Without speaking, he wrote hastily, with a pencil, a few words on the envelope of a letter, and inclosing a piece of coin in its folds, he moved with a cautious step to the balcony.

A signal was given, and all awaited in breathless silence the answer.

Presently they heard the wash of the water caused by the movement of a gondola beneath the window.

Stepping forward again, Don Camillo dropped the paper with such precision that he distinctly heard the fall of the coin in the bottom of the boat.

The gondolier scarce raised his eyes to the balcony, but commencing an air much used on the canals, he swept onward, like one whose duty called for no haste.
"That has succeeded!" said Don Camillo, when he heard the song of Gino.
"In an hour my agent will have secured the felucca, and all now depends on our own means of quitting the palace unobserved.