"How dark it is here," Lady Holme said in a low voice. "And what strange
noises there are."
There was terror in the sound of the waterfall heard under this curving
roof of stone. It sounded like a quantity of disputing voices,
quarrelling in the blackness of the night. The arrow of light lay on a
step, and the boat's prow grated gently against a large ring of rusty
iron.
"And you tie up the boat here at night?" she asked as she got up.
"Si, signora."
While she stood on the step, close to the black water, he passed the rope
through the ring, and tied it deftly in a loose knot that any backward
movement of the boat would tighten. She watched with profound attention
his hands moving quickly in the faint light cast by the lantern.
"How well you tie it," she said.
He smiled.
"Si, signora."
"Is it easy to untie?"
"Si, signora."
"Show me, will you? It--it holds so well that I should have thought it
would be difficult."
He looked up at her with a flash of surprise. Something in her voice had
caught his young attention sharply. She smiled at him when she saw the
keen inquiry in his large eyes.
"I'm interested in all these little things you do so well," she said.
He flushed with pride, and immediately untied the knot, carefully,
showing her exactly how he did it.
"Thank you. I see. It's very ingenious."
"Si, signora. I can do many things like that."
"You are a clever boy, Paolo.
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