es fell upon her,
she lifted her veil for air. Francis recognized her instantly. For a
moment he stopped rowing, and then dipped his oar in as before.
Directly the other gondola passed through the bridge behind him, and
his own had got beyond the circle of light, he swept it suddenly round.

Giuseppi gave an exclamation of surprise.

"Giuseppi, we have luck at last. Did you notice that gondola we met
just now? The woman sitting in it is Castaldi, the woman who betrayed
the signoras."

"What shall we do, Messer Francisco?" Giuseppi, who had become almost
as interested in the search as his master, asked. "There was only a
single gondolier and one other man. If we take them by surprise we can
master them."

"That will not do, Giuseppi. The woman would refuse to speak, and
though they could force her to do so in the dungeons, the girls would
be sure to be removed the moment it was known she was captured. We must
follow them, and see where they go to. Let us get well behind them, so
that we can just make them out in the distance. If they have a
suspicion that they are being followed, they will land her at the first
steps and slip away from us."

"They are landing now, signor," Giuseppi exclaimed directly afterwards.
"Shall we push on and overtake them on shore?"

"It is too late, Giuseppi. They are a hundred and fifty yards away, and
would have mixed in the crowd, and be lost, long before we should get
ashore and follow them. Row on fast, but not over towards that side. If
the gondola moves off, we will make straight for the steps and try to
follow them, though our chance of hitting upon them in the narrow lanes
and turnings is slight indeed.

"But if, as I hope, the gondola stops at the steps, most likely they
will return to it in time. So we will row in to the bank a hundred
yards farther up the canal and wait."

The persons who had been seen in the gondola had disappeared when they
came abreast of it, and the gondolier had seated himself in the boat,
with the evident intention of waiting. Francis steered his gondola at a
distance of a few yards from it as he shot past, but did not abate his
speed, and continued to row till they were three or four hundred yards
farther up the canal. Then he turned the gondola, and paddled
noiselessly back until he could see the outline of the boat he was
watching.

An hour elapsed before any movement was visible. Then Francis heard the
sound of footsteps, and could just make ou