"Do they close the door at the bottom of this tower at night?" enquired Cosmo. "That is a matter worth consideration especially for those like you, for instance, who have a soft bed to go to for the night." The young than put his head on one side and looked at his interlocutor with a faint smile. "You don't seem to care," he said. "So I conclude I need not. As long as you are content to stay here I am safe enough. I followed you up the stairs, you know." The man with the pipe stood up abruptly. "You followed me here? Why did you do that, in the name of all the saints?" The young man laughed as if at a good joke. "Because you were walking in front of me. There was nobody else in view near the Mole. Suddenly you disappeared. Then I saw that the door at the bottom of the tower was open and I walked up the stairs on to this platform. And I would have been very surprised if I hadn't found you here." The man in the strange cap ornamented with a tassel had taken his pipe out of his mouth to listen. "That was all?" "Yes, that was all." "Nobody but an Englishman would behave like that," commented the other to himself, a slight appearance of apprehension passing over his features. "You are an eccentric people." "I don't see anything eccentric in what I've done. I simply wanted to walk out of the town. The Mole was as good as any other part. It is very pleasant here." A slight breeze touched the two men's faces, while they stood silent, looking at each other. "I am but an idle traveller," said Cosmo easily. "I arrived this morning by land. I am glad I had the idea to come out here to behold your town glowing in the sunset and to get a sight of a vessel belonging to Elba. There can't be very many of them. But you, my friend . . ." "I have as much right to idle away my time here as any English traveller," interrupted the man hastily. "It is very pleasant here," repeated the young traveller, staring into the dusk which had invaded the platform of the tower. "Pleasant?" repeated the other. "Yes, perhaps. The last time I was on this platform I was only ten years old. A solid round shot was spinning and rattling all over the stone floor. It made a wondrous disturbance and seemed a living thing full of fury." "A solid shot!" exclaimed Cosmo, looking all over the smooth flagstones as if expecting to see the traces of that visitation. "Where did it come from?" "It came from an English brig belonging to Milord Keith's Squadron. She stood in quite close and opened fire on us. . . . Heaven only knows why. The audacity of your people! A single shot from one of those big fellows," he continued, slapping the enormous bulging breech of the gun by his side, "would have been enough to sink her like a stone." "I can well believe it. But the fearlessness of our seamen has ceased to astonish the world long ago," murmured the young traveller.