“Ay, ay, sir, I have been in the water, and that Italian commander told me to come straight up here to tell the grand master all about the story; and right glad am I to have met you, for I should have made but a poor fist of it alone; I don’t know more of their lingo than just to talk a few words of it.”

“Then you had better tell me the story before I take you in.”

“Well, it was like this, Sir Knight:  I had Hudson and Jeffreys posted upon the wall, and I thought I would take a turn down on the rocks, for it was a dark night, and you can see much farther when you are by the edge of the water than you can when you are at the masthead.  I sat there for an hour, and was thinking that it was about time to go up and turn out the other watch, when I saw something dark upon the water.  It wasn’t a ship, that was certain, and if it was a boat there wasn’t any one in it; but it was too dark to make quite sure what it was.  I watched it for a time, though I did not think much of the thing, taking it for a boat that had got adrift, or maybe a barrel from one of the Turkish ships.  Presently I made out that it was a good bit nearer than when I first saw it.

“That puzzled me.  There is no tide to speak of in these seas, and there was no wind moving about.  I could make out now that it was a boat, though a very small one, but certainly there was no one rowing it.  It looked a very strange craft, and as I saw by the way it was bearing that it would come ashore about five or six fathoms from where I was sitting, I slid quietly off the rock, put my sword down by me handy for action, and waited.  Presently the boat came up alongside the rock, and a fellow stood up from behind the stern.  I was glad to see him, for I had begun to think that there was witchcraft in the thing moving along by itself, but I can tell you I was savage with myself for not having guessed there was a man swimming behind and pushing it on.

“He stooped over the boat, and took something heavy out; then he felt about among the rocks under the water, and then laid the thing down there, and seemed to me to be settling it firm.  I had half a mind to jump up and let fly at him, but then I thought it would be better to let him finish what he was doing, and go off with the idea that no one had seen him.  So I kept hid until he started again.  He waded a short way before he had to swim, and I could see that as he went he was paying out a rope over the stern.  It was clear enough now what he had been up to:  he had been fixing an anchor.  What he did it for, or what use it could be to him, I could not say, but it was certain that he would not take all that trouble, with the chance of being knocked on the head, for nothing; so I waited for a bit till he had got out of sight, and over to the other side of the port.