A STORMY NIGHT RUN TO CAPE ARNAUTI
It had been a stormy night, though the gale had not been so severe as
either of the two the Maud had before encountered on the Mediterranean.
It did not come on to blow hard till about eight bells in the afternoon;
and at five o'clock in the morning Captain Scott estimated that the
little steamer ought to be off Cape Arnauti; but all the lights of the
island were on the south side. He kept her well off shore, where there
were neither rocks nor shoals. There was nothing less than twenty
fathoms of water a couple of miles from the shore.
The gale had come from the south; and the course of the Maud was only a
couple of points from taking it directly aft, so that she was running
too nearly before it for the comfort of those on board of her. But she
had a little slant, and a close-reefed foresail had been set in the
first dog-watch, and she had carried it all night.
The only difficulty about the Maud was her size when it blew hard and
there was a heavy sea. She was too small to be at all steady on great
waves, though the larger they were the better weather she made of it.
Her worst behavior was in a smart, choppy sea, when the waves were not
long, but short and violent. But this was not the kind of a sea she had
through the night.
In a heavy sea of any kind she made a good deal of fuss; and being only
forty feet long it could not be otherwise. She pitched tremendously, and
mixed in a considerable roll every time she rose and fell; and it was
not an easy thing for even a sailor to get about on her deck. Life-lines
had been extended wherever they were needed, and all the ship's company
were used to the erratic ways of the diminutive craft. After all, she
was larger than some of the vessels used by the early voyagers to
America, some of whose craft were not even provided with decks.
When the Maud was prepared for heavy weather she was as tight as a drum;
and while the heavy seas rolled the whole length of her, not a bucketful
of them found its way below her deck. The only danger of taking in a
dangerous sea was at the scuttle on the forecastle, which was the usual
door of admission to the forecastle below, where the two engineers and
the cook had their quarters.
The steamer when she made a dive into a sea scooped up a quantity of
water, which she spilled out over the rails, or over the taffrail in the
standing-room. The captain had therefore ordered this scuttle to be
secured below, so that it could not be removed. Those who had occasion
to go below in that part of the vessel were compelled to do so through
the fire-room. Though Scott was a bold and brave fellow, and even
daring when the occasion required, he was a prudent commander, and never
took any unnecessary chances.
But not a person on board had been permitted to "turn in" as the thing
was done in moderate weather. The sail on the upper deck required one
hand to stand by it all the time, though he was relieved every two
hours. The engineers and the cook had broad divans upon which they could
take a nap, and the sailing-force had taken turns on the broad sofa in
the pilot-house. But Captain Scott had hardly closed his eyes during the
night.
From the time the Fatimé was found to be headed to the northward, the
officers of the Maud had lost sight of her for only a couple of hours,
when a bank of fog swept over the sea, just before sundown. But at eight
bells her lights had been discovered. At midnight they could still be
seen; but the captain and Morris were confident that she had been losing
ground, judging by the diminished clearness of the triangle of lanterns
as they appeared over the stern of the Maud.
The lights of a vessel following another appear to the latter in this
form, with the white, or plain one, at the upper apex of the triangle,
the red and the green making the two abreast of each other. They were
observed at seven bells in the first watch; but another fog-bank had
passed over the sea, and at eight bells, or midnight, they could not be
seen. Morris and Louis had the first watch. Felix had gone to take his
nap in the galley; for Pitts, the cook, had been called into service,
and was attending to the reefed sail on the upper deck. Captain Scott
had joined him here.
With a rope made fast around his waist, he had been to the standing-room
to look out for the triangle of lights on the Fatimé. He could not find
them; but the fog explained why they were not in sight. It was not a
very comfortable position on the hurricane deck, for the spray stirred
up at the stern was swept over it. All hands had donned their waterproof
caps, with capes to protect the neck, and the oilskin suits they had
found on board when the steamer was purchased.
"We have been gaining upon her, Pitts," said the captain, after he had
looked attentively into the fog astern for some time. "We may not see
her again."
"Perhaps not, sir; but she's a bad penny, and she is likely to turn up
again," replied the cook. "But I suppose you will not weep, sir, if you
don't see her again."
"I should like to know what had become of her if we don't see her
again," added Scott carelessly.
"I suppose that Mustapha Pacha is still on board of her; and I should
rather like to see Captain Ringgold pitch him into another muddy gutter,
as he did in Gibraltar. But the Guardian-Mother is not with us just now,
and that is not likely to happen on this little cruise."
Pitts hinted in this manner that he should like to know something more
about the present situation; but the captain was willing to let him form
his own conclusions, and he gave him no assistance in doing so. Eight
bells struck on the forecastle; and this was the signal for the mid
watch, which consisted of the captain and Felix; and Scott left the
upper deck.
Pitts was relieved by Felix; for he could serve as lookout and take
charge of the sail at the same time. Morris was the youngest person on
board, and he was tired enough to camp down at once on the divan in the
pilot-house. The cabin door could not be safely opened, or at least not
without peril to the contents of the cabin; for an occasional wave
combed over the taffrail, and poured itself upon it.
Louis was not inclined to sleep, and he went on the upper deck to pass
the time with Felix; and the captain asked him to keep a lookout for the
pirate. The fog still prevailed, and he could see nothing. He talked
with the Milesian for quite two hours, when the time for the relief of
the helm came. Just before the four bells struck, the fog disappeared as
suddenly as it had dropped down on the sea.
