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[Illustration: "THE STERN OF THE FATIMA SUDDENLY WENT DOWN." Page 127.]
_All-Over-the-World Library--Second Series_
ASIATIC BREEZES
OR
STUDENTS ON THE WING
BY
OLIVER OPTIC
AUTHOR OF "THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD FIRST AND
SECOND SERIES" "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE
WOODVILLE STORIES" "THE ONWARD AND UPWARD SERIES" "THE LAKE SHORE
SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES" "THE BOAT
BUILDER SERIES" "THE BLUE AND THE GRAY AFLOAT" "THE BLUE AND THE GRAY ON
LAND" "STARRY FLAG SERIES" "ALL-OVER-THE-WORLD LIBRARY FIRST AND SECOND
SERIES" "A MISSING MILLION" "A MILLIONAIRE AT SIXTEEN" "A YOUNG
KNIGHT-ERRANT" "STRANGE SIGHTS ABROAD" "AMERICAN BOYS AFLOAT" "THE YOUNG
NAVIGATORS" "UP AND DOWN THE NILE" ETC.
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
10 MILK STREET
BOSTON
1895
COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY LEE AND SHEPARD
_All Rights Reserved_
ASIATIC BREEZES
ELECTROTYPING BY C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON U.S.A.
PRESSWORK BY S. J. PARKHILL & CO.
To
MY APPRECIATIVE FRIEND AND BROTHER
FOSTER A. WHITNEY Esq.
OF SOUTHINGTON CONN.
This Volume
IS FRATERNALLY AND RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED
PREFACE
"ASIATIC BREEZES" is the fourth volume of the second series of the
"All-Over-the-World Library." Starting out from Alexandria, Egypt, after
the adventures and explorations of the Guardian-Mother party in that
interesting country, which included an excursion up the Nile to the
First Cataract, the steamer sails out upon the Mediterranean, closely
followed by her little consort. The enemy who had made a portion of the
voyage exceedingly disagreeable to the watchful commander has been
thwarted in all his schemes, and the threatened danger kept at a
distance, even while those who are most deeply interested are
unconscious of its existence.
But the old enemy immediately appears on the coast, as was expected, and
an attempt is made to carry out a plan to escape from further annoyance.
The little steamer sails for the island of Cyprus, as arranged
beforehand, and reaches her destination, though she encounters a smart
gale on the voyage, through which the young navigators carry their
lively little craft. Plans do not always work as they have been
arranged; and by an accident the young people are left to fight their
own battle, as has happened several times before in the history of the
cruise.
A considerable portion of the volume is taken up with the record of some
very stirring events in a certain bay of the island of Cyprus, where the
little steamer had made a harbor after the gale, and where the
Guardian-Mother had failed to join her, as agreed upon. The story
relates the manner in which the young captain, actively seconded by his
shipmates, extricates his little craft from a very perilous situation,
though it involves a disaster to the piratical enemy and his steamer.
The conduct of the boy-commander brings up several questions of
interest, upon which everybody has a right to his own opinion.
The steamer and her consort pass through the Suez Canal, which is
minutely described, both in its construction and operation. Some of
those on board of the steamer are interested in Scripture history,
including the commander; and the residence of the Israelites in the
"Land of Goshen," as well as their pilgrimage into Asia, pursued by
"Pharaoh and his host," are considered at some length. Some of the
different views in regard to the passage of the Red Sea are given,
though he who presents them clings to the narrative as he read it from
the Bible in his childhood.
Though the party for reasons given do not go to Mount Sinai, the
peninsula to which it now gives its name is not neglected. Mount Serbal,
and what is generally regarded as the Holy Mountain, are seen from the
deck of the steamer, though some claim that the former is the scene of
the delivery of the tablets of the Law to Moses. The captain of the
steamer does not regard himself as a mere shipmaster; for in
recommending the voyage for the young millionaire, he makes a great deal
of its educational features, not alone for its opportunities for
sight-seeing, but for study and receiving instruction. As earnest in
carrying out his idea in the latter as well as the former, he has made a
lecture-room of the deck of the vessel.
The physical geography of the regions passed through is considered, as
well as the history; and as the ship is in the vicinity of the kingdoms
of the ancient world, the professor has something to say to his audience
about Assyria, Babylonia, Arabia, the Caliphate, and gives an epitome of
the life of Mohammed, and the rise and progress of Islamism.
In the last chapters the story, which has been extended through several
volumes, appears to be brought to a conclusion in a manner that may
astonish the reader. However that may be, the termination points to an
enlarged field of operations in the future for the party as they visit
the vast empires where blow the Asiatic breezes.
