h a sharp twist, and turning with them
we rode once more with our faces set toward our destination, keeping
the tall range on our left hand, and on our right the melancholy
sea-marshes where men cannot dwell for the malaria, and where for
hour after hour we rode in a silence unbroken save by the plash of
fish in the lagoon, or the cry of a heron solitary among the reeds.
This desolation lasted all the way to Biguglia, where we turned aside
again among the foothills to avoid the fortress of Bastia and the
traffic of the roads about it. Beyond Bastia we were safe in the
fastnesses of Cape Corso, across which, from this eastern shore to
the western, and to the camp at Olmeta, one only pass (so
Marc'antonio informed me) was practicable. I guessed we were nearing
it when he began to mutter to himself in the intervals of scanning
the crags high on our left; for this was to him, he confessed, an
almost unknown country. But the gap, when we came abreast of it,
could scarcely be mistaken. With a glance around, as though to take
our bearings, he abruptly headed off for it, and, having climbed the
first slope, reined up and sat for a moment, rigid in his saddle as a
statue, listening.

The sun had sunk behind the range, and the herbage at our feet lay in
a bronze shadow; but light still bathed the sea behind us, and over
it a company of gulls kept flashing and wheeling and clamouring.
While I listened, following Marc'antonio's example, it seemed to me
that an echo from the summit directly above us took up the gull's cry
and repeated it, prolonging the note. Marc'antonio lifted and waved
a hand.

"That will be Stephanu," he announced; and sure enough, before we had
pushed a couple of furlongs up the slope, we caught sight of Stephanu
descending a steep scree to meet us.

He and Marc'antonio nodded salutation brusquely, as though they had
parted but a few hours ago. Marc'antonio, though relieved to see
him, wore a judicial frown.

"What of the Princess, O Stephanu?" he demanded.

"The Princess is well enough, for aught I know," answered Stephanu,
with a glance at me.

"You can speak before the cavalier. He knows not everything until we
tell him; but he is one of us, and that I will engage."

Stephanu shrugged his shoulders. "The Princess is well enough, for
aught I know," he repeated.

"But what fool's talk is this? The Prince packed you off, meaning
mischief of some kind--what mischief you, being on the spot, sh