"Come down, do, you will-o'-the-wisp! In Heaven's name what takes you
into such breakneck places?"
"The same matter that brings you here, sir," replied Robin, skipping and
crawling alternately, suiting his motions to the inequality of the
place: "the very same matter that brings you here--a woman."
"How know you that, master prate-a-pace? At all events, you have no
woman there."
"Why, master, seeing you were born under the planet Venus, your whole
trouble must be of her making; and, as to there being no woman up here,
that matters nothing, for woman's fancy mounts higher than e'er a cliff
in England; and to gain their favours we must humour their fancy. A
certain damsel that I know, had a curiosity to see a peewit's eggs; so I
thought I'd find her some, and here they are." From a pouch made of
untanned leather, which hung in front like an apron, he took two small
eggs of a greenish hue, spotted with black.
"What a fool you are," exclaimed Burrell, "to risk your neck for such
trumpery! It would be long ere you would risk it for your master."
"I have known many hazard theirs for a less cause--and, to say the
truth, there's a deal to be learned from the wild sea-birds," replied
Robin, as if he had not heard the latter portion of the sentence; "I
have a regard for the creeturs, which are like kings in the air. Many an
hour have I sat up yonder, listening to the noises of earth and the
noises of heaven, while the shrill note of the gull, the chatter of the
guillemot, the heron's bitter scream, the hoarse croaking of the
cormorant, have been all around me: and, indeed, the birds know me well
enough. There's a pair of old gulls----"
"Robin! I came not here to talk of cormorants and gulls; I want to ask
you a question, and I expect an honest answer."
Robin made the nearest approach to a bow he was ever guilty of.
"Honesty, Robin, is a most valuable quality."
"So it is, sir--and, like all valuables, ought to fetch a good price."
"You should be a disciple of Manasseh Ben Israel! Why, you have hardly
left my service two days, and then I had a right to your honesty. You
are as bad as a Jew."
"If so, I have surely a right to extort money from a Christian."
"A truce to your jests, you ill-favoured loon: I want no man's labour
for nothing--there are some broad pieces to stop your mouth; and now,
when saw you Hugh Dalton?"