THE MIDDY, THE LADDIE, THE MATE
AND THE MEN
THE SKIPPER OF THE OLD _LEONE_
DEDICATES
THIS STORY





CHAPTER I.


Lay your course south-east half east from the Campanella. If the weather
is what it should be in late summer you will have a fresh breeze on the
starboard quarter from ten in the morning till four or five o'clock in
the afternoon. Sail straight across the wide gulf of Salerno, and when
you are over give the Licosa Point a wide berth, for the water is
shallow and there are reefs along shore. Moreover there is no light on
Licosa Point, and many a good ship has gone to pieces there in dark
winter nights when the surf is rolling in. If the wind holds you may run
on to Palinuro in a long day before the evening calm comes on, and the
water turns oily and full of pink and green and violet streaks, and the
sun settles down in the north-west. Then the big sails will hang like
curtains from the long slanting yards, the slack sheets will dip down to
the water, the rudder will knock softly against the stern-post as the
gentle swell subsides. Then all is of a golden orange colour, then red
as wine, then purple as grapes, then violet, then grey, then altogether
shadowy as the stars come out--unless it chances that the moon is not
yet full, and edges everything with silver on your left hand while the