WILLIAM T. ADAMS.
DORCHESTER, MASS., September 30, 1894.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. PAGE
PREPARING TO OUTWIT THE ENEMY 1
CHAPTER II.
HARMONY DISTURBED, BUT HAPPILY RESTORED 11
CHAPTER III.
A MOMENTOUS SECRET REVEALED 21
CHAPTER IV.
THE POSITION OF THE THREE STEAMERS 31
CHAPTER V.
LOUIS BELGRAVE HAS SOME MISGIVINGS 41
CHAPTER VI.
A STORMY NIGHT RUN TO CAPE ARNAUTI 51
CHAPTER VII.
THE BELLIGERENT COMMANDER OF THE MAUD 61
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LECTURE ON THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS 71
CHAPTER IX.
A MOST IMPUDENT PROPOSITION 81
CHAPTER X.
"JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE, MOTHER" 91
CHAPTER XI.
AN EXPEDIENT TO ESCAPE THE ENEMY 101
CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTLE FOUGHT, THE VICTORY WON 111
CHAPTER XIII.
THE CATASTROPHE TO THE FATIMÉ 121
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONSULTATION IN THE PILOT-HOUSE 131
CHAPTER XV.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE GUARDIAN-MOTHER 141
CHAPTER XVI.
THE REPORT OF THE BATTLE OF KHRYSOKO 151
CHAPTER XVII.
THE INSIDE HISTORY OF THE VOYAGE 161
CHAPTER XVIII.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SUEZ CANAL 171
CHAPTER XIX.
THE JOURNEY OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 181
CHAPTER XX.
THE LAST OF CAPTAIN MAZAGAN 192
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CONFERENCE ON THE SUEZ CANAL 202
CHAPTER XXII
THE CANAL AND ITS SUGGESTIONS 212
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE MYSTERIOUS ARAB IN A NEW SUIT 222
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TOY OF THE TRANSIT MANAGER 232
CHAPTER XXV.
A VISIT TO THE SPRINGS OF MOSES 241
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE VARIOUS ROUTES TO MOUNT SINAI 251
CHAPTER XXVII
THE CONFERENCE ON THE PROMENADE 260
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD 270
CHAPTER XXIX.
VIEW OF MOUNT SINAI IN THE DISTANCE 280
CHAPTER XXX.
SOME ACCOUNT OF MOHAMMED THE PROPHET 290
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ISLAMISM 300
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE AGENT OF THE PARSEE MERCHANTS 310
CHAPTER XXXIII.
A DISAPPOINTMENT TO CAPTAIN SCOTT 319
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE SUSPICIOUS WHITE STEAMER AT ADEN 329
CHAPTER XXXV.
GENERAL NEWBY'S MAGNIFICENT YACHT 339
CHAPTER XXXVI.
AN ALMOST MIRACULOUS CONVERSION 349
ILLUSTRATIONS
"THE STERN OF THE FATIMA SUDDENLY WENT DOWN" _Frontispiece_
PAGE
"IT HAD BEEN A STORMY NIGHT" 51
"STOP WHERE YOU ARE OR I SHALL ORDER MY MEN TO FIRE!" 92
"SHE SPREAD OUT HER ARMS AND RUSHED UPON HIM" 147
"KNOTT, TAKE THIS VILLAIN AWAY" 201
"CAPTAIN RINGGOLD, I AM DELIGHTED TO SEE YOU" 337
"MY SHOT BROUGHT DOWN ONE OF THE BANDITS" 351
"HE WAS PLACED AT THE RIGHT OF CAPTAIN RINGGOLD" 359
ASIATIC BREEZES
CHAPTER I
PREPARING TO OUTWIT THE ENEMY
"Only one great mistake has been made, Louis Belgrave," said Captain
George Scott Fencelowe.
He was a young man of eighteen; but the title by which he was addressed
was genuine so far as his position was actually concerned, though it
would hardly have passed muster before a court of admiralty of the
United States, whose flag was displayed on the ensign-staff at the
stern. The vessel was a small steam-yacht, only forty feet in length,
but furnished in a miniature way with most of the appliances of a
regular steamer.
She had a cabin twelve feet long, whose broad divans could be changed
into berths for the four principal personages on board of her. Abaft
this apartment was a standing-room with seating accommodations for eight
persons, or twelve with a little crowding, with luxurious cushions and
an awning overhead when needed.
Her pilot-house, engine-room, galley, and forecastle were as regular as
though she had been an ocean steamer of a thousand tons. Her ordinary
speed was ten knots an hour; but she could be driven up to twelve on an
emergency, and had even made a trifle more than this when an
extraordinary effort was required of the craft.
