speaking distance, the young man first discovered that the companions of Il Maledetto were Pippo and Conrad.  Their several rencontres had made him sufficiently acquainted with the persons of the two latter, to enable him to recognize them at a glance; and Sigismund began to think the undertaking in which he had embarked more grave than he had at first imagined.  Should there be a disposition to resist, he was but one against three.

“Buon giorno, Signor Capitano,” cried Maso, saluting with his cap, when sufficiently near to those who occupied the path; “we meet often, and in all weathers; by day and by night; on the land and on the water; in the valley and on the mountain; in the city and on this naked rock, as Providence wills.  As many chances try men’s characters, we shall come to know each other in time!”

“Thou hast well observed, Maso; though I fear thou art a man oftener met than easily understood.”

“Signore, I am amphibious, like Nettuno here, being part of the earth and part of the sea.  As the learned say, I am not yet classed.  We are repaid for an evil night by a fine day; and the descent into Italy will be pleasanter than we found the coming up.  Shall I order honest Giacomo of Aoste to prepare the supper, and to air the beds for the noble company that is to follow?  You will scarce do more than reach his holstery before the young and the beautiful will begin to think of their pillows.”

“Maso, I had thought thee among our party, when I left the Refuge this morning?”

“By San Thomaso!  Signore, but I had the same opinion touching yourself!”

“Thou wert early afoot it would seem, or thou couldst not have so much preceded me?”

“Look you, brave Signor Sigismondo, for brave I know you to be, and in the water a swimmer little less determined than gallant Nettuno there—­I am a traveller, and have much need of my time which is the larger portion of my property.  We sea-animals are sometimes rich and sometimes poor, as the wind happens to blow, and of late I have been driven to struggle with foul gales and troubled waves.  To such a man, an hour of industry in the mornings often gives a heartier meal and sweeter rest at night.  I left you all in the Refuge sleeping soundly, even to the mules,”—­Maso laughed at his own fancies, as he included the brutes in the party,—­“and I reached the convent just as the first touch of the sun tipped yonder white peak with its purple light.”

“As thou left’st us so early, thou mayest not have heard, then, that the body of a murdered man was found in the bone-house—­the building near that in which we slept—­and that it is the body of one known?”

Sigismund spoke firmly and deliberately, as if he would come by degrees to his purpose, while, at the same time, he made the other sensible of his being in earnest.  Maso started.  He made a movement so unequivocally like one which would have manifested an intention to proceed, that the young man raised his hand to repulse him.  But violence was unnecessary, for the mariner instantly became composed, and seemingly more disposed to listen.