At last Ruggiero’s tall figure appeared at the corner of the building occupied by the coastguard station, and Bastianello immediately whistled to him, giving a signal which had served the brothers since they were children.  Ruggiero started, turned his head and at once jumped into the first boat he could lay hands on and pulled out alongside of his brother.

“What is it?” he asked, letting his oars swing astern and laying hold on the gunwale of the sail boat.

“About Teresina,” answered Bastianello, taking his pipe from his mouth and leaning towards his brother.  “The son of the Son of the Fool was swimming about here just now, and he hauled himself half aboard of me and made faces.  So I took the boat-hook to hit his fingers.  And just then he said to me, ’You have a beautiful pair of masters you and your brother.’  ‘Why?’ I asked, and I held the boat-hook ready.  But I would not have hurt the boy, because he is one of ours.  So he told me that he had just seen the Count up there in the garden of the hotel, trying to kiss Teresina and offering her the gold, and I gave him half a cigar to tell me the rest, because he would not, and made faces.”

“May he die murdered!” exclaimed Ruggiero in a low voice, his face as white as canvas.

“Wait a little, she is a good girl,” answered Bastianello.  “Teresina threw the gold upon the ground and told the Count that he was an infamous one and a liar.  And then she went away.  And I think the boy was speaking the truth, because if it were a lie he would have spoken in another way.  For it was as easy to say that the Count kissed her as to say that she would not let him, and he would have had the tobacco all the same.”

“May he die of a stroke!” muttered Ruggiero.

“But if I were in your place,” said his brother calmly, “I would not do anything to your padrone, because the girl is a good girl and gave him the good answer, and as for him—­” Bastianello shrugged his shoulders.

“May the sharks get his body and the devil get his soul!”

“That will be as it shall be,” answered Bastianello.  “And it is sure that if God wills, the grampuses will eat him.  But we do not know the end.  What I would say is this, that it is time you should speak to the girl, because I see how white you get when we talk of her, and you are consuming yourself and will have an illness, and though I could work for both you and me, four arms are better than two, in summer as in winter.  Therefore I say, go and speak to her, for she will have you and she will be better with you than near that apoplexy of a San Miniato.”

Ruggiero did not answer at once, but pulled out his pipe and filled it and began to smoke.

“Why should I speak?” he asked at last.  There was a struggle in his mind, for he did not wish to tell Bastianello outright that he did not really care for Teresina.  If he betrayed this fact it would be hard hereafter to account for his own state, which was too apparent to be concealed, especially from his brother, and he had no idea that the latter loved the girl.