had done so far
afforded him intense satisfaction, and he was sure that Captain Ringgold
could find no fault with his management up to this moment.

"Here we are, Louis; and, so far as my plan is concerned, we are
euchred. It is a failure," said Captain Scott, as he took a survey of
the surroundings, which remained precisely the same as they had been
from the beginning.

"Through no fault of the plan or yourself, Captain. If there was no
channel here to deep water, of course you could not pass through it,"
replied Louis. "You have done everything you could."

"I have been asking myself if I was to blame for getting into the trap;
for we certainly are in a trap," continued Scott. "I followed the
instructions of Captain Ringgold to the letter; and when I brought the
Maud to her anchorage by the ledge, the pirate was not in sight, and I
knew no more of what had become of him than I did in regard to the
Guardian-Mother."

"You have no occasion to censure yourself for anything," replied Louis.
"You have obeyed your orders, and our present difficult situation is the
result of the non-appearance of the ship. Don't blame yourself, Captain
Scott, for not a shadow of an imputation can rest upon your conduct."

"Thank you, my dear fellow. I hope I shall get out of this bay without
forfeiting your generous approval," added Scott.

"Here we are, Captain, as you say, and it looks as though we were in a
bad scrape. All we have to do is to turn our attention to the manner of
getting out of it. If there were any reason to reproach yourself or
anybody else, we have no time to attend to that matter. What can be
done next?" demanded Louis, rousing his energies to face the difficulty.

"What we do next depends mainly upon what the Fatime does; and she isn't
doing anything," replied Captain Scott, apparently roused to new
exertion by the burst of energy on the part of his companion in the
pilot-house. "I have no doubt Mazagan intends to make an effort to get
possession of our millionaire as soon as he has the opportunity; but he
will never succeed unless he knocks the Maud all to pieces with his
twelve-pounders, which I don't believe he can do, Louis. You have
comforted me so effectually, my dear fellow, that I begin to think it is
time for me to do something of the same sort for you."

"I don't feel the need of comfort and consolation yet," said Louis quite
merrily. "I am not at all alarmed; and what I say is not braggadocio."

"I