e Ali-Noury Pacha, one of the richest
and most influential magnates of the country, paid a visit to the ship.
Unfortunately he saw the beautiful Blanche Woolridge, and was more
attentive to her than pleased her parents.

They were alarmed, for of course the Pacha was a Mohammedan. Captain
Ringgold found a way out of the difficulty by towing the sailing-yacht
out of the harbor; and both vessels hastened to Madeira. The Moor
followed them in his steam-yacht, the Fatime; but the commander put to
sea as soon as he realized the situation. At Gibraltar the Pacha
confronted the party again. The commander had learned at Funchal that
His Highness was a villanously bad character, and he positively refused
to permit him to visit or to meet the lady passengers on board his ship.
He was an honest, upright, and plain-spoken man. He stated that the
Pacha was not a suitable person to associate with Christian ladies.

This led to a personal attack upon the stalwart commander, and the Pacha
was knocked into the mud in the street. This had fanned his wrath to a
roaring name, for he had been fined before an English court for the
assault. His passion for revenge was even more determined than his
admiration for the "houri," as he called the maiden. He had followed the
ship to Constantinople, engaged a felucca and a ruffian, assisted by a
French detective, to capture the fair girl, as the story has already
informed the reader in other volumes.

The national affairs of His Highness had called him home, but he had
apparently placed his steam-yacht in command of a Captain Mazagan; and
this ruffian, attended by Ulbach, the detective, had followed the party
to Egypt. The capture of Louis Belgrave, or the young lady, or both of
them, was the object of the ruffian, who was to receive two hundred
thousand francs if he succeeded, or half that sum if he failed. Louis
had had a narrow escape from these ruffians in Cairo; but he had worked
his way out of the difficulty, assisted by a chance incident.

The Fatime had been discovered in the harbor of Alexandria before the
Guardian-Mother and her tender sailed. The peril which menaced the young
lady had been kept a profound secret from all except three of the "Big
Four;" for the commander believed himself abundantly able to protect his
passengers, and the knowledge of the danger would have made the ladies
so nervous and terrified that Mrs. Belgrave and the Woolridges would
have insisted upon returning to