le me to make an effectual resistance, and
Mazagan might have got a bullet through his left breast instead of
through his right shoulder."

"Every fellow would have stood by you, my dear fellow, as long as you
stood yourself," replied the captain. "If Mazagan had disabled the Maud,
he could have retired out of reach of our rifle balls, and knocked a
hole through the vessel with his guns, and sunk her. Then he would have
had nothing to do but to pick up his millionaire, and ransom him with
double the sum he demanded in Cairo."

"Perhaps you are right, Captain Scott; but I think we need not discuss
what might have been. We know what is; and this is the problem with
which we have to deal."

"Bluntly, Louis, I desire to ask you whether you approve or disapprove
what I have done as the captain of the Maud?" continued Scott rather
nervously for him.

"I wholly and heartily approve of what you have done!" protested Louis
with emphatic earnestness, and without an instant's hesitation.

"My dear Louis, give me your hand!" exclaimed Scott, springing to his
feet; they clasped hands in front of the wheel, and the captain seemed
disposed to extend it to an embrace. "You have removed all my doubts and
anxiety by what you said and the manner in which you said it. If you
approve my action, I believe the commander will do the same."

"While I do not accept your view of what might have followed if you had
done otherwise, I believe you did the best thing that could be done. If
the end had not come just as you say, it would have amounted to the same
thing. Let us leave the subject now, and come back to the question you
asked me when I came in. What shall be done next?" said Louis.

"I don't think we can do anything but wait here till the Guardian-Mother
comes. If we go to sea, she will not know where to find us," replied
Captain Scott. "What do you think of it, Louis?"

"I am decidedly opposed to remaining where we are. Though you and I may
agree that what has been done is all right, the officers of the Turkish
government in authority on this island may not be of that opinion. There
is no town, or anything like one, in sight, and I have not been able to
make out even a single house or habitation of any kind."

"It is an exceedingly rough-looking country on shore. There are nothing
but mountains and forests to be seen. The nearest town put down on the
chart is more than ten miles distant, though there may be a village or
houses be