"Really? You interest me, Heard. If you deny the susceptibility of a temperament like his, you deny the whole operation of externals upon character and action. You deny, for example, the success of the Roman Catholic Church which relies, for its moral effects, upon such optic appeals to the senses, and upon the ease with which transitory feelings can be transmuted into axioms of conduct. Do you deny this?" "Not at all. I have seen enough of their system to realize its extreme simplicity." "And then think of the peculiar history of this island and its situation as a converging-point for men of every race and every creed. All these things stimulate to rapid nervous discharges; that is, to inconsidered, foolish actions--" "All fools!" the boatman interrupted. "All foreigners! We people don't do these things. Only dam-fool foreigners. That so, gentlemens. They have trouble themselves, then they come to this rock and, boom! make trouble for their friends." "Boom!" echoed his son, who had apparently caught the drift of the old man's speech. Whereat the two Greek genii in the stern laughed immoderately; knowing, as they did, that the boy had not the slightest idea of what his father was talking about. "Boom!" they repeated, in derisive chorus. At that moment all the occupants of the boat pricked up their ears. A sound had reached them, a similar sound--a sound that recalled the distant firing of a big gun. Boom! It reverberated among the rocks. The rowers dropped their oars. Everyone listened. The sound came again. This time there was no question as to its origin. It was artillery, beyond a doubt. The old sailor had grown preternaturally grave. "IL CANNONE DEL DUCA," he said. The cannon of the Good Duke Alfred, never used save on urgent or solemn occasions, was being discharged. Then the boatman made another remark, in Italian, to Keith. "What does he say?" asked Mr. Heard. "He thinks they must be calling out the militia." Something was very wrong, up yonder, on the market-place. CHAPTER XIX