Messer Ziniani smiled.
"It will be necessary for you to watch the fondaco Pisano, and perhaps to follow people. It would never do if you yourselves were to be seen. You will sit in the curtained cabin, and the gondoliers will pilot you whither you will."
He clapped his hands thrice, and to a servant who appeared in the doorway said:
"Bid Beppo and Giacomo bring the cabined gondola to the garden gate!"
The man bowed and disappeared.
"Beppo and Giacomo are trusty fellows," Ziniani continued. "They will serve you diligently, and if you come to a fight they can make play with their oars and knives. But I pray you, fair sirs, be cautious in your conduct."
"We will be careful," Matteo assured him. "To say truth," the jongleur added with a smile at Hugh, "my comrade hath a reason for desiring speech with this rogue before we slit his throat—if slit it we must."
Ziniani wagged his head reprovingly.
"Talk not to me of slitting throats," he said. "I am a peaceable merchant, and such subjects consort not with my degree. Short of that, you may command me in all things."
"Heard you of any shipping for Constantinople?" enquired Hugh.