by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER III
A MOMENTOUS SECRET REVEALED
"Three whistles from the Guardian-Mother," said Felix, the lookoutman,walking up to the forward windows of the pilot-house, and speaking witha low voice.
"Three whistles, and I heard them, Flix," returned Captain Scott, as heput the helm to starboard. "Where is Morris?"
"I think he is in the cabin studying Assyria and Babylon," replied Felixwith a mild laugh, as he thought this was an odd occupation for thefirst officer of the Maud; for he was little inclined to be a studenthimself, though he was an attentive listener at the lectures.
Felix returned to his place in the bow, and directed the spy-glass,which he carried with him most of the time, whether on duty or not, inthe direction of the Fatime. He had a taste for the business of adetective in the higher walks of that profession, and the commander hadrecognized his ability. He had been employed to ascertain whether thepirate was in the waters of Egypt, having been the first to suspect herpresence; and he had proved the fact beyond a doubt.
Accompanied by John Donald, the second engineer of the Maud, who spokeArabic, he had followed Mazagan to Rosetta, where he found the Fatime,having evidently made a port there to escape the observation of thecommander of the Guardian-Mother and his people. The villain and hisassistant had failed to lead Captain Ringgold into the traps set forhim.
Having failed in their attempts to accomplish anything at Alexandria,the conspirators had followed the party to Cairo. Louis and Felix weresitting on a bench in the Ezbekiyeh, a park in front of their hotel,when Mazagan and the Frenchman approached them, and wished to make acompromise, which the Moor desired the young millionaire to recommend tothe commander. The agent of the Pacha informed the young man that he wasto receive a reward of forty thousand dollars for the capture andconveyance to Mogadore of either Louis or Miss Blanche, or both of them,or one-half that sum if he failed; and he proposed to compromise.
The use of the steam-yacht was given to him to accomplish this purpose.Mazagan was, or pretended to be, discouraged by the several failures hehad made in effecting his object, and he proposed that the commandershould pay him twenty thousand dollars, and then he would collect theother half of the promised stipend of the Pacha, as the promised rewardin case of failure.
The pirate proved that he was a very mean and treacherous pirate, aswilling to sell out his friend as his foe, and Louis was more disgustedthan ever with him. He spoke his mind freely to the villain, andabsolutely refused to recommend the treachery to the commander. He wouldas soon have compromised with the Evil One for the sale of hisprinciples. The approach of Captain Ringgold terminated the interview,and the rascals made haste to retreat. After this they made an attemptto capture Louis, and the detective had been shot in the shoulder.
What the conspirators intended or expected to accomplish since thesefailures of course none of those interested could know, and it onlyremained for them to watch the movements of the Fatime, and to beconstantly on their guard against any possible attempt on the part ofthe reprobates to carry out their purpose. Only the commander of theGuardian-Mother and the three members of the "Big Four" could take theseprecautions, for no others knew anything at all about the necessity forthem.
Felix used his glass very diligently. The Guardian-Mother did not changeher course, and the Moorish steamer, which was now hardly a mile fromher, was still headed to the eastward. Whether the latter would dodgeinto the port of Rosetta or Damietta, or give chase to the Maud, was yetto be demonstrated; and the lookoutman was watching for a movement ofthis kind.
"The ship is stirring up a good deal of salt water under her stern,"said Felix, walking over to the pilot-house. "You can see by the powerof smoke she is sending out at her funnel that the chief engineer isdriving her."
"I can see that she has increased her distance from us; but according tothe commander's orders I have directed Felipe to run her not more thaneight or nine knots," replied the captain of the Maud. "How far ahead ofthe Guardian-Mother is the pirate, Felix?"
"Not more than a mile, as nearly as I can make it out," replied Felix."But she is making the fur fly, and if the pirate don't want her to comealongside of her, or get a position where her people can overlook herdeck, she will change her course within the next ten minutes;" and thelookoutman returned to his place in the bow.
"It is lucky for that pirate that your humble servant is not in commandof the Guardian-Mother," said Captain Scott.
"Do you think yourself competent to command a steamer like theGuardian-Mother, my dear fellow?" asked Louis, with a rather quizzicalexpression on his face.
"I know I am!" exclaimed Captain Scott emphatically; and he did not lackconfidence in himself. "Why not? If I can navigate the Maud, I could dothe same with the Guardian-Mother; for the size of the vessel don't makeany difference in the navigation as long as both of them go out to seaoff soundings. I suppose you doubt what I say?"
"I do not; for I am not a qualified judge in the matter," repliedLouis, who was considerably surprised at the amount of confidence thecaptain of eighteen years of age had in himself. "But why is it luckyfor the pirate that Captain Ringgold, instead of Captain Scott, happensto be in command of the ship?"
"Because I should serve her as the commander did another steamer ofabout the size of the pirate, on the run of the ship from Bermuda toNassau, I believe it was, for I was not on board at the time," repliedthe captain, with decision enough in his tones and manner to indicatethat he would do what he suggested. "I have heard Flix tell all aboutthe affair; and in his estimation Hercules and General Grant werenothing at all compared with Captain Ringgold, when he tells the story.I think he believes the commander is the greatest man that is or everwas in this world, with the possible exception of yourself."
"That steamer was sailing illegally under the name of the Maud, for herproper name was the Viking; but Captain Ringgold ran into her andsmashed a big hole in her port bow."
"As I would in one of the bows of the pirate."
