"You will be home long before your brother. The way is very short along the shore, under the Promontory of Evolo."
"It is too far, Nino; the moon will rise soon, and then we shall be discovered."
They talked together a long time. The moon rose, and poured its peaceful light into the gloomy streets; but only for a little while, then the sky darkened again, and black clouds rose slowly from the west.
"See," laughed Nino, "the holy Pancrazio is getting tired of his bath. And see, too, Carmela, he favors our love. He is hiding the clear moonlight. Will you come now? Come then!"
She hesitated a moment Then she whispered. "Wait, I will fetch my mantle," and disappeared.
While the pair were holding their rendezvous before Don Cesare's house, that worthy was proceeding to his, after another fashion. At a leisurely pace, as if addressed to an evening's gossip with a friend, he had slowly departed down the street, never doubting that Carmela would look after him; all girls did so, and his sister was like the others, of course. Women were women, he opined, smiling quietly to himself; one must treat them like children, pretend immense confidence, but be mighty vigilant, and always preserve one's masculine independence. This he certainly did, and carried out his theory with much precision by making a sudden turn the moment a bend in the road hid him from Carmela, and starting off at an amazing gait in the opposite direction. First he took a side circuit through the crooked little streets, and then hurried off toward the Promontory of Evolo.
There must have been something extraordinary in the busy little man's brain, for he ran as fast as his short legs would let him. Tali Ciccio, whom he met outside the ruined gate of the town, looking for Heaven knows what in that lonely place, he never once noticed; on the contrary, when he saw him from a distance, he seized the blue hood which every one on the coast of Sicily wears winter and summer, in sun, wind, and rain, fastened Bedouin fashion around his neck, and drew it far over his face, raised his broad shoulders, and sunk his head between them. He passed his astonished fellow citizen without looking around, and the latter stood gazing after him, and muttered: "The devil knows who that is, and where he is going;--I know every one in Roccastretta, but I never saw him before;" and shook his head after him for a long while, like an honest member of society who has met with something to reflect upon.
Don Cesare, meantime, hurried on, smiling slyly to himself. "By you, my stupid Ciccio, I, Don Cesare, am not going to let myself be overreached. What you are doing at this hour outside the town Heaven knows. Some sort of love adventure, perhaps. Or have you been stealing fruits and grain, and hiding them somewhere in a ruinous cassine? Or are you engaged in smuggling? Saints have mercy on us! who could thrive at smuggling these days, when not a ship runs into our harbor? For three months, exactly as long as the rain has failed, not a sail has this poor deserted harbor looked upon. Smuggling! Yes, that business paid once on a time, but not now."
And the honest Don Cesare thought, with satisfaction, of that happy time when, at least twice every month, a foreign sailing vessel came in his way. What pleasant times! And now, for three long months, he had stood day after day near the chapel of Evolo, which he now saw before him on the heights above, and he had looked with his trusty spyglass in all four quarters of the heavens to see if he could not discover a white sail making for the harbor of Roccastretta, and showing the well-known flag of Norway, or of England, or of Germany. From thence came the vessels which supplied themselves in this vicinity with southern fruits, olive oil, sulphur, and pumice stone, and brought hither various things which Don Cesare secretly purchased for little money and sold again for much--tobacco and cigars, woolen and cotton goods, gay ribbons, gaudily-painted saints, and freshly-varnished Madonnas, apostles, evangelists, and all sorts of wares, for which the customhouse inspectors were especially greedy. These Don Cesare understood how to convey into his house without discovery, and undiscovered to sell afterward at a comfortable profit. Close by his house, tied to an old broken pile, year in and year out, his boat lay ready, and when a sail appeared in the distance, he was the first to row out and offer his assistance to the captain; for he could jabber a mixture of every known tongue with the greatest fluency, and the ship had not come to anchor before Don Cesare was the confidential friend of every one and the trusted adviser of the whole crew. Yes, insignificant as he was in figure, Don Cesare was an enterprising fellow, and had his head in the right place; and that thick, round skull, covered with close-cut hair, with big, prominent, ring-bedecked ears, and wide mouth stretched in an everlasting smile, was stuffed full of stratagems and trader's tricks that brought him many a pretty sum, and at which the honest foreign sailors did not complain; for, without Don Cesare's help, they must have paid far dearer, and how did it cheat them that he made a hundred per cent, on the fiery wine which he furnished them, and that he obtained their fruits and meal and fresh meat from his neighbors at a ridiculously low price? Oh, those good honest people! They paid so willingly whatever he asked; they found everything so cheap in this beautiful land; and when the ship was once more under sail they all thanked him who went away, and those who remained, they thanked him, too, for they all had done a good business; but he had done better than any one! Yes, pleasant time! thought Don Cesare, as he wandered along through the night and looked out on the black sailless sea. Directly before him lay the Promontory of Evolo, with its old olive trees. The chapel showed clearly through the darkness; last year they had whitewashed it, to the honor of the saint who now lay in the water. Don Cesare shook his head. "You poor, dear Evolino, what must you think of me, that I could help them treat you so? And yet, you know as well as I do, how much good it would have done for me to interfere. If I had opposed them they would, maybe, have used you far worse; and that, instead of water, you did not have to stand the scorching fire, you may thank me. Sometimes one serves a friend better by howling with the wolves than letting himself be torn to pieces by them in his friend's company. Only wait. I will make it all right, good Evolino."
He had arrived at the foot of the Promontory. The little path wound off among the rocks. A few steps further and it turned to the left, toward the other side of the cliffs where Nino's country house lay silently hid in thick groves of orange and lemon.