And then the recognition came, instantaneous and mutual. Cosmo simply said, "Hallo!" while the man, letting himself fall to the ground, uttered in a voice faint with emotion, "My Englishman!" "There were two of them," said Cosmo. "Two? Did they see you?" Cosmo assured him that they had not. The other, still agitated by the unexpectedness of that meeting, asked, incredulous and even a little suspicious: "What am I to think, then? How could you know that they were my friends?" Cosmo disregarded the question. "You will be caught if you linger here," he whispered. The other, as though he had not heard the warning, insisted: "How could they have mentioned my name to you?" "They mentioned no names. . . . Run." "I don't think they are there now," said the fugitive. "Yes. There was noise enough to scare anybody away," commented Cosmo. "What have you done?" The other made no answer, and in the pause both men listened intently. The night remained dark. Cosmo thought: "Some smuggling affair," and the other muttered to himself, "I have misled them." He sat up by the side of Cosmo and put Cosmo's hat, which he had been apparently holding all the time, on the ground between them. "You are a cool hand," said Cosmo. "The soldiers . . ." "Who cares for the soldiers? They can't run." "They have muskets, though." "Oh, yes. I heard the shots and wondered at whom they were fired." "At me. That's why I have got in here. There is one of them who can see in the dark," explained Cosmo, who had been very much impressed. His friend of the tower emitted a little chuckle. "And so you have hidden yourself in here. Soldiers, water, and fire soon make room for themselves. But they did not know who they were after. They got the alarm from that beast." He paused suddenly, and Cosmo asked: "Who was after you?" "One traitor and God knows how many _sbirri._ If they had been only ten minutes later they would have never set eyes on me." "I wonder they didn't manage to cut you off, if they were so many," said Cosmo. "They didn't know. Look! Even now I have deceived them by doubling back. You see I was in a house." He seemed to hesitate. "Oh, yes," said Cosmo. "Saying good-bye." The man by his side made a slight movement and preserved a profound silence for a time. "As I have no demon," he began slowly, "to keep me informed about other people's affairs, I must ask you what you were doing here?" "Why, taking the air like that other evening. But why don't you try to get away while there is time?" "Yes, but where?" "You were going to leave Genoa," said Cosmo. "Either on a very long or a very deadly journey."