She had been built for a Moorish Pacha of the highest rank and of
unbounded wealth, who had ordered that no expense should be spared in
her construction and outfit. She was built of steel as strong as it was
possible to build a vessel of any kind; and in more than one heavy gale
on the Mediterranean she had proved herself to be an unusually able and
weatherly craft.
Though she had formerly been called the Salihé, her name had been
changed by her later American owners to the Maud. Everything about her
was as luxurious as it was substantial. She had a ship's company of
seven 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 the
mature age of eighteen, while the fourth was only fifteen. This quartet
sometimes called themselves the "Big Four," though it was a borrowed
designation, meaning something entirely different from its present
signification. Captain Scott had been the first to apply the term; and
he had done so simply because it tickled the tympanum of his ear, and it
really meant nothing at all.
The Maud was the consort, or more properly the tender, of the
Guardian-Mother, a steam-yacht of over six hundred tons' burden, now
engaged in making a voyage around the world. In a preceding volume it
was related in what manner Louis Belgrave became a millionaire, with
fifty per cent more than money enough to entitle him to this rather
indefinite appellation. How he happened to be the proprietor of one of
the finest steam-yachts that ever floated on the ocean was also
explained, through a somewhat complicated narrative, and the details of
a cruise to Bermuda, the Bahama Islands, and Cuba, followed by a voyage
across the Atlantic and up the Mediterranean, the steamer and her tender
having just sailed from Alexandria after the tour of Egypt.
The ship, as the larger steamer was generally called to distinguish her
from the smaller one, was the Guardian-Mother. This may be regarded as
rather an odd name for a steamship, but it had been selected by the
young millionaire himself as a tribute of love, affection, and honor to
his mother; for they were devotedly attached to each other, and their
relations were almost sentimental. Mrs. Belgrave was one of the most
important passengers in the cabin of the steamer.
Felix McGavonty was born in the United States, though his parents came
from Ireland. He had been the companion of Louis Belgrave from their
earliest childhood; and as they grew older they became the most
consummate cronies. Felix almost worshipped his friend, and the
friendship was mutual. He was a fair scholar, having attended the
academy at Von Blonk Park, where they lived. He could speak the English
language as well as a college professor; but he was very much given to
speaking with the Irish brogue, in honor of his mother he insisted, and
dragged into his speech all the dialects known in the Green Isle, and
perhaps supplemented them with some inventions of his own. That great
American humorist might have said of Felix just what he did of the
kangaroo.
Captain Scott had been a wild boy, in fact, a decidedly bad boy. He had
been picked up with his foster-father in the Bahamas. His only guardian
bound him over to Captain Royal Ringgold, the commander of the
Guardian-Mother, who had thoroughly and entirely reformed his life and
character. He was a natural-born sailor, and his abilities were of a
high order in that direction. When the ship's company of the Maud was
organized, Louis had brought his influence to bear in favor of electing
him to the command, for which he was vastly better qualified than any
other 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 upon
the bench, and Louis had always been an immense favorite with him. He
had taken Felix into his house as an orphan; and his housekeeper, Mrs.
Sarah Blossom, had cared for him in his childhood, looked after his
morals and the buttons on his shirts and trousers, till she became very
fond of him.
Just before the Guardian-Mother sailed on her cruise from New York, a
couple of professional gentlemen, thrown overboard by the upsetting of a
sailing-yacht, were rescued from a watery grave by the people on board
of 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. He
was almost the counterpart of the trustee physically, weighing two
hundred and twenty-six pounds and three-quarters, while the lawyer fell
a quarter of a pound short of these figures. They were continually
bantering each other about this difference.
The doctor called Uncle Moses, as the entire party addressed him,
"Brother Avoirdupois;" and the lawyer retorted by christening the
surgeon "Brother Adipose Tissue." The conductor of the party in Egypt
had called them both "cupids;" and this term became very popular for the
time. The other gentleman who had been saved from an untimely grave in
the bay was a learned Frenchman. Both of them were in feeble health from
overwork; and they accepted invitations to join the party, the one as
the medical officer of the ship, and the other as the instructor in the
languages as well as in the sciences generally, for which he was
abundantly competent.
Louis Belgrave, in passing through the incidents of the story, had made
the acquaintance of Mr. Lowell Woolridge, a Fifth Avenue millionaire and
magnate. He had formerly been a well-known sportsman; but he had
abandoned the race-course, though he kept up his interest in yachting.
