The two boys who sat in the fishing boat alongside the martingane on that dark night had no idea that all sea-going vessels were not called ships; but there was something mysteriously attractive to them in the black hull, the high tapering yard, and the shadowy rigging.  They were certainly not imaginative boys, but they could not help wondering where the great dark thing had been and whither she might be going.  They did not know what going to sea meant, nor what real deep-sea vessels were like, and they even fancied that this one might have been to America.  But they understood well enough that they were to make no noise, and they kept their reflections to themselves, silently holding on to the end of the rope as they sat in their places.

They did not wait very long.  In a few minutes Antonino and the other man came to the side, carrying an odd-looking black bundle, sewn up in what Ruggiero felt was oiled canvas as he steadied it down into the stern of the little boat, and neatly hitched round from end to end with spun-yarn, so as to be about the shape of an enormous sausage.  The two men lowered it without much caution; it was heavy but rather limp.  Then came another exactly like the first, which they also lowered into the boat, and a moment later Don Antonino came over the side as quickly and noiselessly as he had gone up, and shoved off quietly into the starlight.

Half an hour later he ran alongside of a narrow ledge of rock, apparently quite inaccessible from the land above, but running up along the cliff in such a way that, in case of danger from the sea, a man could get well out of reach of the breakers.  He went ashore, taking the end of his own coil of rope with him.  He made it fast in the dark shadow, and he must have known the place very well, for there was but one small hole running under a stone wedged in a cleft of the rock, through which he could pass the line.  He got back into the boat.

“Get ashore, boys,” he said, “and wait here.  If you see a revenue boat, with coast guards in it, coming towards you as though the men wanted to speak to you, cast off the end of the rope and let it run into the sea.  Then run up the ledge there, and climb the rock, the faster the better.  There is a way up.  But keep out of sight when it is day, by lying flat in the hollow there.  If anybody else comes in a boat, and says nothing, but just takes the rope, do not hinder him.  Let him take it, and he will take you too, and give you a couple of biscuits.”

Don Antonino pushed off a little, letting the rope run out.  Then he made his end of it fast to the two ends of the black bundles, and backing out as far as he could, he let them both down gently into the water, and pulled away, leaving the Children of the King alone on the ledge.  He had managed to bring the rope down through the cleft, so that it could not easily be seen from the sea.  The boys waited some time before either of them spoke, although the old fellow was deaf.