_ CHAPTER VII. THE BELLIGERENT COMMANDER OF THE MAUD
"Here we are!" shouted Captain Scott, as the cable slid out through the hawse-hole.
"That's so; but where are we?" asked Louis, who had been watching the bottom for the last hour. "There is a big ledge of rocks not twenty feet from the cutwater. Here we are; but where are we?"
"We are on the south-west shore of Khrysoko Bay," replied the captain. "That ledge of rocks is just what I have been looking for the last half-hour."
"Then, I am glad we have found it," added Louis.
"What's the name of the bay, Captain?" inquired Felix, scratching his head.
"Khrysoko," repeated Scott. "It pronounces well enough; but when you come to the spelling, that's another affair."
"I could spell that with my eyes shut; for I used to cry so myself when I was a baby. Cry so, with a co on the end of it for a snapper. But I thought that bay was on the coast of Ireland, sou' sou'-west by nor' nor'-east from the Cove of Cork," added Felix.
"That's the precise bearing of the one you mean, Flix; but this isn't that one at all, at all," said the captain with a long gape.
"Then it must be this one."
"The word is spelled with two k's."
"That's a hard k'se; but where do you get them in?"
The captain spelled the word with another gape, for he had not slept a wink during the night; and Louis advised him to turn in at once.
"Breakfast is all ready in the cabin, sir," said Pitts.
"That will do me more good than a nap," added Scott. "Don, keep a lively lookout on that high cape we came round, and see that it don't walk off while I'm eating my breakfast. Remember, all you fellows, that is Cape Arnauti; and if any of you are naughty, you will get fastened to that rock, as doubtless the chap it was named after was."
"Oh-h-h!" groaned Morris. "You are not sleepy, Captain; a fellow that can make a pun can keep awake."
"I should not need a brass band to put me to sleep just now; but I shall not take my nap till we have overhauled the situation, and figured up where the pirate may be about this time in the forenoon," replied Scott, as he led the way to the cabin.
As Pitts was waiting on the table, nothing particular was said. Don had his morning meal carried to him on the forecastle, where Felipe joined him. He kept his eye fixed on the cape all the time, as though he expected to see the Fatime double it. He knew nothing at all about the real situation, though he could not help seeing that the Maud was trying to keep clear of the Moorish steamer; and he was in full sympathy with this idea.
The larder of the little steamer had been filled up at Alexandria, and Pitts had prepared one of his best breakfasts. The party were in high spirits; for the little Maud had run away from the pirate, though of course there were other chapters to the narrative.
"As soon as we get the situation a little more settled, and you fellows get your eyes braced wide open, one of you must tackle the island of Cyprus, and get up a lecture on it; for the commander desired that we should learn something about the place," said the captain.
"I move you, Mr. Commander, that Mr. Louis Belgrave be invited to prepare and deliver the lecture," interposed Morris; and the motion was put and carried.
"I have no objection; and my own curiosity would have prompted me to do so without any invitation; but I thank you for the honor you confer on me in the selection," replied Louis; and the company adjourned to the forecastle.
"Well, Don, have you seen anything of the Moorish craft?" asked the captain.
"Not a sign, sir," replied the engineer. "If she is looking for the Maud, I don't believe she will find her in here very soon."
"I don't believe this is just the place to hold a consultation on a delicate subject," said Louis, as he pointed to the scuttle which had been removed from its place by Felipe. "I think we shall do better on the hurricane deck."
As this afforded a better place to observe the surroundings, and especially the approaches from the sea, the captain assented to it, and the "Big Four" repaired to the upper deck. They seated themselves in the little tender of the Maud, and all of them looked out in the direction of the cape, from beyond which the pirate was expected to put in an appearance.
"Our present situation is the subject before the house," the captain began. "We have made the bay for which I shaped the course of the Maud as soon as the gale began to make things sloppy. This is a mountainous island, with nothing like a harbor on the west coast between Cape Gata and Cape Arnauti. There are from twelve to twenty fathoms of water in this bay, within a mile of the shore; and the rocks close aboard of us reach out a mile and a half, with from ten to twelve feet of water on them. There is no town within ten miles of the shore, and we are not likely to see any natives, unless some of them come to this bay to fish. That's where we are."
"We should like to have you tell us now where the Fatty is," added Morris.
"Or the Guardian-Mother," said Louis.
"I am sorry to say that I can't tell you where either of these vessels is; and I am as anxious to know as any of you can be," replied Scott, as he took a paper from his pocket. "I have followed the orders of Captain Ringgold, just as he wrote them down: 'Proceed to Cape Gata; but if it should blow heavily from the southward, go to the north side of the island, and get in behind Cape Arnauti.' And here we are."
Felix was seated where he could see that much more was written on the paper which the captain did not choose to read. But he had the right to keep his own council, and the Milesian asked no questions.
"Here we are--what next?" added Louis.
"That depends," replied Scott. "The commander of the Guardian-Mother knows where we are, though he may have to look in at the harbor of Limasol to see if the Maud is there. When he comes I shall have nothing further to say."
"Don't you expect to see the Fatty before the ship comes?"
