ter in an offhand way. But where do you say
the grumpy colonel and his pretty niece are going to; for the captain
must look sharp after her, or he'll be carrying her away somewhere
inland, out of sight of salt water, where he can't get at her."

"No fear of that; the old dragon has too great an opinion of his own
soldiership not to fancy that he can keep guard over his ward," observed
Raby. "But we'll see if a sailor can't weather on him. Nothing I
should like so much as to help the skipper, and I only hope he may ask
me. He hasn't much time to lose, either; for we heard that the colonel
and his niece were bound shortly for Cephalonia, or one of the Ionian
Islands, where he has got an appointment. If we were ordered there
also, we might find an opportunity; but, you see, the captain won't have
the chances of meeting her without being observed, which he has here,
and a hundred to one the uncle claps half a dozen lobsters as sentries
over her, if he sees the _Ione_ come off the place."

"Then I should be for carrying her off at once, if I were the captain,
and letting the old lion growl away without her," exclaimed Duff; and
the two midshipmen walked on fully persuading themselves into the hope,
that they should be called upon to assist their captain in running away
with Miss Garden.

There were few people abroad to interrupt their conversation; for the
heat of the sun kept most of the Maltese within doors. As the Italians,
or Spaniards, I forget which, observe, none but dogs and Englishmen walk
the streets when the sun shines in summer. There were, however,
sentries on duty, and a few seamen belonging to men of war; or
merchantmen of various nations would pass by; and here and there a
cowled priest, a woman in the dark faldetta, a ragged beggar boy--or an
old gentleman in three-cornered hat, a bag-wig, riding on a donkey, with
a big red cotton umbrella over his head, would appear from one of the
neighbouring streets, as necessity called him forth.

On the two happy youths went, careless of the heat, till they reached
that part of the ramparts called the lower Barraca. It is a broad open
space directly above the water, where stands a conspicuous object from
the sea, in the form of a Grecian temple, a monument to the memory of
that excellent man, and brave officer, Sir Alexander Ball, one of Lord
Nelson's most steemed captains. As they reached the spot, they
encountered a person, who was apparently about to des