om several points."

"I think you are right, Gervaise. Let us hurry down with the news. It
may be that it is a village which has been attacked by pirates who have
landed on the other side of the island during the night, for I can see
no ships in the bay."

A few minutes' run and they stood on the shore.

"Quick, men!" Ralph said to the rowers of the boat that had brought them
ashore. "Row your hardest."

The slaves bent to their oars, and they were soon alongside the galley,
which lay two or three hundred yards from the shore. Those on board had
noticed the young knights running down the hill, and, marking the speed
at which the boat was rowing, concluded at once that they must have
observed one of the pirate's ships.

"Do you see anything of them, Sir Ralph?" the commander shouted, as they
came close.

"We have seen no ships, Sir Louis, but there is smoke coming up from a
bay in an island four or five miles away to the southwest. It seems to
us that it is far too extensive a fire to be the result of an accident,
for there was no smoke until within two or three minutes of the time we
left, and before we started it was rising from several points, and we
both think that it must come from a village that has been attacked by
pirates."

The commander rapidly issued his orders, and in two or three minutes the
anchor was weighed, the boat hoisted on deck, and the oars in motion.

"Stretch to your oars!" Ricord shouted to the slaves. "Hitherto we have
exacted no toil from you, but you have to work now, and woe be to him
who does not put out his full strength."

Grateful for the unusual leniency with which they had been treated,
the slaves bent to their oars, and the galley sped rapidly through the
water. On rounding the end of the island there was an exclamation of
satisfaction from the knights as they saw wreaths of white smoke rising
from the distant island.

"There can be no doubt that it is a village in flames," Sir Louis said;
"and from the suddenness with which it broke out, it is clear that it
must have been fired at several points. You say you saw no craft near?"
he asked, turning to Harcourt.

"There were none there, or from the top of the hill we should assuredly
have made them out, Sir Louis."

"Then the pirates--if this be, as I hope, their work--must have landed
at some other point on the island, and if they catch sight of us they
may make for their ship and slip away, unobserved by us. Instead of
r