bark with me.
Come sail across the sea.
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia."

Beppi's even breathing rewarded her efforts. She slipped her arm from
under his head and stole softly out of the room just as the clock
chimed eleven. She put on her dress hurriedly.

The house was very still as she crept downstairs and out into the
garden. The stars were out and it was an easy matter to find her way.
She ran until she reached the path that led to the shore, then she
moved very cautiously. She hoped to reach the guard, tell him what she
had heard, and then go home, but when she reached the beach she
realized that she was too late.

There was no guard in sight, but her ears detected the splash of oars,
and she knew that the boatman was coming. She crouched down beside the
wall and waited. She watched him pull his boat up on shore and then
walk swiftly off in the opposite direction from her.

She did not know what to do, and she was frightened--badly frightened.
The broad shining water on one side and the hill on the other seemed to
hem her in, and she felt lost. It was not like the mountains of
Cellino, where she knew every path.

She crouched down by the wall and waited. Another figure joined the
boatman, and they stood still, a little farther up the beach. Lucia
knew it was the man she had seen that afternoon, and she knew too that
in a very few seconds they would turn around and come back to the boat.

With a courage born of fear she jumped up and before she quite realized
what she was doing she was tugging at the boat.

It was not very high up on the beach for the boatman had left it so
that it would be easily shoved off. Fortunately the tide was going
out. Lucia's arms were strong and she pushed with a will. The boat
found the water and drifted silently away.

Her feet were wet, but she did not realize it. She crept back to the
beach and flattened herself against the wall. The men returned. They
too kept in the shadow of the wall. It was not until they were almost
brushing against Lucia that the boatman noticed that his boat was gone.

"The Saints preserve us!" he exclaimed. "It has been spirited away. I
knew I should be punished for doing such a black deed."

"Spirits, nonsense!" the man spoke angrily. "It is your own stupid
carelessness, you did not pull it up on shore far enough. You
rattlebrain idiot, I've a good mind to kill you for this. See, there
is your boat out there--empty--go and g