However, I was soon undeceived. When we had rowed out some way my captors dropped anchor, and the boat lay idly rising and falling on the gentle heave of the waters. For some minutes there was a whispered consultation between the two men, while I had leisure mazedly to admire the dancing brilliance of the stars high up in the black pool of the sky; and then with reviving clearness of mind as the effects of the blow passed off, leaving only a throbbing pain at my head, I turned my eyes to the men and took stock of the couple. One was a little fellow; the other though not large was bigger than his companion. They both wore masks, and in the darkness of the night it was impossible to distinguish anything of their features. I thought too they could distinguish little of mine, for the gag over my mouth reached below my chin and almost up to my eyes, just allowing me to see. Presently the larger of the two reached forward to me, and seizing my right hand forced it open; then holding it to the light of a little lantern that stood in the bottom of the boat he beckoned to the other fellow and pointed to my palm. It was then that I realized that this was no mere robbery. For it was the two ragged scars of the jetty nails that they were so carefully examining. The little fellow nodded. They trussed me up again with my hands behind me, and slipped back to their places, sitting side by side on a thwart facing me. For a while there was silence. I felt quite easy in mind now, for I knew I had been captured by mistake. Somehow I had been arrested for my father's murderer. I thought that the worst that could come of it would be a waste of time; for sooner or later they were bound to find out who I really was. I made one desperate struggle to force a cry through my gag, and I strained violently at my bonds; but it was unavailing. I knew I should have to wait till the gag was removed, and then I could rectify the error. Meanwhile I sat quietly, trying to possess my soul in patience. The bigger man leant forward, and seemed by his attitude to be steadily gazing at me through his mask. Something in the way in which he turned his face to me, though I could only see the lower half of it, sent my mind back to the old beggar-woman who had tried to tell my fortune at the tavern porch. Then the man began to speak. And though now he spoke in a clear and precise English, whereas the old woman had gabbled in a sort of nasal Italian, yet there was something in the pitch and intonation of the voice which confirmed my surmise. This was none other than the old beggar-woman herself. Now, of course, it was clear how the mistake had arisen, especially as the porch had only been dimly lit by the swinging lamp, and my face was tanned out of recognition by the southern sun. But it still seemed a strange coincidence that I should have stumbled right into the trap that had evidently been laid for another. "I am going to tell you a story," he said.