"Indeed! Is the shore so unsafe as that?"
"Oh, yes. You may expect a very busy winter here when the homeward-bound Americans are coming northward."
"D----n the fellow! does he take me for a wrecker?" said Darcy to himself, not knowing whether to laugh or be angry.
"Such a curiosity that old 'Corvy' is, they tell me," said Dempsey, emboldened by his success; "every species of weapon and arm in the world, they say, gathered together there."
"A few swords and muskets," said the Knight, carelessly; "a stray dirk or two, and some harpoons, furnish the greater part of the armory."
"Oh, perhaps so! The story goes, however, that old Daly--brother, I believe, of our friend at Mother Fum's--could arm twenty fellows at a moment's warning, and did so on more than one occasion too."
"Buccaneering, piracy, wrecking, and so on," said Dempsey, with all the unconcern with which he would have enumerated so many pursuits of the chase.
A hearty roar of laughter broke from the Knight; and when it ceased he said, "I would be sincerely sorry to stand in your shoes, Mr. Dempsey, so near to yonder cliff, if you made that same remark in Mr. Daly's hearing."
"He 'd gain very little by me," said Mr. Dempsey; "one and eightpence, an old watch, an oyster-knife, and my spectacles, are all the property in my possession--except, when, indeed," added he, after a pause, "Bob remits the quarter's allowance."
"It is only just," said Darcy, gravely, "to a gentleman who takes such pains to inform himself on the affairs of his neighbors, that I should tell you that Mr. Bagenal Daly is not a pirate, nor am I a wrecker. I am sure you will be generous enough for this unasked information not to require of me a more lengthened account either of my friend or myself."
"You 're in the Revenue, perhaps?" interrupted the undaunted Dempsey; "I thought so when I saw you first."
"Wrong again. Ah! I see it all; the old story. Saw better days--you have just come down here to lie snug and quiet, out of the way of writs and latitats--went too fast--by Jove, that touches myself too! If I hadn't happened to have a grandfather, I 'd have been a rich man this day. Did you ever chance to hear of Dodd and Dempsey, the great wine-merchants? My father was son of Dodd and Dempsey,--that is Dempsey, you know; and it was his father-Sam Dempsey--ruined him."