"This is awful, Matteo," Francis said, when his friend had finished his story.

"What is to be done ?" "That is just the thing, Francisco.

What is to be done?
My cousin has been already to the city magistrates, to tell them what has taken place, and to request their aid in discovering where the girls have been carried to.

I believe that he is going to put up a proclamation, announcing that he will give a thousand ducats to whomsoever will bring information which will enable him to recover the girls.

That will set every gondolier on the canals on the alert, and some of them must surely have noticed a closed gondola rowed by two men, for at this time of year very few gondolas have their covers on.