In the meantime, Francis had been telling Rufino the incidents of his trip.

In half an hour, the message came that the gondola was again in the water, and Francis was soon on his way back to the city.
"I was beginning to be anxious about you," was Pisani's greeting, as, upon being informed of his return, he sprang from the couch, on which he had thrown himself for an hour's sleep, and hurried downstairs.

"I reckoned that you might have been back an hour before this, and began to think that you must have got into some scrape.

Well, what have you discovered ?" "The Genoese have no idea that you are going to put to sea.

Their ships and galleys are, as usual, moored off the quays of Chioggia.