He was the owner of a large sailing schooner; and through this craft
Louis and his mother became acquainted with the yachtsman's family,
consisting of his wife, a son, and a daughter. The latter was a very
beautiful young lady of sixteen, whose face captivated everybody who
came into her presence; and Louis's mother had deemed it her duty to
warn her son against the fascination of the maiden before he had found
his million.
A slight illness had threatened the young lady with possible
consequences, and the physicians had advised her father to take her to
Orotava, in the Canary Islands. On the voyage the yacht had been nearly
wrecked, and the family had been rescued by the officers and crew of the
Guardian-Mother. The yacht sailed in company with the steamer; and they
visited Mogadore, in Morocco. Here Ali-Noury Pacha, one of the richest
and most influential magnates of the country, paid a visit to the ship.
Unfortunately he saw the beautiful Blanche Woolridge, and was more
attentive to her than pleased her parents.
They were alarmed, for of course the Pacha was a Mohammedan. Captain
Ringgold found a way out of the difficulty by towing the sailing-yacht
out of the harbor; and both vessels hastened to Madeira. The Moor
followed them in his steam-yacht, the Fatimé; but the commander put to
sea as soon as he realized the situation. At Gibraltar the Pacha
confronted the party again. The commander had learned at Funchal that
His Highness was a villanously bad character, and he positively refused
to 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 the
Pacha was not a suitable person to associate with Christian ladies.
This led to a personal attack upon the stalwart commander, and the Pacha
was knocked into the mud in the street. This had fanned his wrath to a
roaring name, for he had been fined before an English court for the
assault. His passion for revenge was even more determined than his
admiration for the "houri," as he called the maiden. He had followed the
ship to Constantinople, engaged a felucca and a ruffian, assisted by a
French detective, to capture the fair girl, as the story has already
informed the reader in other volumes.
The national affairs of His Highness had called him home, but he had
apparently placed his steam-yacht in command of a Captain Mazagan; and
this ruffian, attended by Ulbach, the detective, had followed the party
to Egypt. The capture of Louis Belgrave, or the young lady, or both of
them, was the object of the ruffian, who was to receive two hundred
thousand francs if he succeeded, or half that sum if he failed. Louis
had had a narrow escape from these ruffians in Cairo; but he had worked
his way out of the difficulty, assisted by a chance incident.
The Fatimé had been discovered in the harbor of Alexandria before the
Guardian-Mother and her tender sailed. The peril which menaced the young
lady had been kept a profound secret from all except three of the "Big
Four;" for the commander believed himself abundantly able to protect his
passengers, and the knowledge of the danger would have made the ladies
so nervous and terrified that Mrs. Belgrave and the Woolridges would
have insisted upon returning to New York, and abandoning the voyage from
which so much of pleasure and instruction was expected.
Captain Ringgold and Louis had considered the situation, and fully
realized the intention of Captain Mazagan to follow the steamer and her
little consort. They had agreed upon a plan, after Captain Scott and
Felix, who was the detective of the ship, by which they hoped to "fool"
the enemy, as the young commander expressed it. The Fatimé had sailed
early in the morning, but she was soon discovered off the Bay of Abukir.
The reader is now in condition to inquire into what Captain Scott
regarded as the one great mistake that had been made in the arrangements
for outwitting the Moorish steam-yacht.
The young captain was in the pilot-house of the Maud when the steamer
was discovered. He was the commander; but the smallness of the ship's
company made it necessary for him to keep his own watch, which is
usually done by the second mate for him. Morris Woolridge, who had had
considerable experience in his father's yacht, was the first officer,
and there was no other. The young millionaire, in spite of his influence
as owner, had insisted on serving as a common sailor, or deck-hand, with
Felix. There were two engineers and a cook, who will be presented when
they are needed.
"What is the one great mistake, Captain Scott?" asked Louis, who stood
at the open window in front of the pilot-house.
"The single mistake of any consequence is in the fact that you are on
board of the Maud when you ought to be stowed away in the cabin of the
Guardian-Mother," replied the captain very decidedly, with something
bordering on disgust in his tones and manner. "Instead of keeping you
out of danger, you are running just as straight into the lion's den as
you can go, Louis."
"Where is the lion's den, please to inform me," replied the young
millionaire, scouting, in his tones and manner, any idea of peril to
himself which was not shared by his companions.
"On board of that four-hundred-ton steamer which you see off by the
coast."
"Do you think I ought to be any more afraid of her than the rest of the
fellows?" demanded Louis. "Do you wish me to stand back and stay behind
a 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 been
misunderstood.
But just at that moment Morris Woolridge came forward, and neither of
them was willing to continue the conversation in his presence; for he
might fall into the possession of the secret which was so carefully
guarded.