ched the boats, "was any one of
you on the rocks over there just now?"

He had forgotten to number his companions when he reached the shore.
Perhaps one was missing, and had wandered towards the point to watch him
fishing.

"No, signore. Why do you ask?"

Again Delarey hesitated. Then he said:

"I heard some one call out to me there."

He began to rub his wet body with a towel.

"Call! What did they call?"

"Nothing; no words. Some one cried out."

"At this hour! Who should be there, signore?"

The action of the rough towel upon his body brought a glow of warmth to
Delarey, and the sense of mystery began to depart from his mind.

"Perhaps it was a fisherman," he said.

"They do not fish from there, signore. It must have been me you heard.
When you went under the water I cried out. Drink some wine, signorino."

He held a glass full of wine to Delarey's lips. Delarey drank.

"But you've got a man's voice, Gaspare!" he said, putting down the glass
and beginning to get into his clothes.

"Per Dio! Would you have me squeak like a woman, signore?"

Delarey laughed and said no more. But he knew it was not Gaspare's voice
he had heard.

The net was drawn up now for the last time, and as soon as Delarey had
dressed they set out to walk to the caves on the farther side of the
rocks, where they meant to sleep till Carmela was about and ready to make
the frittura. To reach them they had to clamber up from the beach to the
Messina road, mount a hill, and descend to the Caffe Berardi, a small,
isolated shanty which stood close to the sea, and was used in summer-time
by bathers who wanted refreshment. Nito and the rest walked on in front,
and Delarey followed a few paces behind with Gaspare. When they reached
the summit of the hill a great sweep of open sea was disclosed to their
view, stretching away to the Straits of Messina, and bounded in the far
distance by the vague outlines of the Calabrian Mountains. Here the wind
met them more sharply, and below them on the pebbles by the caffe they
could see the foam of breaking waves. But to the right, and nearer to
them, the sea was still as an inland pool, guarded by the tree-covered
hump of land on which stood the house of the sirens. This hump, which
would have been an islet but for the narrow wall of sheer rock which
joined it to the main-land, ran out into the sea parallel to the road.

On the height, Delarey paused for a moment, as if to look at the wide
view, di