But I told him I was a sailor; and then he would have the story of my wanderings. So I told him of Dirk, and how he was caring for me and training me; though of course I said nothing of the purpose of our voyage. I hinted that Dirk had been trading, which indeed was true too, for Dirk had made it part of my education to show me about the booths and markets of the East, and I had a stock of purchases on board by which I hoped materially to increase my capital. Then it was my turn to question Picardino, but so vigorously did he ply me for more details of my life that it was no easy matter to edge in a word about himself. However, at length I did manage to say, "Tell me, Picardino, where did you vanish that night? And who was it chasing you?" "Ah, Tommee"--he smiled knowingly--"that secret." Then he leant forward, and whispering very quietly as though the affair were a profound mystery he said, "Picardino know manee thing. He travell heer and theer. Ladees they say heem, 'You speak my sweethearrt thees and that,' and papas they angree. Yess, and eef they catch heem eet ees no pleasant for Picardino. But he plentee love the ladees. Ah, the sweet theengs they arre! He geeve much to caree message. Yess, eef eet were hees blood." He laid his hands across his heart with a theatrical gesture that amused me; and yet he seemed earnest enough in his story. The picture of the little minstrel wandering from hall to hall, carrying love-messages from sweetheart to sweetheart and evading the wrath of enraged papas was one that flattered my sense of the romantic. He continued his story by telling me of all the wiles that the ladies resorted to in getting their messages through to him, sometimes humming a song that told its own tale, sometimes tossing him a coin with a name scratched into it, sometimes speaking to him in the language of flowers. It was amusing enough, and indeed I found a strange charm in the sentimental glamour of his amorous adventures. He coloured his stories with such an impassioned glow of whole-hearted appreciation that I was carried off my feet, and wished that I too had a message for him to carry to my sweetheart, or better still one to receive from him from the lady of my love, imprisoned in a lonely tower by a tyrannous papa. However, it seemed that he wasn't always successful. He began to wax melancholy because occasionally he failed to find some lost or erring swain and bring him back to his lady-love. Even then he was in search for more than one faithless truant, and he began to tell me of this and that disloyal one he was still hunting for. Then of a sudden he broke off, and looking at me in a strange enquiring way said, "Tommee! Why, yess, eet was Tommee. But you grown. She say a leetle boy. You beeg as Picardino; beeger. Ah, yess, I not theenk."