“Up till then the fishermen had been ready enough to go where I wanted, but the sight of that clump of galleys regularly scared them, and they wanted to row straight away; but of course I pointed out to them that they had taken pay to do this thing, and that they had to do it.  They said that if caught they would be either killed or made slaves of, and I could not contradict them, but said that, in the first place, as I was ready to run the risk, there was no reason why they shouldn’t do so, and in the second, there was no chance whatever of their being taken, as, if discovered, we should get so long a start that we could either escape them altogether or run the boat ashore at some point where the trees came down to the water’s edge, carry the boat up and hide it, and then move up into the hills until the corsairs had gone.

“We waited there three or four hours, looking round the point occasionally.  At the end of that time all was quiet.  Two or three of the lanterns still burned, but there was no sign of life or movement on their decks.  After waiting another half hour to ensure the crews being asleep, we rowed quietly up the creek, keeping within an oar’s length of the rocks.  There was not much to see; the galleys lay two abreast, and as there was no space between them, I supposed the whole were lashed together.  There were eight of them on the side we went along, but I think there were only seven on the other side.  As I thought it did not much matter whether there were fifteen or sixteen, and as the men were in a state of horrible fright, we turned and went back again, and I own I felt very glad myself when we got round the point without an alarm being given.  We came quietly out, and it was fortunate we did so, for we had not gone a quarter of a mile when we heard the sound of oars, and, lying silently under the cliff, we saw two large galleys row past us.”

“It is a strong force, Gervaise,” Ralph said, as they paced up and down the poop together.  “Probably in each of those galleys are eighty or a hundred men, in addition to the rowers.  It is evident that unless Genoa sends us help we shall not be able to interfere with their plans.”

“I don’t know, Ralph.  I think we may injure them sorely, though we might not be able to defeat them altogether.  I want you tonight to take one of the prizes, and row round to the bay we passed, and there to buy three coasting vessels and six or eight fishing boats.  Get as much pitch, oil, and other combustibles, as you can purchase in the villages on the shore.  If you can engage a score of fishermen to man them, all the better.  My idea is that if Caretto returns with news that the Genoese have no galleys ready for sea, we must do what we can to injure these corsairs.  If we smear these craft you are going to fetch with pitch and oil, and fill the holds with combustibles, and so turn them into fire ships, we may at least do the pirates a tremendous lot of harm.  When we get