y, he had offered his
services, which were too valuable to be refused.

The last person was really a Maltese seaman, long a faithful attendant
on Fleetwood. He was to be put forward as the most prominent person,
should any doubt arise as to their being really Maltese.

As the reader may have suspected, the shipwreck was the result of design
rather than chance or mismanagement; and though they had long been
waiting for a gale of wind, better to account for it, and as the most
certain means of getting a footing on the island, they had scarcely
bargained for one of such violence.

As, however, Captain Vassilato was confident of the spot, they resolved
to stand on. They well knew the danger they were running--for they felt
that it would be almost certain death, should the pirates discover them;
but they had strung up their nerves for the work, and all were anxious
to serve Captain Fleetwood, and to rescue Ada Garden from captivity.

Fleetwood had thrown himself on his couch, thinking of Ada, and
pondering how he might beat obtain an interview with her, when the door
slowly opened, and a dark figure entered, holding a light in his hand.
He attentively scrutinised the countenances of the sleepers, and then
stopping before Fleetwood, he threw the light full on his face, so as to
awaken him thoroughly, had he slept, and beckoned to him.

Fleetwood sprang to his feet.

"Follow me, signor," whispered the stranger, in Italian. "I have come
to conduct you into the presence of one you have long wished to meet."

"To the English lady?" he asked, his voice trembling with agitation.

The stranger laid his finger on his lips as a signal of silence, and
beckoned him to follow.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

After the _Ione_ had left Cephalonia, she commenced her intricate
passage among the innumerable isles and islets of the Grecian
Archipelago, towards Lissa, in the neighbourhood of which his new friend
Teodoro Vassilato, the captain of the _Ypsilante_, had appointed a
rendezvous with Captain Fleetwood.

On first starting, they were favoured with a fair breeze; but no sooner
did they get among the labyrinthine mazes of the islands, than a foul
wind set in, and delayed them in a manner which sorely tried Fleetwood's
impatient spirit. Any one who has cruised among those islands will know
the difficulty of the navigation, and the necessity for constant
watchfulness. Besides the thousand islands and islets, there are, in
every