From the first, we considered it so certain that the men who carried off your daughters would take them to some hiding place where Mocenigo could speedily join them, that San Nicolo never entered my mind.

I own that it was very stupid, for it seems now to me that the natural thing for them to do, would be to take them in the very opposite direction to that in which the search for them would be made." The story had been frequently interrupted by exclamations of surprise by Polani.

At its conclusion, he laid his hand on Francis' shoulder.
"My dear boy," he said, "How can I thank you! You seem to me to be born to be the preserver of my daughters.

I cannot doubt that your suspicion is correct, and that they are confined in this hut at San Nicolo.

How fortunate that you did not denounce this conspiracy--for conspiracy no doubt it is--that you discovered, for, had you done so, some other place would have been selected for the girls' prison." "I would not be too sanguine, sir.