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 with
a low voice.
"Three whistles, and I heard them, Flix," returned Captain Scott, as he
put the helm to starboard. "Where is Morris?"
"I think he is in the cabin studying Assyria and Babylon," replied Felix
with a mild laugh, as he thought this was an odd occupation for the
first officer of the Maud; for he was little inclined to be a student
himself, 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, in
the direction of the Fatimé. He had a taste for the business of a
detective in the higher walks of that profession, and the commander had
recognized his ability. He had been employed to ascertain whether the
pirate was in the waters of Egypt, having been the first to suspect her
presence; and he had proved the fact beyond a doubt.
Accompanied by John Donald, the second engineer of the Maud, who spoke
Arabic, he had followed Mazagan to Rosetta, where he found the Fatimé,
having evidently made a port there to escape the observation of the
commander of the Guardian-Mother and his people. The villain and his
assistant had failed to lead Captain Ringgold into the traps set for
him.
Having failed in their attempts to accomplish anything at Alexandria,
the conspirators had followed the party to Cairo. Louis and Felix were
sitting on a bench in the Ezbekiyeh, a park in front of their hotel,
when Mazagan and the Frenchman approached them, and wished to make a
compromise, which the Moor desired the young millionaire to recommend to
the commander. The agent of the Pacha informed the young man that he was
to receive a reward of forty thousand dollars for the capture and
conveyance 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 he
had made in effecting his object, and he proposed that the commander
should pay him twenty thousand dollars, and then he would collect the
other half of the promised stipend of the Pacha, as the promised reward
in case of failure.
The pirate proved that he was a very mean and treacherous pirate, as
willing to sell out his friend as his foe, and Louis was more disgusted
than ever with him. He spoke his mind freely to the villain, and
absolutely refused to recommend the treachery to the commander. He would
as soon have compromised with the Evil One for the sale of his
principles. The approach of Captain Ringgold terminated the interview,
and the rascals made haste to retreat. After this they made an attempt
to capture Louis, and the detective had been shot in the shoulder.
What the conspirators intended or expected to accomplish since these
failures of course none of those interested could know, and it only
remained for them to watch the movements of the Fatimé, and to be
constantly on their guard against any possible attempt on the part of
the reprobates to carry out their purpose. Only the commander of the
Guardian-Mother and the three members of the "Big Four" could take these
precautions, for no others knew anything at all about the necessity for
them.
Felix used his glass very diligently. The Guardian-Mother did not change
her course, and the Moorish steamer, which was now hardly a mile from
her, was still headed to the eastward. Whether the latter would dodge
into the port of Rosetta or Damietta, or give chase to the Maud, was yet
to be demonstrated; and the lookoutman was watching for a movement of
this 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 power
of smoke she is sending out at her funnel that the chief engineer is
driving her."
"I can see that she has increased her distance from us; but according to
the commander's orders I have directed Felipe to run her not more than
eight or nine knots," replied the captain of the Maud. "How far ahead of
the 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 come
alongside of her, or get a position where her people can overlook her
deck, she will change her course within the next ten minutes;" and the
lookoutman returned to his place in the bow.
"It is lucky for that pirate that your humble servant is not in command
of the Guardian-Mother," said Captain Scott.
"Do you think yourself competent to command a steamer like the
Guardian-Mother, my dear fellow?" asked Louis, with a rather quizzical
expression on his face.
"I know I am!" exclaimed Captain Scott emphatically; and he did not lack
confidence in himself. "Why not? If I can navigate the Maud, I could do
the same with the Guardian-Mother; for the size of the vessel don't make
any difference in the navigation as long as both of them go out to sea
off soundings. I suppose you doubt what I say?"
"I do not; for I am not a qualified judge in the matter," replied
Louis, who was considerably surprised at the amount of confidence the
captain of eighteen years of age had in himself. "But why is it lucky
for the pirate that Captain Ringgold, instead of Captain Scott, happens
to be in command of the ship?"
"Because I should serve her as the commander did another steamer of
about the size of the pirate, on the run of the ship from Bermuda to
Nassau, I believe it was, for I was not on board at the time," replied
the captain, with decision enough in his tones and manner to indicate
that he would do what he suggested. "I have heard Flix tell all about
the affair; and in his estimation Hercules and General Grant were
nothing at all compared with Captain Ringgold, when he tells the story.
I think he believes the commander is the greatest man that is or ever
was in this world, with the possible exception of yourself."
