‘Chicken-hearted? no. I have not lived so long upon the account to start at last, neither for devil nor Dutchman.’
‘Well, then, take another schnaps; the cold’s at your heart still. And now tell me, are any of your old crew with you?’
‘Nein; all dead, shot, hanged, drowned, and damned. Brown was the last. All dead but Gipsy Gab, and he would go off the country for a spill of money; or he’ll be quiet for his own sake; or old Meg, his aunt, will keep him quiet for hers.’
‘Which Meg?’
‘Meg Merrilies, the old devil’s limb of a gipsy witch.’
‘Is she still alive?’
‘Yaw.’
‘And in this country?’
‘And in this country. She was at the Kaim of Derncleugh, at Vanbeest Brown’s last wake, as they call it, the other night, with two of my people, and some of her own blasted gipsies.’
‘That’s another breaker ahead, Captain! Will she not squeak, think ye?’