Her example was followed by Marianna and Mila, while Ada, though pale and trembling, had pointed the telescope towards the spot, for the purpose of discovering whether any human beings had succeeded in gaining the shore. Not a vestige of the wreck could she see; but on the summit of the cliff, above where she supposed the vessel must have struck, she beheld a person, whom she concluded was old Vlacco, waving, as if to some one below. He and his followers then disappeared down the cliffs.
“There is hope yet, Nina—there is hope yet!” she exclaimed joyfully. “Thank Heaven! some may have escaped.”
Chapter Twenty Four.
The morning preceding the storm I have described was very lovely, and the pirate chief had gone out at an early hour; and was standing on the edge of the cliff overlooking the harbour and the sea, while he meditated on the plan of some future predatory expedition he had proposed to himself to undertake on board the Sea Hawk. He was interrupted in a short time by the appearance of one of his followers, who had come up the ravine from the bay below.
“Pardon, chief, for my thus coming on you without warning; but I have tidings of importance to communicate,” said the man, making a reverential obeisance.
“What is it, Baldo?” asked Zappa. “Haste, I am always impatient of news.”
“It is this, chief. A boat arrived this morning, soon after break of day, from the island of Naeiri, and a man, who has come in her, Gerassimo Listi, one of the scouts, states that a British ship of war has been anchored some days at the farther end of it, and that he suspects—”
“Where is the man, this Gerassimo Listi?” exclaimed Zappa, interrupting him suddenly. “I want not to hear his suspicions—I will examine him—where is he, I say?”