and no one was left behind. The
commander had been the most busy, and those who saw the calm and
composed way in which he went about the business in which he was
occupied, could scarcely have supposed the anguish which had so lately
rent his mind. After he had spoken to his first lieutenant, he had
again gone on shore, and tried to find out the three Greeks who had
deposed to having been robbed by pirates; but as they had quitted Malta,
he looked over the copies of their depositions, and he there found it
stated that the vessel which had attacked theirs was a large polacca
brig, supposed to be the _Sea Hawk_, and there was further a full
description of her and her commander. The boatman, Manuel, was
examined, but little could be gleaned from him but a description of the
person he had put on board the speronara, which answered to that given
by the Greeks; and the conclusion arrived at was the correct one, that
he was no other than Zappa himself, and that he had employed the
speronara merely to bring him to Malta and to carry him on board his own
vessel, which must have remained all the time in the offing. It might
be supposed that Captain Fleetwood would first have gone in search of
the speronara, but he considered that by so doing he should lose much
valuable time without a prospect of gaining any adequate information;
and he therefore resolved at once to sail to the eastward, touching at
Cephalonia, on the chance of learning something to guide his future
course.

The moment the object of the voyage was known, there was not a man or
boy on board who did not zealously enter into it; and many became almost
as eager to fall in with the _Sea Hawk_, and to recover the prisoners,
if any were still alive, as could have been the commander himself. It
was the universal subject of conversation, morning, noon, and night, in
the gun-room, the midshipmen's berth, and at the messes of the petty
officers and men. Many a midnight watch was made to pass rapidly away
by discussions as to the probabilities of their success, and with yarns
of length interminable, about pirates and robberies on the high seas.
Far too sacred were held the feelings of the commander to allow any one
to allude even to the subject to him; and though he doubtlessly thought
more than any one else about it, he endeavoured to maintain his usual
tranquil exterior. It was sad, however, to perceive that anxiety was
rapidly thinning his cheek and dimming the lust