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"You would put out directly it got dark, and row round close under the Rock, and then make out to sea; and in the morning you would be somewhere off Marbella, but eight or ten miles out, with your fishing nets down; and who is to know that you have been to Gibraltar?" The men were silent. The prospect certainly seemed a tempting one.
"Well, I tell you what," Bob said; "I have a good many friends, and people are always pleased with a present from the country. A box of fruit from Marbella is always welcome, for their flavour is considered excellent. It is well to throw a little fish, to catch a big one; and a present is like oil on the wheels of business. How many boxes of fruit will your boat carry?
Starting as soon as it became dark, he passed through Estepona at about ten o'clock; looked in at a wine shop, and sat down to a pint of wine and some bread; and then continued his journey until, taking it quietly, he was in sight of Marbella. He slept in a grove of trees until daylight, and then entered the town, which was charmingly situated among orange groves.
It was but eleven o'clock now so having had but a short sleep the night before, and no prospect of sleep the next night he walked a mile along the road by the sea, then turned off among the sand hills and slept, till four in the afternoon; after which he returned to Marbella, and partook of a hearty meal.
He could make out the line of the hills against the sky; and had, therefore, no difficulty in keeping the course. They were soon back opposite Marbella, the lights of which he could clearly make out. Little by little the breeze gathered strength, and the rowers had comparatively easy work of it, as the boat slipped away lightly before the wind.
"You will get in there tomorrow, and you can start again, as soon as it becomes dark; and in the morning you will be able to sail into Marbella, and who is to know that you haven't been across to Malaga, as you intended? "I tell you what, I will give you another fifty dollars for your fish; or you can sell them there, yourselves they will fetch you quite that."
One of them struck, after having made a very slight resistance; and the rest ran ashore to the westward of Marbella, where they were destroyed. The remaining part of the French squadron had been blown from their anchors, and taken shelter in the bay of Malaga; but now they slipped their cables and made the best of their way to Toulon.
I had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two leagues north of Marbella.
"What do you make it twelve leagues from Marbella to the Rock?" "About that," the man replied. "If the wind holds like this, we shall not be very far from the Rock by daylight. We are going along about a league an hour." "Well, stretch out to it, lads, for your own sakes. I have no fear of a shot from Santa Barbara.
"No; there is nothing for us to do here, now, but to carry what fish and fruit we do not want at Marbella across to Malaga; and we get poor prices, there, to what we used to get at Gibraltar; and no chance of turning an honest penny by smuggling away a few pounds of tobacco, as we come back.
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