re I in your case, I should put some trusty men
to watch round the house where he is confined; so that in case he
should escape the vigilance of his guards they might seize upon him.
Everything depends, as you say, upon his being kept in durance."

"I will do so, Francisco, at once. I will send to two of my officers at
the port, and tell them to pick out a dozen men on whom they can rely,
to proceed to Botonda, and to watch closely everyone who enters or
leaves the house, without at the same time making themselves
conspicuous. At any rate, they will be handy there in case Mocenigo's
friends attempt to rescue him by force, which might be done with
success, for the house he occupies stands at a short distance out of
the town, and the official in charge of Mocenigo has only eight men
with him.

"Yes, your advice is excellent, and I will follow it at once. Should
any other idea occur to you, pray let me know it immediately. You saved
my daughters once, and although I know there is no reason why it should
be so, still, I feel a sort of belief that you may, somehow, be
instrumental in their again being brought back to me."

"I will do my best, sir, you may depend upon it," Francis said
earnestly. "Were they my own sisters, I could not feel more strongly
interested in their behalf."

Francis spent the next week almost entirely in his gondola. Starting
soon after daybreak with Giuseppi, he would row across to the villages
on the mainland, and make inquiries of all sorts there; or would visit
the little groups of fishermen's huts, built here and there on posts
among the shallows. He would scan every house as he passed it, with the
vague hope that a face might appear at the window, or a hand be waved
for assistance. But, during all that time, he had found nothing which
seemed to offer the slightest clue, nor were the inquiries set on foot
by Signor Polani more successful. Every piece of information which
seemed to bear, in the slightest degree, upon the affair was
investigated, but in no case was it found of the slightest utility.

One evening he was returning late, tired by the long day's work, and
discouraged with his utter want of success, when, just as he had passed
under the Ponto Maggiore, the lights on the bridge fell on the faces of
the sitters in a gondola coming the other way. They were a man and a
woman. The latter was closely veiled. But the night was close and
oppressive, and, just at the moment when Francis' ey