by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER I
PREPARING TO OUTWIT THE ENEMY
"Only one great mistake has been made, Louis Belgrave," said CaptainGeorge Scott Fencelowe.
He was a young man of eighteen; but the title by which he was addressedwas genuine so far as his position was actually concerned, though itwould hardly have passed muster before a court of admiralty of theUnited States, whose flag was displayed on the ensign-staff at thestern. The vessel was a small steam-yacht, only forty feet in length,but furnished in a miniature way with most of the appliances of aregular steamer.
She had a cabin twelve feet long, whose broad divans could be changedinto berths for the four principal personages on board of her. Abaftthis apartment was a standing-room with seating accommodations for eightpersons, or twelve with a little crowding, with luxurious cushions andan awning overhead when needed.
Her pilot-house, engine-room, galley, and forecastle were as regular asthough she had been an ocean steamer of a thousand tons. Her ordinaryspeed was ten knots an hour; but she could be driven up to twelve on anemergency, and had even made a trifle more than this when anextraordinary effort was required of the craft.
She had been built for a Moorish Pacha of the highest rank and ofunbounded wealth, who had ordered that no expense should be spared inher construction and outfit. She was built of steel as strong as it waspossible to build a vessel of any kind; and in more than one heavy galeon the Mediterranean she had proved herself to be an unusually able andweatherly craft.
Though she had formerly been called the Salihe, her name had beenchanged by her later American owners to the Maud. Everything about herwas as luxurious as it was substantial. She had a ship's company ofseven persons, only two of whom had reached and passed their majority,the other five varying in age from fifteen to eighteen.
The principal personages were boys, three of them having attained themature age of eighteen, while the fourth was only fifteen. This quartetsometimes called themselves the "Big Four," though it was a borroweddesignation, meaning something entirely different from its presentsignification. Captain Scott had been the first to apply the term; andhe had done so simply because it tickled the tympanum of his ear, and itreally meant nothing at all.
The Maud was the consort, or more properly the tender, of theGuardian-Mother, a steam-yacht of over six hundred tons' burden, nowengaged in making a voyage around the world. In a preceding volume itwas related in what manner Louis Belgrave became a millionaire, withfifty per cent more than money enough to entitle him to this ratherindefinite appellation. How he happened to be the proprietor of one ofthe finest steam-yachts that ever floated on the ocean was alsoexplained, through a somewhat complicated narrative, and the details ofa cruise to Bermuda, the Bahama Islands, and Cuba, followed by a voyageacross the Atlantic and up the Mediterranean, the steamer and her tenderhaving just sailed from Alexandria after the tour of Egypt.
The ship, as the larger steamer was generally called to distinguish herfrom the smaller one, was the Guardian-Mother. This may be regarded asrather an odd name for a steamship, but it had been selected by theyoung millionaire himself as a tribute of love, affection, and honor tohis mother; for they were devotedly attached to each other, and theirrelations were almost sentimental. Mrs. Belgrave was one of the mostimportant passengers in the cabin of the steamer.
Felix McGavonty was born in the United States, though his parents camefrom Ireland. He had been the companion of Louis Belgrave from theirearliest childhood; and as they grew older they became the mostconsummate cronies. Felix almost worshipped his friend, and thefriendship was mutual. He was a fair scholar, having attended theacademy at Von Blonk Park, where they lived. He could speak the Englishlanguage as well as a college professor; but he was very much given tospeaking with the Irish brogue, in honor of his mother he insisted, anddragged into his speech all the dialects known in the Green Isle, andperhaps supplemented them with some inventions of his own. That greatAmerican humorist might have said of Felix just what he did of thekangaroo.
Captain Scott had been a wild boy, in fact, a decidedly bad boy. He hadbeen picked up with his foster-father in the Bahamas. His only guardianbound him over to Captain Royal Ringgold, the commander of theGuardian-Mother, who had thoroughly and entirely reformed his life andcharacter. He was a natural-born sailor, and his abilities were of ahigh order in that direction. When the ship's company of the Maud wasorganized, Louis had brought his influence to bear in favor of electinghim to the command, for which he was vastly better qualified than anyother member of the "Big Four."
Squire Moses Scarburn, another of the all-over-the-world excursionists,was the trustee of Louis's million and a half. He was a jolly fat man,rising fifty years old. He was a lawyer by profession, and had sat uponthe bench, and Louis had always been an immense favorite with him. Hehad taken Felix into his house as an orphan; and his housekeeper, Mrs.Sarah Blossom, had cared for him in his childhood, looked after hismorals and the buttons on his shirts and trousers, till she became veryfond of him.
Just before the Guardian-Mother sailed on her cruise from New York, acouple of professional gentlemen, thrown overboard by the upsetting of asailing-yacht, were rescued from a watery grave by the people on boardof the steamer, largely by the exertions of Louis. One of them was Dr.Philip Hawkes, one of the most noted medical men of the great city. Hewas almost the counterpart of the trustee physically, weighing twohundred and twenty-six pounds and three-quarters, while the lawyer fella quarter of a pound short of these figures. They were continuallybantering each other about this difference.
The doctor called Uncle Moses, as the entire party addressed him,"Brother Avoirdupois;" and the lawyer retorted by christening thesurgeon "Brother Adipose Tissue." The conductor of the party in Egypthad called them both "cupids;" and this term became very popular for thetime. The other gentleman who had been saved from an untimely grave inthe bay was a learned Frenchman. Both of them were in feeble health fromoverwork; and they accepted invitations to join the party, the one asthe medical officer of the ship, and the other as the instructor in thelanguages as well as in the sciences generally, for which he wasabundantly competent.
