“Plenty for us, signor; but if the boom goes right across the channel, heavy rowboats would not be able to pass.  There are few shallower places in the lagoons than just about here.  It may be that in one or two places even we might touch, but if we do, the bottom is firm enough for us to get out and float the boat over.”

But they did not touch any shoal sufficiently shallow to necessitate this.  Several times Francis could feel, by the dragging pace, that she was touching the oozy bottom; but each time she passed over without coming to a standstill.  At last Philippo said: 

“We are in the deep channel now, signor.  The boom is right astern of us.  The town is only a few hundred yards ahead.”

“Then we shall be passing the Genoese galleys, directly,” Francis said.  “Row slowly as we go, and splash sometimes with the oars.  If we go quickly and noiselessly past, they might possibly suspect something, but if we row without an attempt at concealment, they will take us for a fisherman’s boat.”

Soon the dark mass of Genoese ships, with their forests of masts, rose before them.  There were lights in the cabins, and a buzz of talking, laughing, and singing among the crews on board.

“What luck today?” a sailor asked them as they rowed past, twenty or thirty yards from the side of one of the ships.

“Very poor,” Giuseppi replied.  “I think your ships, and the boats lying about, and the firing, have frightened the fish away from this end of the lagoons.”

It was half a mile before they passed the last of the crowd of vessels.

“Would you like me to land here, signor?” Philippo said.  “There would be no danger in my doing so.  I can make my way, through the streets, to the house of some of my relatives, and find out from them whether there are any fresh movements among the Genoese.  I will not enter any house; for aught I know there are soldiers quartered everywhere; but I am sure not to go many yards before I run against someone I know.”

“I think it will be a very good plan, Philippo.  We will lie under the bank here, and wait your return.”

It was not more than twenty minutes before the gondolier was back.

“I have spoken to three men I know, signor.  They are agreed that there are no movements among the enemy, and no one seems to have an idea that the Venetians are about to put to sea.  Of course, I was cautious not to let drop a word on the subject, and only said we had managed to get through the enemy’s cordon to learn the latest news, and I expected to earn a ducat or two by my night’s work.”

“That is excellent,” Francis said.  “Now, we will row out to the sea mouths of the channels, to assure ourselves that no ships are lying on guard there, for some are going in or out every day to cruise along the coast.  A few may have taken up their station there, without attracting notice among the townspeople.”