“It did not take us more than two hours, Matteo, to make a hole big enough to pass the javelins through, and I should say Parucchi’s party enlarged it sufficiently to hand in the daggers in another hour; so you see, it would have been useless to have aroused you, and the less movement we make after they get quiet at night, the better.”

“And how long will the sailors be cutting it through, do you think?”

“I should say they would be ready by this time, Matteo, but certainly they will be finished some time today.”

“Then we shall soon be free!” Matteo exclaimed joyfully.

“That will depend, Matteo.  We must wait till there is a good opportunity, so that we can recapture the ship without an alarm being given to the other vessels, which are no doubt sailing in company with us.  And now, if you have nothing to say, I will go off to sleep again, for there is time for another hour or two.  I feel as if I had not quite finished my night’s rest, and the days pass so slowly here that it is as well for us to sleep when we feel the least inclination.

“By the way, Matteo, put something into that peephole we made.  It is possible that they might see the light through it, and come to examine what it is.  It is better to run no risk.”

That day the captives were far more restless than they had been since they were taken prisoners.  At first there had been a feeling of depression, too great to admit even of conversation with each other.  The defeat of their fleet, the danger that threatened Venice, and the prospect of imprisonment in the gloomy dungeons of Genoa, combined to depress them on the first day of their imprisonment.  On the second, their success in getting out the bolts had cheered them, and they had something to look forward to and talk about; but still, few of them thought that there was any real prospect of their obtaining their freedom.  Now, however, that success seemed to lie ready to hand; now that they could, that very evening, remove the sacks, effect a junction with their crew, arm themselves with the weapons lying in sight, and rush up and overpower the Genoese; it seemed hard to remain longer in confinement.  Several of them urged Francis to make the attempt that night, but he refused.

“You reckon only on the foe you see,” he said.  “The danger lies not from them, but from the foes we cannot see.  We must wait for an opportunity.”

“But no opportunity may occur,” one of them urged.

“That is quite possible,” Francis agreed; “but should no special opportunity occur, we shall be none the worse for having waited, for it will always be as open to us to make the attempt as it is tonight.  It might succeed—­possibly we could overpower the guard on deck before they could give the alarm—­but the risk is too great to be run, until we are certain that no other way is open to us.  In the daylight the hatch is open; but even could we free our comrades, and unite for a rush, unobserved—­which we could hardly hope to do—­we should find the whole of the Genoese on deck, and could not possibly overpower them before they had time to give the alarm to other vessels.  At night, when we can unite, we cannot gain the deck, for the hatch is not only closed, but would almost certainly be fastened, so that men should not get down to pilfer among the stores.”