"But there was a reason for it; I was a prisoner on board of that Maud,or Viking--captured as this pirate would serve me if he got a chance."
"I would sink him before he got the chance, rather than after he hadpicked you up," persisted the captain.
"I doubt if that would be a prudent measure," replied Louis, shaking hishead.
"The pirate has changed her course to the southward," said Felix, comingto the window of the pilot-house again.
"What does that mean?" demanded the captain.
"It means that she is going to make a port at Rosetta."
"She is about off the Rosetta mouth of the Nile; but she is doing thatonly to shake off the Guardian-Mother. What is the ship doing, Flix?"
"She continues on her course, and takes no notice of the pirate;" andthe lookout returned to his station.
Captain Scott rang the gong in the engine-room, and the screw of theMaud immediately ceased to revolve. The sea was comparatively smooth,and the little steamer rolled on the waves but slightly. As soon as thescrew stopped, and the little craft began to roll on the long swell,Morris Woolridge put aside the "Chambers's" in which he had been readingup Assyria and Babylon, and went out of the cabin into thestanding-room. He looked about him to ascertain the cause of thestoppage; but he could make nothing of it.
He was a good skipper himself, and he did not like to ask Captain Scottto explain the situation; for since he had gone into the cabin therelative positions of the three steamers had decidedly changed. His ideawas that the Maud should follow the ship as usual; but she had droppedat least a couple of miles astern of her, and the Fatime was headed tothe southward. He could not understand the matter at all, and hecontinued to study upon it.
Louis had come out of the pilot-house, and, looking aft, he discoveredMorris, and saw that he was perplexed by the situation, and that Assyriawas no longer the subject of his meditations.
"Morris is in the standing-room, and I have no doubt he is wondering whywe are wasting our steam just he
re, when the ship is going ahead at fullspeed," said he to the captain. "Don't you think the time has come?"
"No doubt of it," answered the captain.
These last remarks may seem a little mysterious; but the presentsituation had been foreseen by Captain Ringgold. Morris was the firstofficer, and if the momentous secret was to be kept from him any longer,it would require an amount of lying and deception which was utterlyrepugnant to the principles of both the commander and Louis. Therepresentative of the Woolridge family on board of the Maud must be leftwith his father and mother and sister on the ship, or the whole truthmust be told to the son. Thus far no lies had been necessary; and thecaptain did not believe it would be wrong for him to conceal what wouldbe dangerous to the peace of mind of his passengers.
As long as Captain Ringgold conscientiously believed that neither MissBlanche nor Louis was in any peril, he considered it his duty to concealfrom their parents the plot of the Pacha and his agents. He was surethat neither Mrs. Woolridge nor Mrs. Belgrave would consent to continuethe voyage even in the face of a very remote danger to their children.He had abundant resources on board, including his two twelve-pounders,for their protection; and he had used them on one occasion, though hispassengers did not understand the reason of the attack made on the Maud.
This subject had been considered before the vessels sailed fromAlexandria, and the commander declared that he could not adopt thescheme of Scott, if they were to be required to utter no end offalsehoods to Morris; and Louis absolutely refused to do so. They hadfinally compromised by making the owner a committee of one to conferwith the subject of the difficulty when the time for action came. Likethe others, Morris was to be pledged to secrecy for the peace andcomfort of the mothers. If he refused to give the pledge, the plan ofCaptain Scott was to be abandoned, and the Maud was to place herselfimmediately under the wing of the Guardian-Mother again. The time foraction on this subject had come.
"I will go aft and have a talk with Morris; and I am only afraid he willfly off at the want of confidence in him we have shown," said Louis.
"But his case is not a whit different from your own; for you have amother in the cabin as well as he," added the captain.
"But we have concealed everything from him for months; but Morris is asgood a fellow as ever sailed the seas, and he will be reasonable."
"I pledged myself to secrecy, and I think we had better make the 'BigFour' a society for the protection of this secret till the end of thevoyage."
"We will consider that at another time," replied Louis as he moved aft.
He found Morris still looking about in order to solve what was a mysteryto him, as it must have been to the engineers and the cook; but theywere paid employes, and it was not proper for them to ask any questions.
"Anything broken down, Louis?" asked Morris, as his watch-mate took aseat at his side.
"Nothing at all," replied the owner. "Do you believe, Morris, that youcould keep a very important secret if the peace and happiness of yourbest friends on earth depended upon it?"
"I know I could, even from my mother, from whom I never kept a secretexcept once, when I heard the doctor say something about the health ofBlanche last winter, not long before we sailed in the yacht. I knew thatit would worry the life out of her," replied Morris very seriously.
"This is a case just like that; and if the secret came out it wouldworry the life out of your mother and mine, and perhaps seriously affectthe health of Miss Blanche."
"There is my hand, and I will pledge myself to any honest secret you mayimpart to me; for I know you would not lead me to do anything wrong."
"I would jump overboard before I would lead you astray, Morris,"protested Louis as he took the offered hand, and the pledge wasexchanged.
It required two hours to tell the whole story of the operations ofCaptain Mazagan, begun at Constantinople four months before, includingthe discovery of the plot of the conspirators in the cafe at Gallipoli.
Morris was astonished at the explanation given him of several incidentswith which he was familiar. He quite agreed with Louis as to thenecessity of keeping the secret; for his mother would worry herself intoa fit of sickness if she learned the truth. He agreed that there was noalternative between abandoning the excursion, which would be a greatgrief to him, and confining the secret to those who now knew it; and herepeated his pledge with more earnestness than before.