“An excellent plan, Francisco, though I am so impatient that the night will seem endless to me; but certainly your plan is the best.  Even if the house is watched, and you were seen to enter, if all remains perfectly quiet they will naturally suppose that the news you brought was not considered of sufficient importance to lead to any action.  You will, of course, remain here till morning?”

“I cannot do that, sir, though I will return the first thing.  There is, lying on my table, a paper with the particulars and names of the persons I saw meet in this hut, and a request to my father that, if I do not return in the morning, he will at once lay this before the council.  I place it there every day when I go out, in order that, if I should be seized and carried off by Mocenigo’s people, I should have some means of forcing them to let me go.

“Although I know absolutely nothing of the nature of the conspiracy, they will not know how much I am aware of, or what particulars I may have given in the document; and as I could name to them those present, and among them is the envoy of the King of Hungary, now in the city, they would hardly dare harm me, when they knew that if they did so this affair would be brought before the council.”

“It was an excellent precaution, Francisco.  Why, you are as prudent and thoughtful as you are courageous!”

“It was not likely to be of much use, sir,” Francis said modestly.  “I was very much more likely to get a stab in the back than to be carried off.  Still, it was just possible that Mocenigo might himself like to see his vengeance carried out, and it was therefore worth my while guarding against it.  But, as you see, it will be necessary for me to be back sometime before morning.”

“At any rate, Francisco, you had better wait here until morning breaks.  Your room is not likely to be entered for some hours after that; so while I am preparing for our expedition, you can go out and make your way to the Grand Canal, hail an early gondola, and be put down at your own steps, when, as you have told me, you can enter the house without disturbing anyone.  Then you can remove that paper, and return here in the gondola.  We will start at seven.  There will be plenty of boats about by that time, and the lagoon will be dotted by the fishermen’s craft, so that our gondolas will attract no attention.”

“Perhaps that will be the best plan, signor; and, indeed, I should not be sorry for a few hours’ sleep, for Giuseppi and I have been in our boat since a very early hour in the morning, and were pretty well tired out before this last adventure began.”

Chapter 6:  The Hut On San Nicolo.