eak to me, unless he is in
love with gaol and gallows."

"Well, your worship," said the steward, "I expect that is what he does
want, for he swears he will not leave the gate till he has seen you."

"Seen me? Halidame! he shall see me, here and at Launceston too, if he
likes. Bring him in."

"Fegs, Sir Richard, we are half afeard. With your good leave--"

"Hillo, Tony," cried Amyas, "who was ever afeard yet with Sir Richard's
good leave?"

"What, has the fellow a tail or horns?"

"Massy no: but I be afeard of treason for your honor; for the fellow is
pinked all over in heathen patterns, and as brown as a filbert; and a
tall roog, a very strong roog, sir, and a foreigner too, and a mighty
staff with him. I expect him to be a manner of Jesuit, or wild Irish,
sir; and indeed the grooms have no stomach to handle him, nor the dogs
neither, or he had been under the pump before now, for they that saw him
coming up the hill swear that he had fire coming out of his mouth."

"Fire out of his mouth?" said Sir Richard. "The men are drunk."

"Pinked all over? He must be a sailor," said Amyas; "let me out and see
the fellow, and if he needs putting forth--"

"Why, I dare say he is not so big but what he will go into thy pocket.
So go, lad, while I finish my writing."

Amyas went out, and at the back door, leaning on his staff, stood a
tall, raw-boned, ragged man, "pinked all over," as the steward had said.

"Hillo, lad!" quoth Amyas. "Before we come to talk, thou wilt please to
lay down that Plymouth cloak of thine." And he pointed to the cudgel,
which among West-country mariners usually bore that name.

"I'll warrant," said the old steward, "that where he found his cloak he
found purse not far off."

"But not hose or doublet; so the magical virtue of his staff has
not helped him much. But put down thy staff, man, and speak like a
Christian, if thou be one."

"I am a Christian, though I look like a heathen; and no rogue, though
a masterless man, alas! But I want nothing, deserving nothing, and only
ask to speak with Sir Richard, before I go on my way."

There was something stately and yet humble about the man's tone and
manner which attracted Amyas, and he asked more gently where he was
going and whence he came.

"From Padstow Port, sir, to Clovelly town, to see my old mother, if
indeed she be yet alive, which God knoweth."

"Clovally man! why didn't thee say thee was Clovally man?" asked all the
grooms at once,