"
"Most true, Signor Podesta," answered Raoul from his boat; "and such
being the case, I hasten to haul my vessel into the mouth of your basin,
which I will defend against boats or any attempt of these rascally
republicans to land."
Waving his hand, the young sailor pulled quickly out of the crowded
little port, followed by a hundred vivas. Raoul now saw that his orders
had not been neglected. A small line had been run out from the lugger
and fastened to a ring in the inner end of the eastern side of the
narrow haven, apparently with the intention of hauling the vessel into
the harbor itself. He also perceived that the light anchor, or large
kedge, by which le Feu-Follet rode, was under foot, as seamen term it;
or that the cable was nearly "up and down." With a wave of the hand he
communicated a new order, and then he saw that the men were raising the
kedge from the bottom. By the time his foot touched the deck, indeed,
the anchor was up and stowed, and nothing held the vessel but the line
that had been run to the quay. Fifty pairs of hands were applied to this
line, and the lugger advanced rapidly toward her place of shelter. But
an artifice was practised to prevent her heading into the harbor's
mouth, the line having been brought inboard abaft her larboard cathead,
a circumstance which necessarily gave her a sheer in the contrary
direction, or to the eastward of the entrance. When the reader remembers
that the scale on which the port had been constructed was small, the
entrance scarce exceeding a hundred feet in width, he will better
understand the situation of things.
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