The commander could not solve the problem. He decided to "take the bull by the horns," and settle the question before he sailed the next day. He had dressed himself in his best uniform in the morning, and he decided to pay a visit to the white steam-yacht before he slept again. It was to be a visit of ceremony; and he ordered the crew of the barge to put on their clean white uniforms, for he intended to go in state.

All the pa.s.sengers were still on sh.o.r.e, and there was no one to go with him if he had desired any company. He wished to inform the Pacha, if the owner proved to be he, and he was on board, that he was prepared for any and every thing. If His Highness attempted any trickery or treachery in the direction of the members of his party, or any one of them, he would blow the white steamer out of the water, even if she belonged to the Sultan of Morocco. In fact, he had worked himself up as much as he ever could into an angry frame of mind.

If he was waiting for Mazagan to come to Aden,--for the pirate must have written to him in regard to his intentions, if he had any,--the persecution of the Americans was to be continued over the Indian Ocean.

He was to command this magnificent steamer, as he had the Fatime, and would be ready to retrieve his misfortunes in the past. But Captain Ringgold was "reckoning without his host."

He descended the gangway steps, and took his seat in the stern-sheets of the barge with compressed lips; for he intended to meet the Pacha face to face, and this time at his own instigation. Possibly his crew were physiognomists enough to wonder what had come over the captain; for they had never seen him when he looked more in earnest. The captain nodded at the c.o.c.kswain, and the bowman shoved off. The crew gave way, and no boat ever presented a finer appearance.

"To the white steam-yacht beyond the P. and O. steamer," said the commander; and said no more.

The men bent to their oars, and they were soon in sight of the beautiful vessel, as everybody called her; and Captain Ringgold could not but indorse the general verdict; at least, he thought she was quite as handsome as the Guardian-Mother, which was enough to say of any vessel in his estimation. The barge made a landing at the platform of the gangway.

"May I be permitted to go on board?" asked the captain of the sailor who stood at the head of the steps.

"Yes, sir; she is open to ladies and gentlemen to-day," replied the man.

The commander ascended the steps to the bulwarks, where the seaman was evidently doing duty as a sentinel, though he was not armed.

"What steamer is this?" asked the visitor; for he had not yet seen the name of the steamer.

"The Blanche, sir," replied the man very respectfully; for the commander's uniform had made its proper impression.

"The Blanche!" exclaimed the captain of the Guardian-Mother, starting back as though a red-hot shot had struck him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "CAPTAIN RINGGOLD, I AM DELIGHTED TO SEE YOU." Page 337.]

It was very remarkable that the steamer should have that name; but he preserved his dignity, and concluded that the name had been given for some member of the owner's family; and he saw a lady seated near the rudder-head, who might be the owner of the name. He looked about the deck,--what of it could be seen,--though most of it was covered by the house, extended nearly from stem to stern, as on the Guardian-Mother.

Everything was as neat and trim as though she had been a man-of-war. He could see two twelve-pounders on the side where he was; and he concluded there were two more on the other side.

But if this craft was to chase and annoy his party, she was not well enough armed to be a match for his own ship; and with the feeling he had stirred up in his mind, he congratulated himself on the superiority of the ship he commanded. The seaman informed him that he was at liberty to look over the vessel, for it was believed to be the finest her celebrated builders had ever completed.

"I desire to see the captain of this steamer," replied Captain Ringgold, declining the permission extended to him.

"He is in his cabin, sir, and I will call him down," replied the man.

The captain gave him his card, and the sailor mounted to the promenade deck. He had not been gone two minutes before the captain rushed down the steps as though he were in a desperate hurry.

"Captain Ringgold, I am delighted to see you!" shouted the captain of the Blanche before the visitor had time to make out who he was. "I am glad to see you on the deck of my ship!" And he extended his hand to the commander of the Guardian-Mother.

"Captain Sharp!" roared the visitor, seizing the offered hand, and warmly pressing it.

It was a tremendous let-down for him, after he had roused all his belligerent nature into action, to find Captain W. Penn Sharp in command of the suspicious steamer.

CHAPTER x.x.xV

GENERAL NEWRY'S MAGNIFICENT YACHT

The biography of Captain Penn Sharp had been quite romantic within the preceding year. In company with his brother he had been a detective in New York during the greater portion of his lifetime. He had been an honest and upright man; but in spite of this fact he had saved a competence for a man of small desires before he was fifty years old. He had never been married till the last year of his life.

He had what he called a "profession," and he had attended to it very closely for twenty years or more. When he "had a case to 'work up,'" he took it to his humble lodging with him, and studied out the problem.

There was nothing in his room that could be called a luxury, unless a library of two hundred volumes were cla.s.sed under that head; and he spent all his leisure time in this apartment, having absolutely no vices. He was a great reader, had never taken a vacation, and saved all his money, which he had prudently invested.

In his younger days he had been to sea, and came home as the mate of a large ship when he was twenty-two. His prospects in the commercial marine were very promising; but his brother, believing he had peculiar talent for the occupation in which he was himself engaged, induced him to go into the business as his partner. He had been a success; but men do not live as he did, depriving himself of rest or recreation, without suffering for it. His health broke down.

