New York, and abandoning the voyage from
which so much of pleasure and instruction was expected.

Captain Ringgold and Louis had considered the situation, and fully
realized the intention of Captain Mazagan to follow the steamer and her
little consort. They had agreed upon a plan, after Captain Scott and
Felix, who was the detective of the ship, by which they hoped to "fool"
the enemy, as the young commander expressed it. The Fatime had sailed
early in the morning, but she was soon discovered off the Bay of Abukir.
The reader is now in condition to inquire into what Captain Scott
regarded as the one great mistake that had been made in the arrangements
for outwitting the Moorish steam-yacht.

The young captain was in the pilot-house of the Maud when the steamer
was discovered. He was the commander; but the smallness of the ship's
company made it necessary for him to keep his own watch, which is
usually done by the second mate for him. Morris Woolridge, who had had
considerable experience in his father's yacht, was the first officer,
and there was no other. The young millionaire, in spite of his influence
as owner, had insisted on serving as a common sailor, or deck-hand, with
Felix. There were two engineers and a cook, who will be presented when
they are needed.

"What is the one great mistake, Captain Scott?" asked Louis, who stood
at the open window in front of the pilot-house.

"The single mistake of any consequence is in the fact that you are on
board of the Maud when you ought to be stowed away in the cabin of the
Guardian-Mother," replied the captain very decidedly, with something
bordering on disgust in his tones and manner. "Instead of keeping you
out of danger, you are running just as straight into the lion's den as
you can go, Louis."

"Where is the lion's den, please to inform me," replied the young
millionaire, scouting, in his tones and manner, any idea of peril to
himself which was not shared by his companions.

"On board of that four-hundred-ton steamer which you see off by the
coast."

"Do you think I ought to be any more afraid of her than the rest of the
fellows?" demanded Louis. "Do you wish me to stand back and stay behind
a fence while you face the enemy?"

"Of course I don't believe you are afraid, Louis, my dear fellow,"
added Captain Scott, perhaps fearing he had said too much, or had been
misunderstood.

But just at that moment Morris Woolridge came forward, and neither of
them was w