"

"Captain Ringgold said so much to me to induce me to remain on board of
the Guardian-Mother, that I was tempted to yield the point; but it
seemed to me to be cowardly to leave my friends in the face of a
possible danger. I told him finally that I considered myself under his
command, and if he ordered me to remain on board of the ship, I should
obey. He would not do that, and I am here. If there is to be any row on
my account I must be in it."

"You have a mind of your own, and you are in condition to have your own
way. If your mother had been posted you would not have been here."

"We don't know; but I think I have as much influence with my mother as
she has with me. I hardly believe she could or would make me act the
part of a coward."

The subject was dropped there, for it seemed to be exhausted. The night
wore away very slowly, and nothing more was seen of the Fatime's lights.
The morning watch came on duty at four o'clock; but the captain did not
leave the deck. It was evident to him that the sail had increased the
speed of the Maud, and perhaps that was the reason she had run away from
the chaser. An hour later, with the dawn of the day, the gale broke.

"Land, ho!" shouted Louis over the forward part of the upper deck, so
that Morris could hear him at the wheel; and the captain rushed out of
the pilot-house where he had lain down on the divan.

"Where away?" called the first officer.

"Broad on the starboard bow," replied Louis.

"That must be the country south-west of Cape Arnauti," said Scott, after
he had examined the shore with the glass. "Make the course north
north-east, Morris," he shouted to the wheelman.

"North north-east!" returned the helmsman.

"There are mountains on this island, some of them nearly seven thousand
feet high; and there is a cluster of them close to the shore here,"
added the captain.

It was another hour before they could distinctly make out these
mountains; and by that time the end of the cape could be seen on the
beam. The speed of the Maud had been reduced one-half, and the course
due east was given out. She followed the land around the cape, and was
soon in smooth water. With the chart before him at the helm, and with
Morris heaving the lead, Captain Scott piloted the Maud to the head of a
considerable bay, where he ordered the anchor to be cast loose, and then
stopped the screw.

CHAPTER VII

THE BELLIGERENT COMMANDER OF THE MAUD

"Here we are!" shout