Page 352 - A Knight of the White Cross

"Why, what are you bringing that up here for?" he asked. "Have you been
diving; for I see your clothes are dripping with water?"

"Ay, ay, sir, I have been in the water, and that Italian commander told me to

come straight up here to tell the grand master all about the story; and right
glad am I to have met you, for I should have made but a poor fist of it
alone; I don't know more of their lingo than just to talk a few words of it."

"Then you had better tell me the story before I take you in."

"Well, it was like this, Sir Knight: I had Hudson and Jeffreys posted upon
the wall, and I thought I would take a turn down on the rocks, for it was a

dark night, and you can see much farther when you are by the edge of the
water than you can when you are at the masthead. I sat there for an hour,

and was thinking that it was about time to go up and turn out the other
watch, when I saw something dark upon the water. It wasn't a ship, that was
certain, and if it was a boat there wasn't any one in it; but it was too dark to

make quite sure what it was. I watched it for a time, though I did not think
much of the thing, taking it for a boat that had got adrift, or maybe a barrel

from one of the Turkish ships. Presently I made out that it was a good bit
nearer than when I first saw it.

"That puzzled me. There is no tide to speak of in these seas, and there was
no wind moving about. I could make out now that it was a boat, though a

very small one, but certainly there was no one rowing it. It looked a very
strange craft, and as I saw by the way it was bearing that it would come
ashore about five or six fathoms from where I was sitting, I slid quietly off

the rock, put my sword down by me handy for action, and waited. Presently
the boat came up alongside the rock, and a fellow stood up from behind the

stern. I was glad to see him, for I had begun to think that there was
witchcraft in the thing moving along by itself, but I can tell you I was
savage with myself for not having guessed there was a man swimming

behind and pushing it on.

"He stooped over the boat, and took something heavy out; then he felt
about among the rocks under the water, and then laid the thing down there,