d that sometimes there was no bar at the mouth of
the Incastro, so that a vessel might just slip into the pool where the
reeds grow. You certainly know the place."

"I know it well," said Ercole.

"Yes. So I pointed out the spot to our captain, standing beside him, and
he took his glasses and looked to see whether the sea was breaking on
the bar."

"The bar has not been open since I came here," said Padre Francesco,
returning with water. "And that is ten years."

The men drank eagerly, one after the other, and there was silence. The
one who had been speaking wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and
drew a long breath of satisfaction.

"No, I daresay not," he said at last. "The captain looked all along the
shore for a better place. Then he saw a bad thing with his glasses; for
they were fine glasses, and though he was old, he had good sight. And I
stood beside him, and he told me what he saw while he was looking."

"What did he see?" asked Ercole, watching the man.

"What did he see? I tell you it was a bad sight! Health to us all, as
many as are here, he saw one man kill another and drag his body into
some bushes."

"Apoplexy!" observed Ercole, glancing at Padre Francesco. "Are there
brigands here?"

"I tell you what the captain said. 'There are two men,' said he, 'and
they are like gentlemen by their dress.' 'They shoot quail,' said I,
knowing the shore. 'They have no guns,' said he. Then he cried out,
keeping his glasses to his eyes and steadying himself by the weather
vang. 'God be blessed,' he cried--for he never said an evil word, that
captain,--'one of those gentlemen has struck the other on the back of
the head and killed him! And now he drags his body away towards the
bushes.' And he saw nothing more, but he showed me the place, where
there is a gap in the high bank. Afterwards he said he thought he had
seen a woman too, and that it must have been an affair of jealousy."

Ercole and Padre Francesco looked at each other in silence for a moment.

"Did you hear of no murder at that time?" asked the sailor, taking up
the earthen jar full of water.

"We heard nothing," said Ercole promptly.

"Nothing," echoed Padre Francesco. "The captain was dreaming. He saw
trees moving in the wind."

"Don Antonino had good eyes," answered the sailor incredulously.

"What was the name of your vessel?" asked Padre Francesco.

"The _Papa_" replied the sailor without a smile. "She was called
_Papa_."

Ercole