Do you know with what inducement, or on what business, Raoul Yvard came into the Bay of Naples yesterday ?" "To own to you the candid truth, 'squire, I do not," answered Ithuel, simply; for the nature of the tie which bound the young Frenchman so closely to Ghita was a profound mystery, in all that related to its more sacred feelings, to a being generally so obtuse on matters of pure sentiment.
"Captain Rule is a good deal given to prying about on the coast; and what particular eend he had in view in this expedition I cannot tell you.

His a'r'n'ds in shore, I must own, be sometimes onaccountable!--Witness the island of Elby, gentlemen." Ithuel indulged in a small laugh as he made this allusion; for, in his own way, he had a humor in which he occasionally indulged, after a manner that belonged to the class of which he was a conspicuous member.
"Never mind what occurred at Elba.

Prisoner, do you wish to question the witness ?" "Etuelle," asked Raoul, "do you not know that I love Ghita Caraccioli ?" "Why, Captain Rule, I know you think so and say so--but I set down all these matters as somewhat various and onaccountable." "Have I not often landed on the enemy's coast solely to see her and to be near her ?" By this time Ithuel, who was a little puzzled at first to understand what it all meant, had got his cue, and no witness could have acquitted himself better than he did from that moment.
"That you have," he answered; "a hundred times at least; and right in the teeth of my advice." "Was not my sole object, in coming into the Bay yesterday, to find Ghita, and Ghita only ?" "Just so.

Of that, gentlemen, there can be no more question than there is about Vesuvius standing up at the head of the Bay, smoking like a brick-kiln.

That _was_ Captain Rule's sole a'r'n'd." "I just understood ye to say, witness," put in Lyon, "and that only a bit since, that ye did not know the prisoner's motive in coming into the Bay of Naples.