"Hee! hee! Rusco bean't fitty for everyone, Maister John," replied the innkeeper, with a meaning look. "Ye be took bad, the maidy says."
"Oh, 'tis nothing but a fit of the dismals. How in the world did you get away?"
"It do seem a miracle to 'ee, I s'pose. Why, fust man I seed when they put me on quay was a old friend o' yourn—leastways, 'a used to be sech. He be a good friend o' mine, too, 'cos I did un a good turn a while ago. He don't speak our Christian tongue very well, poor soul, but I made un understand a mistake had been made wi' me, and he showed his true friendship by bringing me over to Megavissey. I rid over from there, and plaguey stiff I be in the jints."
"But you're in great danger; don't you know that? You made a terrible bungle of the job, my man."
"True, but them above had a finger in it. I bean't sorry as I've seed Rusco, not I. And as to danger, well, Maister John, I'll speak to 'ee as a friend. The feller I named—no, to be sure, I didn' name un, but 'tis all one—the Frenchy do seem to be mizzy-mazy in his head. He telled to I of a feller called Robinson, and seemed to have got it in his furrin noddle that 'twas the same name as Trevanion, or fust cousin to 't. He axed a tarrible lot of questions about un, wheer he lived, and what he did wi's days and nights, and seemed to I as if he'd got a rod in pickle for un. Jown me if I didn' think 'a wanted to make a call on this Robinson feller, and 'ud be tarrible wisht if 'a didn' find un to home."
Doubledick kept his eyes fixed upon Trevanion's face, but if he had expected to see any sign of uneasiness, he was disappointed.
"I take no interest in your friend or what he wants," said Trevanion. "I am more concerned about you, Doubledick. You're not safe here, you know."
"That's what I've come to see 'ee about," returned the innkeeper. "But truly I be a bufflehead; I ought to ha' named un to 'ee, in course I ought. His name is Delarousse, Maister. And to tell 'ee the truth, thinkin' he was a bit over coorious in the questions he axed, I telled un a thing or two as wer a trifle crooked, I did. I telled un how this Maister Trevanion as he thought was Robinson was often away from home, and how 'a dwelt in a big house on the cliff called the Towers. He axed I if the Towers was near the top of a hill, and I telled un 'twas a goodish bit away, Maister Robinson—Trevanion, I mean—havin' come into the property. Thinks I to myself, if he comes to Polkerran one fine day a-caprousin' and makin' a stoor, 't'ud be just as well he went up-along to Towers and showed his tantrums to the cussed folk theer. What do 'ee say to that, Maister John?"
"You are talking a deal of nonsense, Doubledick," was the answer. "Don't you understand that as soon as 'tis known you are back in the village you'll be arrested for kidnapping Penwarden?"
"Oh, ay, that's what they say, is it? But don't 'ee think, now, we could persuade the officers o' the law to leave me bide?"