"So she be, to be sure. Dear life! And I never heerd o’t. Here’s a shillin’ for your news, to buy ’ee a fairin’." "Thank ’ee, Maister Doubledick, but I shan’t need un for a fairin’. I’m to have a fine gown o’ silk, only think o’t!" "A present from Maister John, I s’pose?" "No; ’tis to be from Sam Pollex, that young boy as lives up at Towers. Didn’t ’ee know what a treasure he found?" "What was it, my dear?" "Why, he and young Squire were rummagin’ in some cave yonder—I don’t know ’zackly wheer—and they come upon boxes full o’ silks and satins, all the colours o’ the rainbow. Young Sam be goin’ to gie me enough for a gown—a kind young feller, that he is." "Well, then, if ye don’t mind, my dear, I’ll take back that shillin’, seein’ as ye’re so well purvided, and gie ’ee a groat instead. Bean’t no good to waste money, be it? And now, will ’ee tell yer maister I be come for a word wi’ un?" Susan went away with a cloud upon her face. "Maister will see ’ee," she said when she returned. "Take yer groat, Maister Doubledick; some day ye may need it more nor I." Doubledick pocketed the coin with a chuckle, and followed her along the passage to her master’s room. "This is amazing, Doubledick," cried Trevanion, when the door was shut. "I never expected to see you again." "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.