"Si--the light you see here, just in a range with Capri, is at her gaff; we have seen her the whole afternoon and evening. In fact, she towed us kindly round the cape, until we got fairly into this Bay."
"Then you are the people for me? Was there a man hanged on board her or not, about sunset?"
This question was put with so much interest, that Raoul cursed his interrogator in his heart; imagining that he was burning with the wish to learn his own execution. He was also now aware that this was he boat which had left the Proserpine about noon.
"I can tell you there was not, s'nore--if that will gladden your heart. A man was all ready to be hanged, when Captain Cuffe was pleased to order him taken down."
"Just as three heavy guns were fired up at town--was it not so?" Clinch eagerly inquired.
"Diable! this man may have been my preserver, after all! You say true, s'nore; it was just as three guns were fired up at Naples; though I did not know those guns had anything to do with the intended execution. Can you tell me if they had?"
"If they had! Why I touched them off with my own hands, they were signals made by the admiral to spare poor Raoul Yvard, for a few days at, least. I am rejoiced to hear that all my great efforts to teach the fleet were not in vain. I don't like this hanging, Mr. Italian."
"S'nore, you show a kind heart, and will one day reap the reward of such generous feelings. I wish I knew the name of so humane a gentleman, that I might mention him in my prayers."
"They'll never fancy that Captain Rule said that," muttered Ithuel, grinning.
"As for my name, friend, it's no great matter. They call me Clinch, which is a good fast word to sail under, too; but it has no handle to it, other than of a poor devil of a master's-mate; and that, too, at an age when some men carry broad pennants."