ere they to
venture into the narrow channels. It was a question of speed alone, and
so hard did they row that the gondola in pursuit gained but slowly on
them, and they were still two lengths ahead when they dashed up to the
steps of the church.

Simultaneously they sprang on shore, leaped up the steps, and dashed
off at the top of their speed, hearing, as they did so, a crash as the
gondola ran into their light craft. There was a moment's delay, as the
men had to step across their boat to gain the shore, and they were
fifty yards ahead before they heard the sound of their pursuers' feet
on the stone steps; but they were lightly clad and shoeless, and
carried nothing to impede their movements, and they had therefore
little fear of being overtaken.

After racing on at the top of their speed for a few minutes, they
stopped and listened. The sound of their pursuers' footsteps died away
in the distance; and, after taking a few turns to put them off their
track, they pursued their way at a more leisurely pace.

"They have smashed the gondola," Giuseppi said with a sob, for he was
very proud of the light craft.

"Never mind the gondola," Francis said cheerfully. "If they had smashed
a hundred it would not matter."

"But the woman has got away and we have learned nothing," Giuseppi
said, surprised at his master's cheerfulness.

"I think we have learned something, Giuseppi. I think we have learned
everything. I have no doubt the girls are confined in that hut on San
Nicolo. I wonder I never thought of it before; but I made so sure that
they would be taken somewhere close to where Mocenigo was staying, that
it never occurred to me that they might hide them out there. I ought to
have known that that was just the thing they would do, for while the
search would be keen among the islets near the land, and the villages
there, no one would think of looking for them on the seaward islands.

"I have no doubt they are there now. That woman came ashore to report
to his friends, and that four-oared boat which has chased us was in
waiting off Saint Mark's, to attack any boat that might be following
them.

"We will go to Signor Polani at once and tell him what has happened. I
suppose it is about one o'clock now, but I have not noticed the hour.
It was past eleven before we first met the gondola, and we must have
been a good deal more than an hour lying there waiting for them."

A quarter of an hour's walking took them to the palaz