him in his childhood, looked after his morals and the buttons on his shirts and trousers, till she became very fond of him.

Just before the Guardian-Mother sailed on her cruise from New York, a couple of professional gentlemen, thrown overboard by the upsetting of a sailing-yacht, were rescued from a watery grave by the people on board of the steamer, largely by the exertions of Louis. One of them was Dr. Philip Hawkes, one of the most noted medical men of the great city. He was almost the counterpart of the trustee physically, weighing two hundred and twenty-six pounds and three-quarters, while the lawyer fell a quarter of a pound short of these figures. They were continually bantering each other about this difference.

The doctor called Uncle Moses, as the entire party addressed him, "Brother Avoirdupois;" and the lawyer retorted by christening the surgeon "Brother Adipose Tissue." The conductor of the party in Egypt had called them both "cupids;" and this term became very popular for the time. The other gentleman who had been saved from an untimely grave in the bay was a learned Frenchman. Both of them were in feeble health from overwork; and they accepted invitations to join the party, the one as the medical officer of the ship, and the other as the instructor in the languages as well as in the sciences generally, for which he was abundantly competent.

Louis Belgrave, in passing through the incidents of the story, had made the acquaintance of Mr. Lowell Woolridge, a Fifth Avenue millionaire and magnate. He had formerly been a well-known sportsman; but he had abandoned the race-course, though he kept up his interest in yachting. He was the owner of a large sailing schooner; and through this craft Louis and his mother became acquainted with the yachtsman's family, consisting of his wife, a son, and a daughter. The latter was a very beautiful young lady of sixteen, whose face captivated everybody who came into her presence; and Louis's mother had deemed it her duty to warn her son against the fascination of the maiden before he had found his million.

A slight illness had threatened the young lady with possible consequences, and the physicians had advised her father to take her to Orotava, in the Canary Islands. On the voyage the yacht had been nearly wrecked, and the family had been rescued by the officers and crew of the Guardian-Mother. The yacht sailed in company with the steamer; and they visited Mogadore, in Morocco. Here 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 Fatimé; 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 Fatimé 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 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 Fatimé 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 willing to continue the conversation in his presence; for he might fall into the possession of the secret which was so carefully guarded.

CHAPTER II

HARMONY DISTURBED, BUT HAPPILY RESTORED

Morris Woolridge was the first officer of the Maud, and as such he