Part 3 (1/2)
Francis felt this was so, and that although he had an abhorrence of the Venetian method of settling quarrels, he saw that as far as the public were concerned, it was really preferable to the feudal method, of both parties calling out their retainers and going to war with each other, especially as a.s.sa.s.sinations played no inconsiderable part in the feudal struggles of the time.
On the Thursday night the gondola was in waiting at the agreed spot. Francis had thought it probable that the stranger might this time ask some questions as to where they lived and their usual place of plying for hire, and would endeavour to find out as much as he could about them, as they could not but suspect that he was engaged in some very unusual enterprise. He had therefore warned Giuseppi to be very careful in his replies. He knew that it was not necessary to say more, for Giuseppi had plenty of shrewdness, and would, he was sure, invent some plausible story without the least difficulty, possessing, as he did, plenty of the easy mendacity so general among the lower cla.s.ses of the races inhabiting countries bordering on the Mediterranean. Their fare came down to the gondola a few minutes after the clock had tolled the half hour.
”I see you are punctual,” he said, ”which is more than most of you men are.”
Francis was rowing the bow oar, and therefore stood with his back to the pa.s.senger, and was not likely to be addressed by him, as he would naturally turn to Giuseppi, who stood close behind him. As Francis had expected, as soon as they were out on the lagoon the pa.s.senger turned to his companion and began to question him.
”I cannot see your faces,” he said; ”but by your figures you are both young, are you not?”
”I am but twenty-two,” Giuseppi said, ”and my brother is a year younger.”
”And what are your names?”
”Giovanni and Beppo Morani.”
”And is this boat your own?”
”It is, signor. Our father died three years ago, leaving us his boat.”
”And where do you usually ply?”
”Anywhere, signor, just as the fancy seizes us. Sometimes one place is good, sometimes another.”
”And where do you live?”
”We don't live anywhere, signor. When night comes, and business is over, we tie up the boat to a post, wrap ourselves up, and go to sleep at the bottom. It costs nothing, and we are just as comfortable there as we should be on straw in a room.”
”Then you must be saving money.”
”Yes; we are laying money by. Some day, I suppose, we shall marry, and our wives must have homes. Besides, sometimes we are lazy and don't work. One must have some pleasure, you know.”
”Would you like to enter service?”
”No, signor. We prefer being our own masters; to take a fare or leave it as we please.”
”Your boat is a very fast one. You went at a tremendous rate when the galley was after us the other night.”
”The boat is like others,” Giuseppi said carelessly; ”but most men can row fast when the alternative is ten ducats one way or a prison the other.”
”Then there would be no place where I could always find you in the daytime if I wanted you?”
”No, signor; there would be no saying where we might be. We have sometimes regular customers, and it would not pay us to disappoint them, even if you paid us five times the ordinary fare. But we could always meet you at night anywhere, when you choose to appoint.”
”But how can I appoint,” the pa.s.senger said irritably, ”if I don't know where to find you?”
Giuseppi was silent for a stroke or two.
”If your excellency would write in figures, half past ten or eleven, or whatever time we should meet you, just at the base of the column of the palace--the corner one on the Piazzetta--we should be sure to be there sometime or other during the day, and would look for it.”
”You can read and write, then?” the pa.s.senger asked.