before, though it had not been a very severe storm; and Scott and Louis
supposed he would make all possible haste to be near her. Instead of
that, she was fully ten hours behind her, even with her superior speed
and more weatherly ability. They could not explain her delay, and it was
useless to attempt to do so.

"What do you suppose will become of those fellows from the pirate,
Captain Scott?" asked Louis, looking at the people from the Fatime on
the shore.

"I haven't the least idea, and I don't think I shall trouble my head
with the question," replied the captain. "We have given them provisions
enough to keep them alive for several days, and they can make their way
to some town. I don't consider their condition as at all desperate. If
Captain Ringgold thinks it necessary, he will do whatever he deems
advisable."

"I don't consider those men as pirates, or hold them responsible for the
acts of Captain Mazagan," added Louis. "They had to obey his orders, and
I doubt if they had any knowledge of his intentions."

"I did not see a single person, as well as I could make them out in the
boats, who looked like an Englishman. Probably the foreign engineers
retired from the Pacha's service when Mazagan took command of her. They
knew the meaning of piracy. At any rate, the steamer was not officered
nor manned as she was when we saw her at Gibraltar. Don says her cabin
was magnificently furnished, as he had seen through the open door, for
he had never been into it. But he is certain that she is an old steamer,
built for a steam-yacht, but sold by her owner at a big price when she
became altogether behind the times."

"She could not have been very strongly built, or the Maud would not have
knocked a hole in her so easily," said Louis.

"It has been repeated over and over again that the Maud was constructed
of extra strength when she was built. Who was that man of whom she was
purchased?"

"Giles Chickworth, a Scotchman," replied Louis, as he recalled the
character.

"He declared that she was the strongest little vessel of her size that
ever was built. Don examined the inside of her bow immediately after the
blow was struck, and I have done so since. She has not started a plate
or a bolt. But then we had all the advantage. We struck the pirate
fairly on the broadside with the part of our craft where she is the
strongest, and where there could be no give or spring. It does not seem
so strange to me as I think it over."