al. Gino led, and with many favorable
symptoms of his being able to maintain his advantage. He was encouraged
by the shouts of the multitude, who now forgot his Calabrian origin in
his success, while many of the serving-men of his master cheered him on
by name. All would not do. The masked waterman, for the first time,
threw the grandeur of his skill and force into the oar. The ashen
instrument bent to the power of an arm whose strength appeared to
increase at will, and the movements of his body became rapid as the
leaps of the greyhound. The pliant gondola obeyed, and amid a shout
which passed from the Piazzetta to the Rialto, it glided ahead.

If success gives force and increases the physical and moral energies,
there is a fearful and certain reaction in defeat. The follower of Don
Camillo was no exception to the general law, and when the masked
competitor passed him the boat of Antonio followed as if it were
impelled by the same strokes. The distance between the two leading
gondolas even now seemed to lessen, and there was a moment of breathless
interest when all there expected to see the fisherman, in despite of his
years and boat, shooting past his rival.

But expectation was deceived. He of the mask, notwithstanding his
previous efforts, seemed to sport with the toil, so ready was the sweep
of his oar, so sure its stroke, and so vigorous the arm by which it was
impelled. Nor was Antonio an antagonist to despise. If there was less of
the grace of a practised gondolier of the canals in his attitudes than
in those of his companion, there was no relaxation in the force of his
sinews. They sustained him to the last with that enduring power which
had been begotten by threescore years of unremitting labor, and while
his still athletic form was exerted to the utmost there appeared no
failing of its energies.

A few moments sent the leading gondolas several lengths ahead of their
nearest followers. The dark beak of the fisherman's boat hung upon the
quarter of the more showy bark of his antagonist, but it could do no
more. The port was open before them, and they glanced by church, palace,
barge, mystick, and felucca, without the slightest inequality in their
relative speed. The masked waterman glanced a look behind as if to
calculate his advantage, and then bending again to his pliant oar he
spoke, loud enough to be heard only by him who pressed so hard upon his
track.

"Thou hast deceived me, fisherman!" he said--"the