o is that man on the forecastle of the Maud?" asked Captain Scott as
the little steamer came into the basin.

"I don't know," replied Captain Ringgold. "I had not noticed him before.
He looks like an Arab, though he is taller than most of them."

A flight of steps ascended to the top of the embankment at the station
of the little town. The Maud passed close to them on her way to her
berth for the night. Abreast of them the Arab on the forecastle leaped
ashore, but made a gesture as though the movement had given him pain. He
went up the steps and disappeared.

"Who was that man, Knott?" asked the captain when the seaman came on
board of the ship.

"I don't know, sir; I called upon him to give an account of himself as
we were crossing Lake Timsah; but he could not understand me, pointed to
his mouth, and shook his head, meaning that he could not speak English.
He did not do any harm, so I let him alone; for Don was running the
engine, and I did not like to call him from his duty. He kept his face
covered up with a sort of veil, and would not say anything. I thought I
would let him alone till we came to a stopping-place, and I could report
to you."

"When did he go on board of the Maud?" asked the captain.

"I don't know, sir. The first time I saw him was on the lake. Spinner
had the wheel, Don was in the engine-room, and the rest of the ship's
company were on the upper deck looking at the sights. I inquired, but
no one had seen him."

"Did you ever see him before?"

"I don't think I ever did, sir. He had on what looked like a new suit of
Arab togs, and he kept his face covered up, as I said."

If Captain Ringgold was not troubled, he was perplexed. He had observed
the stranger distinctly as he went up the steps, but he could not
identify him as a person he had ever seen before. Of course it came into
his head at once that the tall Arab was Captain Mazagan, and he said as
much to Scott.

"We left him at the hotel at Port Said; how could he be here?" asked the
captain of the Maud.

"He must have smuggled himself on board of the little steamer when we
were at Ismailia; for he was first seen out in the lake."

"How could he have been at Ismailia?" Scott inquired.

The commander went to his cabin, and looked over his "Bradshaw," in
which he found that a steamer left Port Said at seven o'clock every
morning, and arrived at Ismailia at noon. It was possible that Mazagan
had come by this conveyance; and he gave Sc