t such a fool as you look, after all! I'll bet it's your first
scrape, though, eh?"

"That is my business. Ah! there comes the watchman."

They crouched down behind the group of statuary and waited till the
watchman had passed. Then the sailor rose, and, telling Arthur to
follow him, walked on, laughing foolishly to himself. Arthur followed in
silence.

The sailor led him back to the little irregular square by the Medici
palace; and, stopping in a dark corner, mumbled in what was intended for
a cautious whisper:

"Wait here; those soldier fellows will see you if you come further."

"What are you going to do?"

"Get you some clothes. I'm not going to take you on board with that
bloody coatsleeve."

Arthur glanced down at the sleeve which had been torn by the window
grating. A little blood from the grazed hand had fallen upon it.
Evidently the man thought him a murderer. Well, it was of no consequence
what people thought.

After some time the sailor came back, triumphant, with a bundle under
his arm.

"Change," he whispered; "and make haste about it. I must get back, and
that old Jew has kept me bargaining and haggling for half an hour."

Arthur obeyed, shrinking with instinctive disgust at the first touch of
second-hand clothes. Fortunately these, though rough and coarse, were
fairly clean. When he stepped into the light in his new attire, the
sailor looked at him with tipsy solemnity and gravely nodded his
approval.

"You'll do," he said. "This way, and don't make a noise." Arthur,
carrying his discarded clothes, followed him through a labyrinth of
winding canals and dark narrow alleys; the mediaeval slum quarter which
the people of Leghorn call "New Venice." Here and there a gloomy old
palace, solitary among the squalid houses and filthy courts, stood
between two noisome ditches, with a forlorn air of trying to preserve
its ancient dignity and yet of knowing the effort to be a hopeless
one. Some of the alleys, he knew, were notorious dens of thieves,
cut-throats, and smugglers; others were merely wretched and
poverty-stricken.

Beside one of the little bridges the sailor stopped, and, looking round
to see that they were not observed, descended a flight of stone steps
to a narrow landing stage. Under the bridge was a dirty, crazy old boat.
Sharply ordering Arthur to jump in and lie down, he seated himself in
the boat and began rowing towards the harbour's mouth. Arthur lay still
on the wet and leaky pla