"This is a tight place for a young fellow like me, and I want to do my duty faithfully. If I should follow out my natural, inborn inclination, I should pitch into the Fatime, and open fire upon her officers and crew with all the rifles and revolvers we could muster. But I don't do that sort of thing now. I am not the same fellow I was when I came on board of the Guardian-Mother. Now I shall run away if I get a chance to do so."

"I think you are wise, Captain Scott," added Louis.

"Whatever my recording angel sets down for or against me, he shall not write that I tried to get into a fight with that pirate," said the captain with a great deal of emphasis.

"You know something about her speed, for we had a little trial of it in the Strait of Gibraltar."

"We did not beat her in a straight run, and we escaped from her by manoeuvring and the aid of shoal water," the captain explained. "I depend upon the same kind of a.s.sistance to get out of the present sc.r.a.pe."

"Then you have a plan in your mind, Captain Scott?" asked Louis.

"I have. I shall do the best I can to get away from the pirate; but we may not succeed. I have no plan of this bay, only the general chart, on which but a few soundings are given. We may be driven into a corner where we shall have to see what virtue there is in our firearms, though I hope not."

"If we are compelled to fight, I am confident that every fellow on board will stand by you. I shall for one; for I heartily approve the platform on which you stand, Captain Scott," said Louis, giving him his hand.

"I thank you, Louis, with all my heart. You make me stronger than I was before," replied Scott, as he took the offered hand, and warmly pressed it.

The Maud was going ahead at only half speed, blowing off her extra steam; for she was in condition to make the best effort of her existence. Morris and Felix were at the bow, wondering what those in the pilot-house found to talk about so long. The water was extremely clear, as they had seen it in the Bahamas, and they were watching the bottom, composed entirely of rocks. Morris occasionally thrust down a long-handled boathook whose length he had measured, and it gave him thirteen feet about every time.

With her bunkers full of coal as they had been when she left Alexandria, the Maud drew twelve feet of water, and by this time she had reduced it six inches. She was approaching the sh.o.r.e, and she could not continue much farther. Scott did not explain his plan in detail, and only said that he intended to escape if he could. He had a theory in regard to the formation of the bottom of the bay, which had twenty fathoms of water at a distance of a mile from the sh.o.r.e.

He had a theory in regard to the subject which was by no means a novel one, that the bottom of the sea was similar in its features to the surface of the land. If the face of the country was rugged and uneven, so was the bottom of the sea near it. On Cape Arnauti the hills rose to the dignity of mountains, and some of the soundings at the entrance of the inlet were over a hundred fathoms, which confirmed his theory in its application to this particular locality.

Otherwise stated, Captain Scott believed that if all the water in the bay could be suddenly dried up, the bottom of it would present the same irregularities as the sh.o.r.e. Doubtless his theory was correct in regard to the great oceans. Islands are only the tops of submarine hills and mountains rising above the surface of the water.

The captain steered the Maud directly towards the sh.o.r.e, while the steamer was making not over five knots an hour. He kept one eye on the rocky cone on the starboard hand, which was an elevation on the enormous ledge of half an acre.

"Where's the bottom, Morris?" he called to the first officer when the steamer was abreast of the cone.

"Thirteen feet down," returned Morris.

"Heave the lead on the port hand, Flix," added the captain very quietly; and he seemed to be still in a brown study.

"Mark under water two," reported the Milesian.

"Give the depth in feet now."

"Thirteen feet, short."

"Keep the lead going."

For about a quarter of a mile farther Scott kept the Maud moving in the same direction, with no change in the reports of the soundings. The great ledge could still be seen from the windows of the pilot-house; but suddenly the color changed to a darker hue. At this point the captain threw the helm over to port, and changed the course from south-west to north-west, a full quarter of a circle. The soundings were continued, and for some time the reports were of deeper water.

Louis had nothing to do on the forecastle, and he returned to the pilot-house, where he stationed himself at the door on the starboard side, where he could look down into the clear water as the others were doing. The ledge still presented the same appearance; that of a smooth surface, though with many seams and protuberances upon it.

"You seem to have found a channel inside of the ledge, Captain Scott,"

said Louis, after he had watched the indications for some time.

"I thought there must be some kind of an opening on this side of the ledge; for on the sh.o.r.e there is a strip of land half a mile wide covered with trees. The channel is all right here; but I would give up all my chances of being appointed to the command of the Guardian-Mother within the next ten years, to be a.s.sured that it extends out to the deep water outside the bay," replied Scott, turning around to look at his companion, and thus showing that there was a cloud on his face.

"Don't you believe that it extends the whole length of the ledge?" asked Louis, who could not fail to see the shadow of anxiety that hung over the expression of the young commander.

"It is no use to believe or disbelieve in a thing you know nothing at all about," replied Scott, as Louis placed himself at the side of the wheel opposite to him, so that he could see his face. "Do I believe it rains in New York City at this moment? What is the use of expressing an opinion about a matter upon which you have no material to base an opinion?"

"Correct, Captain!" exclaimed Louis, laughing. "Many people make fools of themselves by doing just that thing; but your recording angel never does it. I did not know but you had the means of knowing something about it."

"None whatever; there is no law of nature I know of that requires the channel to reach through to deep water. But there is one circ.u.mstance which leads me to fear it is 'no thoroughfare' to the deep water."

"What is that, Captain?"

"The present att.i.tude of the Fatime."

"She does not appear to have changed her position or her looks since she ran out that twelve-pounder."

"That is just it!" replied Scott. "If he really intends to bag Mr. Louis Belgrave as his game in this hunt, as I have no doubt he does, he is not going to allow me to carry him off in the Maud through this channel without doing some kicking and some barking with his twelve-pounders. He remains there as quietly as though he had you in his cabin already.

Mazagan is a sea-captain, and probably has spent most of his life sailing in these waters. I am afraid he knows more about this channel than I do, or has a more detailed chart of this bay than mine."

The Maud pa.s.sed the cone, and continued on her course for a short time longer. Half a mile more would take her into twenty fathoms of water.

"It would look very hopeful, Louis, if the Fatime were only doing her best to overhaul us in a chase; but she is like an alligator sunning himself on the water, she don't move a muscle," said the captain.

"Well, if we have to go back, we shall still have the chance of a race before us," suggested Louis.

"I hope so," added Scott.

"Only hope so?" queried Louis.

"That's all," answered the captain, with something like despondency in his tones and expression.

"Twelve feet and a half!" shouted Morris with emphasis.

"By the mark two! Twelve feet!" shouted Felix.

"Eleven and a half feet!" said Morris.

"Eleven feet!" yelled the Milesian.

Captain Scott rang one bell on the gong to stop her, and then three more to back her. The boat was lowered into the water, and only seven feet of water could be found half a cable's length ahead of the Maud. She could go no farther in this direction.

CHAPTER XII

THE BATTLE FOUGHT, THE VICTORY WON

Whatever doubts Louis had in the first instance about Captain Scott's management of the defence of the Maud, he now believed that he honestly and sincerely desired to escape from the difficult and trying situation without an encounter with the pirate. He had feared the temptation to make a hero of himself would lead him into a conflict with the enemy when it might be avoided.