Confident that a voyage at sea would build him up, he applied to Captain Ringgold for any place he could offer him. Only the position of quartermaster was available. He was glad to obtain this on board of such a steamer. He had told his story, and the commander needed just such a person. Mrs. Belgrave had married for her second husband a man who had proved to be a robber and a villain. Her son Louis had discovered his character long before she did, and, after fighting a long and severe battle, had driven him away, recovering a large sum of money he had purloined.

Captain Ringgold ascertained in Bermuda that the villain had another wife in England. He promoted his quartermaster to the position of third officer, and set him at work as a detective on the case. The recreant husband had inherited a fortune in Bermuda, had purchased a steam-yacht, and was still struggling to recover the wife who had discarded him, believing the "Missing Million" was behind her.

The deserted English wife had been sent for by her uncle, who had become a large sugar planter in Cuba. Sharp found her; and her relative had died but a short time before, leaving her a large fortune. The wretch who had abandoned her was arrested for his crimes, and sent back to New York, and was soon serving a long sentence at Sing Sing. He had been obliged to leave his steam-yacht, and it had been awarded to his wife.

By the influence of Captain Ringgold, Penn Sharp had been appointed captain of her; and he had sailed for New York, and then for England, in her. The lady was still on the sunny side of forty, and Sharp had married her. After this happy event, they had sailed for the Mediterranean; and the commander and pa.s.sengers of the Guardian-Mother had met them at Gibraltar. How Captain Penn Sharp happened to be in command of the Blanche was a mystery to Captain Ringgold, though it was possible that the million or more of Mrs. Penn Sharp enabled her to support such a steam-yacht.

It seemed as though Captain Sharp would never release the hand of the commander of the Guardian-Mother, who had not only been a good friend to him in every sense of the word, but he had unintentionally put him in the way of achieving the remarkably good fortune which had now crowned his life.

"I don't know what to make of this, Captain Sharp," said he of the Guardian-Mother. "Are you in command of this fine steamer?"

"Without a ghost of a doubt I am," replied he of the Blanche, with a renewed pressure of the hand.

"Of course I am astonished, surprised, astounded, as I ought to be on an occasion like this. About the last I knew of you, you had just got married. Have you become so accustomed to married life that you are ready to leave your wife on sh.o.r.e while you wander over the ocean again?" asked the visitor in a good-humored, rallying tone.

"Not a bit of it, my dear Captain. My wife is worth more to me than all the money she brought me, though she is as much of a millionaire as young Mr. Belgrave, we find. She is on board of the Blanche at this moment; and Ruth will be delighted to see you and all your people."

"I am glad all is so happy with you, and I may be tempted to marry myself," laughed the commander.

"You are already tempted, and you will yield to the temptation."

"I have not been tempted like Adam in the garden; if I had been, I should have swallowed the apple whole," replied Captain Ringgold, who had never said so much before on this delicate subject to any person.

"It will have to be Adam this time that does all the tempting. But I wish you would explain to me how you happen to be fixed up here like Aladdin in one of his fairy palaces. I suppose, of course, you are sailing in your own steamer?"

"Not at all; for though we have money enough now, we are not disposed to throw it away upon a ship with so much style about her as the Blanche carries over the ocean. But I have not asked you about your party on board of the Guardian-Mother. I like that t.i.tle, and if I had had the naming of the Blanche, I should have called her the Protecting Grandmother, or something of that sort."

"The company on board of my ship are all in excellent health and spirits. By the way, we have a dinner party at six, and you and your wife must a.s.sist; and it will be a most unexpected pleasure."

"I will go; but it is four now, and we haven't half time enough to do our talking. But come to my cabin; and then, if you will excuse me for a moment, I will notify Mrs. Sharp, so that she may be ready for the dinner."

Captain Sharp sent the sailor at the gangway to show the visitor to his cabin, while he went aft on his errand. Captain Ringgold found the cabin consisted of two apartments, one of which was evidently his wife's boudoir; and nothing could have been more elegant or convenient. In fact, it was Oriental magnificence, though the portion appropriated to the commander was fitted up with the usual nautical appliances. The occupant of the cabin soon appeared; and he acted as though he wanted to hug his visitor, though he satisfied himself by taking his hand again.

He evidently credited the captain of the Guardian-Mother with both his wife and his fortune.

"Now take this arm-chair, Captain Ringgold, and we will have it out,"

said the commander of the Blanche. "My wife will be ready in an hour, and she will be delighted to see Mrs. Belgrave and the rest of the party; for she is particularly fond of that lady, though they have both been in the same relation to Scoble."

"I think the name of Scoble has not been mentioned for nearly a year on board of the Guardian-Mother. But you told me, Captain Sharp, that you and your wife were not the owners of this fine craft," suggested the visitor, leading to the solution of the mystery which perplexed him.

"We are not; and I am sailing in the employ of General Newry," answered the other; and Captain Ringgold imagined that the name was spelled in this manner, though there was a twinkle in the eyes of the speaker.