a sudden shout of, "Mind where you are going!"

Then there was a crash of two gondolas striking each other, followed by
an outburst of shouts and cries of alarm, with, Francis thought, the
clash of swords.

"Row, Giuseppi!" he exclaimed, leaping from his seat and catching up
the other oar; and with swift and powerful strokes the two lads drove
the gondola towards the scene of what was either an accident, or an
attempt at crime.

They had no doubt which it was when they arrived at the spot. A
four-oared gondola lay alongside that of the Polanis, and the
gondoliers with their oars, and the two retainers with their swords,
had offered a stout resistance to an armed party who were trying to
board her from the other craft, but their resistance was well nigh over
by the time Francis brought his gondola alongside.

One of the retainers had fallen with a sword thrust through his body,
and a gondolier had been knocked overboard by a blow from an oar. The
two girls were standing up screaming, and the surviving retainer was
being borne backwards by three or four armed men, who were slashing
furiously at him.

"Quick, ladies, jump into my boat!" Francis exclaimed as he came
alongside, and, leaning over, he dragged them one after the other into
his boat, just as their last defender fell.

With a fierce oath the leader of the assailants was about to spring
into the gondola, when Francis, snatching up his oar, smote him with
all his strength on the head as he was in the act of springing, and he
fell with a heavy splash into the water between the boats.

A shout of alarm and rage rose from his followers, but the gondolas
were now separated, and in another moment that of Francis was flying
along the canal at the top of its speed.

"Calm yourselves, ladies," Francis said. "There is no fear of pursuit.
They will stop to pick up the man I knocked into the canal, and by the
time they get him on board we shall be out of their reach."

"What will become of the signora?" the eldest girl asked, when they
recovered a little from their agitation.

"No harm will befall her, you may be sure," Francis said. "It was
evidently an attempt to carry you off, and now that you have escaped
they will care nothing for your duenna. She seemed to have lost her
head altogether, for as I lifted you into the boat she clung so fast to
your garments that I fancy a portion of them were left in her grasp."

"Do you know where to take us? I see you are go