g
lady laughing. "One cannot help conjuring up some romantic incident in
these lovely seas, and forgetting that in these matter-of-fact days
nothing of the sort is likely to occur; but I believe after all there
are some pencil marks on the paper." She held it up closer to the
light, and as she did so, her countenance grew graver. There were a few
lines written in pencil, but so faint that it was not surprising she
should, at first, not have remarked them. They were in Italian, and in
the peculiar handwriting of the people of that nation.

"Trust not to appearances," they said. "Avoid the polacca brig. The
story told you is false." At the bottom were the words, "An unwilling
actor," as if intended for a signature. There was nothing more to show
by whom they were written, though there could be but little doubt that
they were so by the young mariner, or by somebody who had employed him.
Ada translated them to her uncle, who was at a loss to comprehend their
meaning, further than that they contradicted the story they had just
heard from the lips of the very man who dropped the paper. He thought
over them for some time, and then summoned Mitchell, whom he directed to
request the captain's presence.

Ada was again called to translate them, when the captain appeared.

"And what do you think of them?" the colonel asked him.

"Why, sir, that they serve to confirm my suspicions, and those of my
mate, that the felucca is not honest, and that there is a good deal of
mystification going on somewhere or other."

"Then you don't believe the story of the Austrian brig having sent the
felucca to us?" asked the colonel.

"Not a bit of it, sir; and my firm opinion is, that if the rascals had
found us unprepared, she would have been alongside us before now. She
had more people on board her than when she left Malta harbour this
morning, though where they came from I can't say; and I'm positive as to
the craft, though the young man denied having been there for many a day.
I can't make it out."

"But what does this paper mean about the polacca brig, think you?" asked
the colonel.

Bowse thought for some time.

"I have it, sir!" he at length exclaimed, clapping his hand to his head.
"That's the brig those fellows wanted to make us suppose an Austrian
man-of-war. If they had taken less trouble we might have been taken
in."

"And what do you intend to do, Captain Bowse? Remember I am under your
orders, in the way of figh