One of the two was Job Grinsell, landlord of the inn, a man with a red nose, loose mouth, and shifty eyes--not a pleasant fellow to look at, and regarded vaguely as a bad character. He had once been head gamekeeper to Sir Willoughby Stokes, the squire, whose service he had left suddenly and in manifest disgrace. His companion was the stranger, the negro boy’s master, the man whose odd appearance and manner of talk had already set Desmond’s curiosity abuzzing. It was clear that he must be the singer, for Job Grinsell had a voice like a saw, and Tummas Biles knew no music save the squeak of his cart-wheels. It surprised Desmond to find the stranger already on the most friendly, to all appearance indeed confidential, terms with the landlord. "Hale, did you say?" he heard Grinsell ask. "Ay, hale as you an’ me, an’ like to last another twenty year, rot him." "But the gout takes him, you said--nodosa podagra, as my friend Ovid would say?" "Ay, but I’ve knowed a man live forty year win the gout. And he dunna believe in doctor’s dosin’; he goes to Buxton to drink the weeters when he bin madded wi’ the pain, an’ comes back sound fur six month." "Restored to his dear neighbours and friends--caris propinquis----" "Hang me, but I wish you’d speak plain English an’ not pepper yer talk win outlandish jabber." "Patience, Job; why, man, you belie your name. Come, you must humour an old friend; that’s what comes of education, you see; my head is stuffed with odds and ends that annoy my friends, while you can’t read, nor write, nor cipher beyond keeping your score. Lucky Job!" Desmond turned away. The two men’s conversation was none of his business; and he suspected from the stranger’s manner that he had been drinking freely. He had stepped barely a dozen paces when he heard the voice again break into song. He halted and wheeled about; the tune was catching, and now he distinguished some of the words-- Says Billy Morris, Masulipatam, To Governor Pitt: "D’ye know who I am. D’ye know who I am, I AM, I AM? Sir William Norris, Masulipatam." Says Governor Pitt, Fort George Madras; "I know what you are----"