Lucia watched him disappear into the dusk and waited until the boatman had rowed out of sight. Then she straightened her hat and started for home, thinking very hard as she hurried along.
CHAPTER XX
AN INTERRUPTED SAIL
When Lucia reached the road above she ran as fast as she could. She had been so startled at what she had heard that her thoughts were confused. But as she hurried along her mind cleared.
"Perhaps they are all right, and the man is just going for a row," she said to herself. But the memory of the boatman's words returned to her.
"It's a risky business."
She did her best to attach no importance to it, but back in her brain was the firm conviction that the man with the hat was one of the Austrians that Roderigo had spoken of. "An Italian citizen on the face of things, but in their hearts—" Lucia instinctively mimicked Roderigo's gesture. She knew too, that argue though she might, she would interfere.
When she reached the garden she heard Beppi crying and saw a light in his window above. Beppi did not cry very often and by the sound she thought he was in pain.
She hurried into the house and ran upstairs. Nana met her at the door of Beppi's room; she was wringing her hands.