some
purpose in his mind which he would not explain to anybody.

His hint that if he were in command of the Guardian-Mother he would make
a hole in the side of the Fatime, pointed to something of this kind,
though probably it was nothing more than a vague idea. He had suggested
the plan upon which the ship and her consort were then acting, and
perhaps it had some possibility of which the commander had not yet
dreamed.

"Can you tell me why that steam-yacht of over six hundred tons is
crowding on steam, and running away towards Port Said, while we are, by
Captain Ringgold's order, headed for Cyprus?" asked the captain.

"Of course I can. He expects by this means to draw off the Fatty, and
set her to chasing the Maud, so that the party will not be bothered with
any conspiracies while we are going through the canal," replied Louis.

"What then?"

"If the Fatty chases us, the Guardian-Mother will put in an appearance
before any harm comes to the Maud, or to any one on board of her."

"Precisely so; that is the way the business is laid out," replied
Captain Scott; but he looked just as though something more might be said
which he did not care to say.

"But it remains to be shown whether the Fatty will follow the Maud or
the ship," added Louis.

"She will not follow the Guardian-Mother," said the navigator very
decidedly.

"How do you know, Captain? You speak as positively as though Captain
Mazagan had told you precisely what he intended to do."

"Of course he has told me nothing, for I have not seen him. Common-sense
is all I have to guide me."

They were about to go into a further discussion of the question when
Felix came tumbling down the ladder from the upper deck as though he was
in a hurry.

"What has broken now, Flix?" demanded the captain.

"Nothing; but the question is settled," replied the lookoutman, stopping
at the front window of the pilot-house, as though he had something
important to say. "The ship looks like a punctuation mark on the sea,
and"--

"Is it a full stop?" asked Captain Scott.

"I don't know; but I think not. She is so far off that I can't make out
whether she is moving or not; but she is not sending as much smoke out
of her funnel as she was."

"Then your news is a little indefinite."

"As indefinite as a broken barometer. But I did not come down to report
upon the ship alone," added the lookoutman.

"Give out the text, and go on with the sermon."

"The text is in the bac