signal by which he might call them ashore.

'Maso, as he led the way to the dwelling of Vito Viti, would fain ask a
few questions, in the hope of appeasing certain doubts that beset him.

"Since when, Signor Capitano," he inquired, "have you English taken to
sailing luggers? It is a novel rig for one of your craft."

"Corpo di Bacco!" answered the other, laughing, "friend of mine, if you
can tell the precise day when brandy and laces were first smuggled from
France into my country, I will answer your question. I think you have
never navigated as far north as the Bay of Biscay and our English
Channel, or you would know that a Guernsey-man is better acquainted with
the rig of a lugger than with that of a ship."

"Guernsey is a country I never heard of," answered 'Maso simply; "is it
like Holland--or more like Lisbon?"

"Very little of either. Guernsey is a country that was once French, and
where many of the people still speak the French language, but of which
the English have been masters this many an age. It is an island subject
to King George, but which is still half Gallic in names and usages. This
is the reason why we like the lugger better than the cutter, which is a
more English rig."

'Maso was silent, for, if true, the answer at once removed many
misgivings. He had seen so much about the strange craft which struck him
as French, that doubts of her character obtruded; but if her captain's
account could only be substantiated, there was an end of distrust. What
could be more natural than the circumstance that a vessel fitted out in