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The sea had scarcely closed over the Re d'Italia when another misfortune occurred; the gunboat Palestro took fire. Her captain, Alfredo Cappellini, disembarked the sick and wounded, but remained himself with the rest of the crew, endeavouring to put out the fire. The ship blew up at 2.30 p.m., and over two hundred perished with her.
And she had said a true word about the occurrences on the Re d'Italia. If appearances meant facts, I myself had been proved guilty up to the hilt. "Mr. Bayne," she was saying soberly, "I should like you to believe me please! I am an American, and I have had cause lately to hate the Germans; all my bonds are with our own country and with France.
By degrees a tender delirium took hold of her sense; and then a subtle emotion which was partly prompted by dim rivalry with the voice that seemed to be speaking so richly to the man she loved set her bosom rising and falling. She translated it to herself thus: "What a joy it will be to him to hear me now!" And in a pause she sang clear out "Prima d'Italia amica;"
The logical suspect, judging by appearances, was Miss Falconer. The little German went out through her room; she was the one person I saw both at the hotel and on the Re d'Italia; and she acted in a suspicious manner that first night aboard the ship. But she says she didn't do it, and probably she didn't; it seemed infernally odd, all along, for her to be a spy.
"The way things are going now," Bronson observed, "it won't be long before we're building a new boat for Mascola." "What do you mean by that? Has he seen this one?" The boatman shook his head. "You needn't be afraid of that," he answered. "What I meant was that Mascola is hammering the Fuor d'Italia to pieces with his trips to Diablo in that rough water." "Does Mascola go often to Diablo?"
"Don't say that!" I protested. "Of course it is unconventional to dine with a stranger; but then so is almost everything that is happening to you and me. Think of those lord high executioners in there round the table. See this platform with its guards and bayonets and guns. And then remember our odd experiences on the Re d'Italia. Won't you risk one more informality and come and dine?"
"You're a man," she whispered, "One in a million." Then her lips found his. Mascola watched the two shadows blend into one. Silhouetted in the bright moonlight, he leaned against the coaming, his lips curved in a sneering smile. From the darkened cockpit of the Fuor d'Italia came a bright jet of flame. Then another.
Then he opened the throttle and the Fuor d'Italia leaped forward and raced away with an angry roar. When they reached the Albatross, Big Jack was apoplectic with rage. It was some minutes before he could master his speech sufficiently to explain the situation. Mascola had arrived when they were hardly out of sight, had watched them pulling in the fish and had gone at once to summon his boats.
In the midst of this joy, there appeared what resembled a funeral procession about a hundred emigrants following the Venetian, Roman, and Neapolitan colours, all hung with black crape; they were warmly applauded, and many people shed tears. They went to the railway station just without the gate to meet the King, and when they hailed him as "Rè d'Italia!" he was much affected.
When the Bennington entered Crescent Bay followed by the Richard towing the Fuor d'Italia, excitement was rife at Legonia. And as the boats came to anchor off the Golden Rule Cannery a large crowd of curious village-folk collected on the dock. The consensus of opinion, in Silvanus Rock's absence, was expressed by the local postmaster.
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