugglers, because they pushed me off the cliff.”
“Nay, don’t you go and do that,” said the man, anxiously. “I didn’t mean it.”
“Am I to believe that, Eben?” said the boy, sharply.
The man showed his teeth in a laugh, and put his hands round his neck in a peculiar way.
“Look here, Master Aleck,” he said; “man who goes to sea has to take his chance o’ being drownded.”
“Of course.”
“And one who tries to dodge the Revenue sailors has to take his chance of getting a cut from a bit o’ steel or a bullet in him.”