"Si, signore. But she knows nothing. She was in the village. She can only cry. She is crying for the poor signore."
Again that statement. It was becoming a refrain in the ears of Artois.
"Gaspare is angry with her," added the fisherman. "I believe he would like to kill her."
"It makes him sad to see her crying, perhaps," said Artois. "Gaspare loved the signore."
He saluted the fisherman and rode on. But the man followed and kept by his side.
"I will take you across in a boat, signore," he said.
"Grazie."
Artois struck the donkey and made it trot on in the dust.
Giuseppe rowed him across the inlet and to the far side of the Sirens' Isle, from which the little path wound upward to the cottage. Here, among the rocks, a boat was moored.
"Ecco, signore!" cried Giuseppe. "Salvatore has come back from Messina! Here is his boat!"