Hadst ever been beyond the Lido, thou wouldst have known
the difference between chasing the felucca and catching her."
"Kneel down and thank San Teodoro for his care. There was much praying
on thy decks that hour, caro Stefano, though none is bolder among the
mountains of Calabria when thy felucca is once safely drawn up on the
beach!"
The mariner cast a half-comic, half-serious glance upward at the image
of the patron saint, ere he replied.
"There was more need of the wings of thy lion than of the favor of thy
saint. I never come further north for aid than San Gennaro, even when it
blows a hurricane."
"So much the worse for thee, caro, since the good bishop is better at
stopping the lava than at quieting the winds. But there was danger,
then, of losing the felucca and her brave people among the Turks?"
"There was, in truth, a Tunis-man prowling about, between Stromboli and
Sicily; but, Ali di San Michele! he might better have chased the cloud
above the volcano than run after the felucca in a sirocco!"
"Thou wast chicken-hearted, Stefano!"
"I!--I was more like thy lion here, with some small additions of chains
and muzzles."
"As was seen by thy felucca's speed?"
"Cospetto! I wished myself a knight of San Giovanni a thousand times
during the chase, and La Bella Sorrentina a brave Maltese galley, if it
were only for the cause of Christian honor! The miscreant hung upon my
quarter for the better part of three glasses; so near, that I could tell
which of the knaves wore dirty cloth in his turban, and which clean.
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