human
Can't you hear me there? I says, how are you getting on?
gpt
Bob Hampton!
human
Pst! Steady, my lad. Bob Hampton it is. But don't shout, or some 'un 'll hear you, and 'll come along the deck overhead and cut me adrift.
gpt
But what are you doing there?
human
Hanging on to a bit o' line made fast to a belaying-pin.
gpt
But why? What do you want, sir?
human
Will yer keep quiet, my lad? whispered the man, excitedly.
gpt
I don't want to hear old Jarette sawing through this rope. What do I want? Come, I like that, arter risking all this here to get a word with you.
human
Go back to your friends, you scoundrel, whispered Mr Frewen;
gpt
Wheer's my lantern, then? Man can't spy a night like this, when it's as black as inside a water-cask in a ship's hold.
human
Mr Frewen is right, I said.
gpt
Go back to your friends.
human
Arn't got none forrard, leastwise only two; I've come to say `how de do.'
gpt
Don't trust him, Mr Frewen, he's a traitor,
human
Come, I like that, Mr Dale, sir. But I say, how could you be so easily took in? Theer was nothing else for a man to do but to go with the bad beggars, and when I seemed to jyne 'em, why of course Neb Dumlow and old Barney joined at once.
gpt
Bob! I ejaculated, as a feeling of delight sent a flush of blood to my cheeks, and I felt hot and excited once more,
human
But I just do, sir. 'Tarn't likely I should run all this risk if I didn't mean it.
gpt
You hear, Mr Frewen,
human
Yes, but--
gpt
Look here, said Bob Hampton, angrily,
human
Then you are true to us all the same, Bob?
gpt
True as gorspel, sir; and ready along with Neb Dumlow and Barney Blane to pitch old Frenchy overboard, or drown him in a water-cask, if you say the word, or Mr Frewen either, though I'd rayther take it from you, my lad, as you're one of the officers of the Burgh Castle and it'd come better like than from our doctor, and no disrespectment either.
human
How are we to know that we are to trust you, Hampton?
gpt
Tell you dreckly, sir, soon as I can get foot-hold. I'm pretty strong in the arms, but you can't hang by them as long as you can stand on your legs, 'less you're born a monkey, which I warn't. You see there's no board nor nothing to get a foot on, and I knows without trying that I couldn't get through that window.
human
How can we help him, Dale? whispered Mr Frewen.
gpt
I suppose we must trust him?
human
Trust him? Yes, of course. Stop a moment. Yes, I know. Then thrusting my arms out--
gpt
Hold hard a minute, Bob, I whispered.
human
Let me get hold of the rope and haul up the end.
gpt
What for, lad?
human
For us to draw in here and make fast, then you can stand in the bight like a stirrup.
gpt
Well, you are a wunner, Mr Dale, sir, he replied.
human
Haul away, there's plenty down below; I should never have thought of that.