"That steamer was sailing illegally under the name of the Maud, for her
proper name was the Viking; but Captain Ringgold ran into her and
smashed 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 had
picked you up," persisted the captain.
"I doubt if that would be a prudent measure," replied Louis, shaking his
head.
"The pirate has changed her course to the southward," said Felix, coming
to 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 that
only to shake off the Guardian-Mother. What is the ship doing, Flix?"
"She continues on her course, and takes no notice of the pirate;" and
the lookout returned to his station.
Captain Scott rang the gong in the engine-room, and the screw of the
Maud immediately ceased to revolve. The sea was comparatively smooth,
and the little steamer rolled on the waves but slightly. As soon as the
screw stopped, and the little craft began to roll on the long swell,
Morris Woolridge put aside the "Chambers's" in which he had been reading
up Assyria and Babylon, and went out of the cabin into the
standing-room. He looked about him to ascertain the cause of the
stoppage; but he could make nothing of it.
He was a good skipper himself, and he did not like to ask Captain Scott
to explain the situation; for since he had gone into the cabin the
relative positions of the three steamers had decidedly changed. His idea
was that the Maud should follow the ship as usual; but she had dropped
at least a couple of miles astern of her, and the Fatimé was headed to
the southward. He could not understand the matter at all, and he
continued to study upon it.
Louis had come out of the pilot-house, and, looking aft, he discovered
Morris, and saw that he was perplexed by the situation, and that Assyria
was no longer the subject of his meditations.
"Morris is in the standing-room, and I have no doubt he is wondering why
we are wasting our steam just here, when the ship is going ahead at full
speed," 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 present
situation had been foreseen by Captain Ringgold. Morris was the first
officer, and if the momentous secret was to be kept from him any longer,
it would require an amount of lying and deception which was utterly
repugnant to the principles of both the commander and Louis. The
representative of the Woolridge family on board of the Maud must be left
with his father and mother and sister on the ship, or the whole truth
must be told to the son. Thus far no lies had been necessary; and the
captain did not believe it would be wrong for him to conceal what would
be dangerous to the peace of mind of his passengers.
As long as Captain Ringgold conscientiously believed that neither Miss
Blanche nor Louis was in any peril, he considered it his duty to conceal
from their parents the plot of the Pacha and his agents. He was sure
that neither Mrs. Woolridge nor Mrs. Belgrave would consent to continue
the 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 his
passengers did not understand the reason of the attack made on the Maud.
This subject had been considered before the vessels sailed from
Alexandria, and the commander declared that he could not adopt the
scheme of Scott, if they were to be required to utter no end of
falsehoods to Morris; and Louis absolutely refused to do so. They had
finally compromised by making the owner a committee of one to confer
with the subject of the difficulty when the time for action came. Like
the others, Morris was to be pledged to secrecy for the peace and
comfort of the mothers. If he refused to give the pledge, the plan of
Captain Scott was to be abandoned, and the Maud was to place herself
immediately under the wing of the Guardian-Mother again. The time for
action on this subject had come.
"I will go aft and have a talk with Morris; and I am only afraid he will
fly 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 a
mother in the cabin as well as he," added the captain.
"But we have concealed everything from him for months; but Morris is as
good 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 'Big
Four' a society for the protection of this secret till the end of the
voyage."
"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 mystery
to him, as it must have been to the engineers and the cook; but they
were paid employes, and it was not proper for them to ask any questions.
"Anything broken down, Louis?" asked Morris, as his watch-mate took a
seat at his side.
"Nothing at all," replied the owner. "Do you believe, Morris, that you
could keep a very important secret if the peace and happiness of your
best friends on earth depended upon it?"
"I know I could, even from my mother, from whom I never kept a secret
except once, when I heard the doctor say something about the health of
Blanche last winter, not long before we sailed in the yacht. I knew that
it 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 would
worry the life out of your mother and mine, and perhaps seriously affect
the health of Miss Blanche."
"There is my hand, and I will pledge myself to any honest secret you may
impart 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 was
exchanged.
It required two hours to tell the whole story of the operations of
Captain Mazagan, begun at Constantinople four months before, including
the discovery of the plot of the conspirators in the café at Gallipoli.
Morris was astonished at the explanation given him of several incidents
with which he was familiar. He quite agreed with Louis as to the
necessity of keeping the secret; for his mother would worry herself into
a fit of sickness if she learned the truth. He agreed that there was no
alternative between abandoning the excursion, which would be a great
grief to him, and confining the secret to those who now knew it; and he
repeated his pledge with more earnestness than before.