I waited quietly,
therefore, with a heart which burned with rage, until my
opportunity should come.
How long I lay there at the bottom of the boat I can not tell;
but it seemed to me to be a long time, and always there were the
hiss of the waters and the steady creaking of the oar. Several
times we turned corners, for I heard the long, sad cry which
these gondoliers give when they wish to warn their fellows that
they are coming. At last, after a considerable journey, I felt
the side of the boat scrape up against a landing-place. The
fellow knocked three times with his oar upon wood, and in answer
to his summons I heard the rasping of bars and the turning of
keys. A great door creaked back upon its hinges.
"Have you got him?" asked a voice, in Italian.
My monster gave a laugh and kicked the sack in which I lay.
"Here he is," said he.
"They are waiting." He added something which I could not
understand.
"Take him, then," said my captor. He raised me in his arms,
ascended some steps, and I was thrown down upon a hard floor.
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