Part 2 (1/2)
”You appear to be suspected, my friend,” he observed to the master, as soon as the officers had gone.
”So it seems, signore,” he answered. ”The fact is, once upon a time, I had a few bales of goods on board, which I contrived to land without paying the duties, and I have ever since been watched as if I were a smuggler.”
”It was clumsy in you to be discovered,” observed the Greek. ”In the present instance I might find it inconvenient.”
A man in a small boat, who had been paddling quietly at a little distance from the speronara, as soon as the government officials had left her, darted alongside.
”Ah! Signor Sandro, welcome back to Malta,” he exclaimed, addressing the master of the little vessel. ”I have not seen you here for a long time.”
”Not the less welcome I hope, Manuel,” said the master.
”Few are who remember their friends and pay well,” said the boatman.
”How can I best serve you, signore?”
”By landing my pa.s.sengers, and giving them all the information they may require,” said the master. ”Hark you, Manuel--put your head nearer--my boy's life is answerable for their safety--so, as you love me, take care that they get into no trouble. They seek a pa.s.sage to some part of their own country on board a merchantman, and have come here to look for one to suit them.”
”I understand clearly, signor,” said the boatman, significantly. ”But who are they? What is their calling, or occupation?”
”Oh! mother of Heaven, don't ask me!” answered the padrone, with a terrified look. ”They may overhear you. It is not my business to put questions to them. It is enough that they pay well, and do not wish to be known. Besides, they would not scruple to cut my throat if they were offended--and most a.s.suredly their friends would string up my poor boy, if anything went wrong with them. Even now, look at the captain--I mean the best dressed of the two. How he is playing with the hilt of his dagger there. He is meditating sticking it into my ribs because I am talking so long to you. I tell you, you must watch over their safety; and, in the name of the saints, aid them to get away as fast as possible--for, till they are out of the place, I shall not feel my head secure on my shoulders.”
”Oh! I understand. They are political offenders disguised as Greeks, who do not wish their movements to be known;” said the sharp-witted boatman, jumping at a conclusion. ”I'll undertake to serve you and them--not forgetting myself--and, I trust, that they will make it worth my while.”
”No fear of that,” the padrone was saying, when the Greek's voice summoned him aft.
”What were you saying to the boatman?” he asked in an angry tone.
”I was making arrangements with him to take you on sh.o.r.e, signor, and do your bidding,” was the answer.
”Well, he may land me at once,” said the Greek. ”Paolo, do you remain on board till I send for you, and let not a man quit the vessel on any excuse,” he whispered. ”Such provisions as they require, the boatman can bring off for them, and I will manage to make him faithful.”
The Greek, without further remarks, swung himself over the side of the vessel and took his seat in Manuel's boat.
”Hist, Manuel,” he said, in the _lingua Franca_, well understood by the Maltese boatmen; ”you are debating in your mind whether you will inform the authorities that a suspicious character has landed on the island, and get a reward from them, or whether you will take the chance of pocketing what my generosity may induce me to bestow. Now, mark me, my honest friend. In the first place, I could get you hung for a little transaction, of which you know.”
The boatman started, and looked round with a suspicious glance.
”_Que diavolo_, who can this be?” he muttered.
”In the second, remember the English do not detain a man on bare suspicions, and but shabbily reward an informer. On the other hand, twenty colonati are yours, if you do my bidding. I do not want an answer--you are not a fool. Now row on sh.o.r.e as fast as you can.”
The Greek was a judge of character; and he seemed not to be altogether unacquainted with Manuel, the boatman. The boat ran into the public landing-place, and he stepped on sh.o.r.e with an independent and fearless air, where he mingled among the busy and motley throng who crowded the quay. The boatman, Manuel, sat in his boat a little distance from the sh.o.r.e, watching him, and ready, apparently, to obey his orders when he should be required.
The Greek proceeded onward through the lower parts of the town, eyeing those he pa.s.sed with a quick keen glance, which seemed to read their very thoughts. People were too much accustomed to see the varied costumes of the East to regard him with unusual curiosity, or to incommode him in his progress by stopping to stare at him; at the same time that many remarked him as he slowly sauntered on and wondered whence he had come. He seemed to have nothing more to do than to amuse himself by viewing the city, though he had certainly not selected the most interesting or cleanest quarter. He apparently was a stranger to the place, by the way in which he hesitated at each crossing, which turning he should take, till he had carefully deciphered the name on the wall. Now he stopped to look into a shop, then to gaze up at the windows of a house as if he expected to see some one there, and then to throw a copper to some importunate beggar. He walked with an air of so much independence and nonchalance, indeed, at times, almost of haughtiness, that it was difficult to suppose he had the slightest apprehension of danger. Not a person, however, who, pa.s.sed him, escaped his scrutiny; and even when he appeared to stop carelessly, or for the sake of considering the way he was to take, he cast a hurried glance behind him to satisfy himself that no one was acting the spy on his movements. He had evidently seen enough to convince him that the vessel, in which he had come, was in bad odour, and he naturally concluded that her pa.s.sengers would be narrowly watched. Of the crowds who pa.s.sed, not a human being seemed to know him, and if he was in reality particularly observed, it was done so cleverly and so cautiously, that with all his ingenuity, he failed to discover whether such was the case or not. He had already traversed a number of streets--ascending several flights of steps and descending others--when, at the corner of a narrow lane, his eye fell on a squalid-looking beggar who was l.u.s.tily calling on the pa.s.sers-by, in the name of all the saints, to preserve him from starvation. A broad-brimmed hat with a crown similar to those worn by Italian bandits, but sadly battered and brown with age and dirt, was worn slouchingly on his head, so as almost to hide his features, which were further concealed by a handkerchief tied under his chin, and a black patch over one of his eyes. A tattered cloak, the cast-off finery of a dandy of the palmy days of the old Knights of Malta, covered his shoulders, as did, in part, his legs, a pair of blue cloth trousers, through which his knees obtruded, and which were fringed with torn stripes at the feet. Such of his features as were visible were as ill-favoured as well could be. His voice, too, had a peculiarly disagreeable tone, as in the _lingua Franca_ of the Maltese mendicants he begged for alms.
This interesting personage was supporting himself carelessly on a pair of crutches, while he rested on one foot, and stretched forth the palm of his right hand to grasp whatever might be put into it. The Greek stopped and put his hand into his pocket to draw out a piece of money, while he did so narrowly eyeing the beggar. The man's voice changed instantly that he saw the stranger looking at him; from a half whining yet impudent tone, it began to sink and tremble with alarm, and finally he became perfectly mute and forgetful of his calling.
”I thought you would know me,” said the Greek. ”And you must remember I never forget those I have once seen either as friends or foes.”
”No, signor, I perceive you do not,” replied the beggar, trembling with alarm. ”Have mercy on me.”