cheering:

"A few hundred paces farther."

"There are the lights, signor. They have not gone to bed. This is the
door."

Francis knocked with the pommel of his sword, keeping up a loud
continuous knocking. A minute or two passed, and then a face appeared
at the window above.

"Who is it that knocks so loudly at this time of night?"

"It is Francisco Hammond. Open instantly. Danger threatens the
signoras. Quick, for your life!"

The servant recognized the voice, and ran down without hesitation and
unbarred the fastening; but for a moment he thought he must have been
mistaken, as Francis ran into the lighted hall.

"Where are the ladies?" he asked. "Lead me to them instantly."

But as he spoke a door standing by was opened, and Signor Polani
himself, with the two girls, appeared. They had been on the point of
retiring to rest when the knocking began, and the merchant, with his
drawn sword, was standing at the door, when he recognized Francis'
voice.

They were about to utter an exclamation of pleasure at seeing him, and
of astonishment, not only at his sudden arrival, but at his appearance,
when Francis burst out:

"There is no time for a word. You must fly instantly. Ruggiero Mocenigo
is close at my heels with a band of twenty pirates."

The girls uttered a cry of alarm, and the merchant exclaimed:

"Can we not defend the house, Francisco? I have eight men here, and we
can hold it till assistance comes."

"Ruggiero has a hundred," Francis said, "and all can be brought up in a
short time--you must fly. For God's sake, do not delay, signor. They
may be here at any moment."

"Come, girls," Polani said.

"And you, too," he went on, turning to the servants, whom the knocking
had caused to assemble. "Do you follow us. Resistance would only cost
you your lives.

"Here, Maria, take my hand.

"Francisco, do you see to Giulia.

"Close the door after the last of you, and bolt it. It will give us a
few minutes, before they break in and discover that we have all gone.

"Which way are the scoundrels coming?"

Francis pointed in the direction from which he had come, and the whole
party started at a fast pace in the other direction. They had not been
gone five minutes, when a loud and sudden knocking broke on the silence
of the night.

"It was a close thing, indeed, Francisco," the merchant said, as they
ran along close to each other. "At present I feel as if I was in a
dream; but you shall tell us all prese