tive of the Woolridge family on board of the Maud must be left
with his father and mother and sister on the ship, or the whole truth
must be told to the son. Thus far no lies had been necessary; and the
captain did not believe it would be wrong for him to conceal what would
be dangerous to the peace of mind of his passengers.

As long as Captain Ringgold conscientiously believed that neither Miss
Blanche nor Louis was in any peril, he considered it his duty to conceal
from their parents the plot of the Pacha and his agents. He was sure
that neither Mrs. Woolridge nor Mrs. Belgrave would consent to continue
the voyage even in the face of a very remote danger to their children.
He had abundant resources on board, including his two twelve-pounders,
for their protection; and he had used them on one occasion, though his
passengers did not understand the reason of the attack made on the Maud.

This subject had been considered before the vessels sailed from
Alexandria, and the commander declared that he could not adopt the
scheme of Scott, if they were to be required to utter no end of
falsehoods to Morris; and Louis absolutely refused to do so. They had
finally compromised by making the owner a committee of one to confer
with the subject of the difficulty when the time for action came. Like
the others, Morris was to be pledged to secrecy for the peace and
comfort of the mothers. If he refused to give the pledge, the plan of
Captain Scott was to be abandoned, and the Maud was to place herself
immediately under the wing of the Guardian-Mother again. The time for
action on this subject had come.

"I will go aft and have a talk with Morris; and I am only afraid he will
fly off at the want of confidence in him we have shown," said Louis.

"But his case is not a whit different from your own; for you have a
mother in the cabin as well as he," added the captain.

"But we have concealed everything from him for months; but Morris is as
good a fellow as ever sailed the seas, and he will be reasonable."

"I pledged myself to secrecy, and I think we had better make the 'Big
Four' a society for the protection of this secret till the end of the
voyage."

"We will consider that at another time," replied Louis as he moved aft.

He found Morris still looking about in order to solve what was a mystery
to him, as it must have been to the engineers and the cook; but they
were paid employes, and it was not proper for them to ask any questio