"I dare swear you can manage it."
"Mayhap, mayhap."
Bartolommeo turned to Hugh.
"Dost bear me in mind, fair sir?"
"Right well," returned Hugh drily. "Satan must have come to your aid, for I had hoped you were drowned ere this."
Bartolommeo burst into a roar of laughter that echoed through the chamber.
"Said I not 'twas a lusty cock—ay, and can crow to perfection! Know, good youth, that I am dowered with as many lives as a cat! It takes more than a dose of the Greek fire to send me to my spit in hell. And whilst we speak of that, I beseech you, tell me was the device yours or that apple-faced English shipman's?"
"'Twas my comrade's," replied Hugh amusedly.
"The jongleur?"
"Ay."