"Hi! can 'ee tell me if this be the right road for Polkerran?" he asked.
"Iss, fay, right for'ard," answered Sam.
"And where be the Five Pilchards?"
"Down-along through village. Better mind the hill, if you be a furriner, 'cos 'tis 'nation steep and twisty."
"So be they all, od rake it."
Here another voice interposed, and a head showed itself dimly at the carriage window.
"Vill you—ah! how say it!—vill you embark on ze—ze coach, and, if you please, show ze road?"
"Drat it all, why will 'ee talk?" cried the driver. "Put yer head inside, for gospel sake. Come up beside me, friends, if you'll do a kindness, and say the word when I do come to the hill. I don't want to break hosses' knees nor my own neck."
The boys, glad enough to get a lift, mounted beside the driver, with a tingling curiosity about the passenger inside who spoke in so strange an accent. It was not far to the Towers, and when they came to it Dick asked the driver to stop, and bade Sam get down and carry the sealskin and his share of the other burdens to the house.
"You bean't a fisher?" said the driver to Dick as Sam was descending. There was a note of anxiety in his voice.