f that kind. In spite of his affectation of indifference, he
knew that Scott was quite as anxious in regard to the result of the
parley as he was himself, though he was the intended victim of the
pirate.

"My business is quite as important to Mr. Belgrave as it is to me,"
replied Mazagan.

"Very likely; but what is your business with him?"

"It is with him, and not with you," returned the pirate, apparently
vexed at the reply. "Who are you? I don't mean to talk my affairs with
one I don't know."

"I am Captain Scott, commander of the steamer Maud, tender of the
steamship Guardian-Mother, owned and in the service of Mr. Louis
Belgrave," replied the captain as impressively as he could make the
statement. "That ought to knock a hole through the tympanum of his
starboard ear," he added with a smile, in a lower tone.

"Of course he knew who you were before," added Louis.

"He ought to know me, for I fished him out of the water in the harbor of
Hermopolis."

"If Mr. Belgrave is on board, I wish to see him," continued Mazagan.

"I may as well face the music first as last," said Louis, as he stepped
out from the shelter of the pilot-house which had concealed him from
those in the boat.

"Of course it is no use to try to hide you. Do you wish to talk with the
pirate, Louis?" asked the captain.

"I don't object to hearing what he has to say, though certainly nothing
will come of it," replied the intended victim.

"It will use up some of the time, and the longer we wait before the
curtain rises, the better the chance that the Guardian-Mother will come
in to take a hand in the game," suggested the captain; and Louis took
another look through the glass to seaward.

"You needn't look so far out to sea for the ship, my dear fellow; for
when she appears she will come around Cape Arnauti, and not more than a
mile outside of it, where she will get eight fathoms of water. She is
coming up from the south; and if our business was not such here that
none of us can leave, I would send Morris and Flix to the top of that
hill on the point, where they could see the ship twenty miles off in
this clear air."

While the captain was saying all this, the four Moorish rowers in the
boat dropped their oars into the water, and began to pull again; for the
patience of their commander seemed to be oozing out.

"That won't do!" exclaimed Scott. "Boat ahoy! Keep off!" he shouted.

"I told you I wished to see Mr. Belgrave, Captain Scott; a