t if we do, the bottom is firm enough
for us to get out and float the boat over."

But they did not touch any shoal sufficiently shallow to necessitate
this. Several times Francis could feel, by the dragging pace, that she
was touching the oozy bottom; but each time she passed over without
coming to a standstill. At last Philippo said:

"We are in the deep channel now, signor. The boom is right astern of
us. The town is only a few hundred yards ahead."

"Then we shall be passing the Genoese galleys, directly," Francis said.
"Row slowly as we go, and splash sometimes with the oars. If we go
quickly and noiselessly past, they might possibly suspect something,
but if we row without an attempt at concealment, they will take us for
a fisherman's boat."

Soon the dark mass of Genoese ships, with their forests of masts, rose
before them. There were lights in the cabins, and a buzz of talking,
laughing, and singing among the crews on board.

"What luck today?" a sailor asked them as they rowed past, twenty or
thirty yards from the side of one of the ships.

"Very poor," Giuseppi replied. "I think your ships, and the boats lying
about, and the firing, have frightened the fish away from this end of
the lagoons."

It was half a mile before they passed the last of the crowd of vessels.

"Would you like me to land here, signor?" Philippo said. "There would
be no danger in my doing so. I can make my way, through the streets, to
the house of some of my relatives, and find out from them whether there
are any fresh movements among the Genoese. I will not enter any house;
for aught I know there are soldiers quartered everywhere; but I am sure
not to go many yards before I run against someone I know."

"I think it will be a very good plan, Philippo. We will lie under the
bank here, and wait your return."

It was not more than twenty minutes before the gondolier was back.

"I have spoken to three men I know, signor. They are agreed that there
are no movements among the enemy, and no one seems to have an idea that
the Venetians are about to put to sea. Of course, I was cautious not to
let drop a word on the subject, and only said we had managed to get
through the enemy's cordon to learn the latest news, and I expected to
earn a ducat or two by my night's work."

"That is excellent," Francis said. "Now, we will row out to the sea
mouths of the channels, to assure ourselves that no ships are lying on
guard there, for some are go