"It is quite impossible to form any idea what has become of the pirate. Perhaps she is looking for the Maud; and if she is she will probably find her. I think this is about as far as we can go now; and, if you will excuse me, I will turn in and get my nap," said the captain as he rose from his seat.
"That is the right thing to do," added Louis.
"You will all keep a sharp lookout to seaward, and call me as soon as either vessel heaves in sight."
The captain went to the cabin, and in two minutes he was sound asleep. The rest of the ship's company had obtained about one-half of their usual slumber, and they were not inclined to follow the example of the captain. Louis went to the cabin and proceeded to study up the island. He made notes in a little blank-book he kept for the purpose in his pocket, and he had already filled a dozen such books; for they contained a full diary of all the events of the voyage for over a year.
Felix kept his spy-glass in his hand all the time, and every few minutes he swept the horizon to the northward with it. Morris had gone to sleep in the pilot-house, for his watch was not on duty. At about six bells in the forenoon watch the Milesian began to show more sign of animation than before. He held his glass in range with the cape, and directed his attention steadily in that direction.
If he had been fishing, he would have said that he "had a bite." It was clear that he saw something in the distance, which was hardly more than a speck on the ocean; but there was also a thread of black smoke on the sky above it, for it had cleared off since sunrise. Of course it was a steamer; but whether it was the Fatime or the Guardian-Mother, or neither of them, he could not determine, and he did not wish to disturb the captain for nothing.
He continued to watch the appearance for half an hour longer, and then he struck seven bells. In that time the steamer could be seen more distinctly, though she was still five or six miles distant. He was satisfied from his reasoning that the vessel was approaching the cape. The craft looked smaller than the ship, and in another quarter of an hour he was convinced that she was the pirate. Then he hastened to the cabin, and announced the news to the captain, and Louis heard him.
"Are you sure it is the pirate, Flix?" demanded Captain Scott, as he sprang from his bed and looked eagerly into the face of the messenger.
"Not absolutely sure; only reasonably confident," replied Felix, as he followed the captain to the forecastle.
Scott examined the distant sail with the glass for a little time, and Louis did the same with another. Morris was aroused by the voices, and rushed out with his field-glass.
"That's the pirate!" exclaimed the captain; and the others had waited for him to express his opinion.
"If my mother should step on deck and tell me so, I shouldn't know it any better," added Felix; and Louis and Morris were equally sure of the fact.
"Go to the engine-room, Morris, and tell Felipe to stir up his fires," said the captain, who had suddenly become a mass of vim and activity. "Then call all hands."
Scott observed the approaching steamer with his glass till she was within three miles of the Maud. Morris had been ordered to set the American flag, and it was now floating in the light breeze at the ensign staff.
"Now all hands will come with me," continued the captain; and all but Felipe followed him to the cabin.
His first movement was to throw off the cushions from the divan on the port side, and raise the lid of the transom. From this place he took out a breech-loading rifle, one of half a dozen deposited there three months or more before. They had been in service in the famous attack of the Samothraki on the Maud in Pournea Bay, and had never been removed. No one asked any questions; and the captain ordered them to be conveyed to the pilot-house and engine-room, where they would be available for immediate use. A supply of cartridges was also sent forward, and those who had revolvers were instructed to put them in their pockets.
All these orders were promptly obeyed, and the situation began to look decidedly warlike. Louis could not help asking himself whether or not Captain Scott was not proceeding too rapidly. But the belligerent chief had Captain Ringgold's written orders in his pocket, and there was no room for a protest. Everything appeared to be ready to give the pirate a warm reception, and nothing more could be done.
The Moorish steamer was feeling her way into the bay very slowly, sounding all the time. The Maud was anchored in fourteen feet of water, which placed her keel very near the rocky bottom, and with no greater depth for a cable's length outside of her. Scott had chosen the position of the little steamer so that the Fatime could not come alongside of her, or within a cable's length of her, which is one-fifth of a nautical mile.
"I think we are all right now, Louis," said Captain Scott when he had completed his preparations.
"It looks as though you meant to fight the pirate," added Louis.
"Not if it can be avoided; but I do not intend to let Mazagan take any one of my people out of the Maud; and all hands will shoot before anything of that kind can happen," replied Scott very mildly, and with no excitement in his manner; for he had studied the bearing of his model, and tried to imitate him.
"Do you expect Mazagan will resort to violence, Captain Scott?"
"That is an odd question, Louis," answered Scott, laughing heartily, perhaps as much to manifest his coolness as to treat the question lightly. "Excuse me, Louis, but you make me smile. Do I expect Mazagan to resort to violence? For what did he visit Pournea Bay? Did he resort to violence when he caught you in that shop in the Muski? Did he resort to violence when his assistants attempted to capture you and Miss Blanche in Zante? What do you suppose he followed the Maud up here for, Louis?"
"Perhaps to induce me to pay him twenty thousand dollars to let up on Miss Blanche and myself," replied Louis, overwhelmed by the argument.
"Are you ready to pay him?"
"Never!"
"Then he will resort to some other means to accomplish his purpose in coming to Cyprus. Do you wish me to surrender the Maud to him?" asked the captain.
"Certainly not."
The Fatime let go her anchor as near the Maud as the depth of water would permit her to come. _