Louis Belgrave, in passing through the incidents of the story, had madethe acquaintance of Mr. Lowell Woolridge, a Fifth Avenue millionaire andmagnate. He had formerly been a well-known sportsman; but he hadabandoned the race-course, though he kept up his interest in yachting.He was the owner of a large sailing schooner; and through this craftLouis and his mother became acquainted with the yachtsman's family,consisting of his wife, a son, and a daughter. The latter was a verybeautiful young lady of sixteen, whose face captivated everybody whocame into her presence; and Louis's mother had deemed it her duty towarn her son against the fascination of the maiden before he had foundhis million.
A slight illness had threatened the young lady with possibleconsequences, and the physicians had advised her father to take her toOrotava, in the Canary Islands. On the voyage the yacht had been nearlywrecked, and the family had been rescued by the officers and crew of theGuardian-Mother. The yacht sailed in company with the steamer; and theyvisited Mogadore, in Morocco. Here Ali-Noury Pacha, one of the richestand most influential magnates of the country, paid a visit to the ship.Unfortunately he saw the beautiful Blanche Woolridge, and was moreattentive to her than pleased her parents.
They were alarmed, for of course the Pacha was a Mohammedan. CaptainRinggold found a way out of the difficulty by towing the sailing-yachtout of the harbor; and both vessels hastened to Madeira. The Moorfollowed them in his steam-yacht, the Fatime; but the commander put tosea as soon as he realized the situation. At Gibraltar the Pachaconfronted the party again. The commander had learned at Funchal thatHis Highness was a villanously bad character, and he positively refusedto permit him to visit or to meet the lady passengers on board his ship.He was an honest, upright, and plain-spoken man. He stated that thePacha was not a suitable person to associate with Christian ladies.
This led to a personal attack upon the
stalwart commander, and the Pachawas knocked into the mud in the street. This had fanned his wrath to aroaring name, for he had been fined before an English court for theassault. His passion for revenge was even more determined than hisadmiration for the "houri," as he called the maiden. He had followed theship to Constantinople, engaged a felucca and a ruffian, assisted by aFrench detective, to capture the fair girl, as the story has alreadyinformed the reader in other volumes.
The national affairs of His Highness had called him home, but he hadapparently placed his steam-yacht in command of a Captain Mazagan; andthis ruffian, attended by Ulbach, the detective, had followed the partyto Egypt. The capture of Louis Belgrave, or the young lady, or both ofthem, was the object of the ruffian, who was to receive two hundredthousand francs if he succeeded, or half that sum if he failed. Louishad had a narrow escape from these ruffians in Cairo; but he had workedhis way out of the difficulty, assisted by a chance incident.
The Fatime had been discovered in the harbor of Alexandria before theGuardian-Mother and her tender sailed. The peril which menaced the younglady had been kept a profound secret from all except three of the "BigFour;" for the commander believed himself abundantly able to protect hispassengers, and the knowledge of the danger would have made the ladiesso nervous and terrified that Mrs. Belgrave and the Woolridges wouldhave insisted upon returning to New York, and abandoning the voyage fromwhich so much of pleasure and instruction was expected.
Captain Ringgold and Louis had considered the situation, and fullyrealized the intention of Captain Mazagan to follow the steamer and herlittle consort. They had agreed upon a plan, after Captain Scott andFelix, who was the detective of the ship, by which they hoped to "fool"the enemy, as the young commander expressed it. The Fatime had sailedearly in the morning, but she was soon discovered off the Bay of Abukir.The reader is now in condition to inquire into what Captain Scottregarded as the one great mistake that had been made in the arrangementsfor outwitting the Moorish steam-yacht.
The young captain was in the pilot-house of the Maud when the steamerwas discovered. He was the commander; but the smallness of the ship'scompany made it necessary for him to keep his own watch, which isusually done by the second mate for him. Morris Woolridge, who had hadconsiderable experience in his father's yacht, was the first officer,and there was no other. The young millionaire, in spite of his influenceas owner, had insisted on serving as a common sailor, or deck-hand, withFelix. There were two engineers and a cook, who will be presented whenthey are needed.
"What is the one great mistake, Captain Scott?" asked Louis, who stoodat the open window in front of the pilot-house.
"The single mistake of any consequence is in the fact that you are onboard of the Maud when you ought to be stowed away in the cabin of theGuardian-Mother," replied the captain very decidedly, with somethingbordering on disgust in his tones and manner. "Instead of keeping youout of danger, you are running just as straight into the lion's den asyou can go, Louis."
"Where is the lion's den, please to inform me," replied the youngmillionaire, scouting, in his tones and manner, any idea of peril tohimself which was not shared by his companions.
"On board of that four-hundred-ton steamer which you see off by thecoast."
"Do you think I ought to be any more afraid of her than the rest of thefellows?" demanded Louis. "Do you wish me to stand back and stay behinda fence while you face the enemy?"
"Of course I don't believe you are afraid, Louis, my dear fellow,"added Captain Scott, perhaps fearing he had said too much, or had beenmisunderstood.
But just at that moment Morris Woolridge came forward, and neither ofthem was willing to continue the conversation in his presence; for hemight fall into the possession of the secret which was so carefullyguarded.