Louis went aft and gazed into the distance; but he could see no triangle
of lights, or even a single light in any direction. He made a thorough
search, with no other result, and then stood by the sail till the
captain came up to take the place of Felix.
"The fog has blown in ahead of us, Louis; but Flix reports that you
have not been able to find the lights of the pirate," said Scott.
"Not a sign of them can be made out," replied Louis. "I have looked the
sea over in every direction. What does that mean, Captain Scott?"
"It may mean any one of three things, and you have to take your choice
among them. The pirate may have foundered in the gale, she may have put
about to return to the coast of Egypt, or we may have beaten her so
badly in the race of fifteen hours, that she has dropped out of sight
astern of us. I don't know much about the Pacha's steamer, though our
second engineer told me she was not built to order, as the Maud was, but
purchased outright."
"But which of the three results you indicate do you consider the most
probable, Captain?"
"The last one I named. This gale has not been heavy enough to wreck any
vessel of ordinary strength, so that I cannot believe she has foundered.
Captain Mazagan is working for his little twenty thousand dollars'
reward; and if he has followed us up here with the intention of picking
you up on the cruise, I don't believe he would retire from the field
without making a bigger effort than he has put forth so far."
"Then, you think he is after me?"
"Don't we know that he is? Not one of the 'Big Four' is so indifferent
and careless about the matter as you are yourself, Louis," replied the
captain with a good deal of energy. "I still think you ought not to
have come with us on this perilous cruise; and I wonder with all my
might that Captain Ringgold did not keep you on board of the
Guardian-Mother."
"He desired to do so; but I would not stand it. I have not the slightest
fear of the Pacha and all his blackguards and pirates," protested Louis.
"Not since Mazagan got his paw upon you, and you slipped out of it only
by a lucky chance?" demanded the captain, more as an argument than as a
question to be answered. "You got off by the skin of your teeth; and you
may thank your stars that you are not shut up at this moment in some
dungeon in Mogadore, where they don't ask hard questions as to what has
become of troublesome Christians. If the shop had not been invaded by
creditors, you would have been conveyed to Rosetta, and taken away on
board the pirate. The rest of the party would not have known what had
become of you; for we could not find you when we searched for you in
Cairo."
"That is all very nice, Captain Scott," replied Louis, laughing out
loud. "I would not have given two cents to have the guard of sailors who
made things so sad for the Arabs at Gizeh in the cellar with me. Make as
much fuss as you may over my danger at this time, I was master of the
situation all the while," answered Louis very decidedly.
"Master of the situation!" exclaimed the captain. "You might as well
call the trout the master of the situation after he has the hook in his
gills. I don't see it in that light."
"I had fired one shot from my revolver, and wounded Mazagan's assistant
in the outrage; and I had five balls more in the weapon. I think the
pirate counted upon the custom-house officers to deprive me of the
pistol, or he would not have gone to work just as he did. My shot
demoralized the wounded man, and scared his brother the shopkeeper out
of his wits. My next shot was for Mazagan; and if he had taken another
step in his programme he would not have been in command of that steamer
just now."
"Perhaps there were some chances for your aim or your calculations to
fail," suggested Scott; "though Flix says you never miss your mark when
you shoot."
"Captain Ringgold said so much to me to induce me to remain on board of
the Guardian-Mother, that I was tempted to yield the point; but it
seemed to me to be cowardly to leave my friends in the face of a
possible danger. I told him finally that I considered myself under his
command, and if he ordered me to remain on board of the ship, I should
obey. He would not do that, and I am here. If there is to be any row on
my account I must be in it."
"You have a mind of your own, and you are in condition to have your own
way. If your mother had been posted you would not have been here."
"We don't know; but I think I have as much influence with my mother as
she has with me. I hardly believe she could or would make me act the
part of a coward."
The subject was dropped there, for it seemed to be exhausted. The night
wore away very slowly, and nothing more was seen of the Fatimé's lights.
The morning watch came on duty at four o'clock; but the captain did not
leave the deck. It was evident to him that the sail had increased the
speed of the Maud, and perhaps that was the reason she had run away from
the chaser. An hour later, with the dawn of the day, the gale broke.
"Land, ho!" shouted Louis over the forward part of the upper deck, so
that Morris could hear him at the wheel; and the captain rushed out of
the pilot-house where he had lain down on the divan.
"Where away?" called the first officer.
"Broad on the starboard bow," replied Louis.
"That must be the country south-west of Cape Arnauti," said Scott, after
he had examined the shore with the glass. "Make the course north
north-east, Morris," he shouted to the wheelman.
"North north-east!" returned the helmsman.
"There are mountains on this island, some of them nearly seven thousand
feet high; and there is a cluster of them close to the shore here,"
added the captain.
It was another hour before they could distinctly make out these
mountains; and by that time the end of the cape could be seen on the
beam. The speed of the Maud had been reduced one-half, and the course
due east was given out. She followed the land around the cape, and was
soon in smooth water. With the chart before him at the helm, and with
Morris heaving the lead, Captain Scott piloted the Maud to the head of a
considerable bay, where he ordered the anchor to be cast loose, and then
stopped the screw.