Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/173

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IN MAREMMA.
165

been buffeted about in the mists and storms off the Scottish shores.

Daniello pointed to her where she lay rocking gently on the wondrous blue of the Archipelago.

'If you will come out to her,' he said softly, and more timidly than he had spoken before, 'I swear on the good faith of a sailor to put you ashore where you will, and to speak no word whilst you are on my deck of what you do not choose to hear.'

'I can hire a boat,' said Musa, and she turned and tried to bargain with a ragged lad who had an old punt there beneath the wall. But the youth would not be hired or bribed; there was the night-spearing to be seen and shared; no man or boy would leave Orbetello with that prospect of delight in store for the evening as soon as the slender crescent of the young moon should have vanished.

'You will get no boat here,' said Daniello. 'Not one of them will stir this afternoon. Since you are distrustful of the "Ausiliatrice" hear this: yonder is my own boat, with which I pulled from the ship here; there are some of my crew about; you could not row that boat yourself, but I