This account required an explanation, which Raoul gave in a very few words, and then the crew were directed to go to their stations, in order that the lugger might be properly worked. The next minute the sails were filled on the larboard tack, as before, and le Feu-Follet again drew ahead, standing in for the cliffs.
"There is a light in motion near Capri, man capitaine" observed the first lieutenant; "I suppose it to be on board some enemy. They are plenty as gulls about this bay."
"You are very right, Monsieur. 'Tis la Proserpine; she shows the light for her boats. She is too far to leeward to meddle with us, however, and we are pretty certain there is nothing between her and the ships off the town that can do us any harm. Are all our lights concealed? Let them be well looked to, monsieur."
"All safe, man-capitaine. Le Feu-Follet never shows her lantern until she wishes to lead an enemy into the mire!"
Raoul laughed, and pronounced the word "bon" in the emphatic manner peculiar to a Frenchman. Then, as the lugger was drawing swiftly in toward the rocks, he went on the forecastle himself, to keep a proper lookout ahead; Ithuel, as usual, standing at his side.
The piano or plain of Sorrento terminates, on the side of the bay, in perpendicular cliffs of tufa, that vary from one to near two hundred feet in height. Those near the town are among the highest, and are lined with villas, convents, and other dwellings, of which the foundations are frequently placed upon shelves of rock fifty feet below the adjacent streets. Raoul had been often here during the short reign of the Rufo faction, and was familiar with most of the coast. He knew that his little lugger might brush against the very rocks, in most places, and was satisfied that if he fell in with the Proserpine's boats at all, it must be quite near the land. As the night wind blew directly down the play, sighing across the campagna, between Vesuvius and Castel à Mare, it became necessary to tack off-shore, as soon as le Feu-Follet got close to the cliffs where the obscurity was greatest, and her proportions and rig were not discernible at any distance. While in the very act of going round, and before the head-sheets were drawn, Raoul was startled by a sudden hail.
"Felucca, ahoy!" cried one, in English, from a boat that was close on the lugger's bow.
"Halloo!" answered Ithuel, raising an arm, for all near him to be quiet.
"What craft's that?" resumed he in the boat.
"A felucca sent down by the admiral to look for the Proserpine--not finding her at Capri, we are turning up to the anchorage of the fleet again."