corrected," answered Felix promptly.

"I did not mean to correct you; for I make too many blunders myself to
pick up another fellow for doing so. I only wanted to explain why I did
not understand you. I had got used to pronouncing it Sah-eed, and Sed
does not sound much like it, and I did not take in what you meant, and
thought you were talking about some port in the island of Cyprus, where
we are bound."

"I accept your apology, Captain, and shift all the guilt to my own
shoulders. Now may I ask how far it is from here to Port Sah-eed?"
replied Felix very good-naturedly.

"It is 101.76 miles, by which, of course, I mean knots. I figured it up
from a point north of Rosetta," added the navigator.

"Won't you throw off the fraction?"

"No; if you run one hundred and one miles only, you will fetch up
three-quarters of a knot to the westward of the red light at the end of
the breakwater."

"That is putting a fine point on it; but I will go on the hurricane deck
and see what the Fatty is about," replied Felix.

"You have not rung the speed bell, Captain Scott, since you started the
screw," suggested Louis.

"I did not intend to do so yet a while," replied the captain. "I want to
know what the Fatty is about, as Felix calls her; and I think we had
better translate her heathen name into plain English."

"Flix's name would apply better to Uncle Moses and Dr. Hawkes than to
the Moorish steamer."

"We had a girl in our high school who bore that name, though she was a
full-blooded New Yorker; but the master always insisted upon putting the
accent on the first syllable, declaring that was the right way to
pronounce it. I know we have always pronounced the word Fat'-ee-may, and
that is where Flix got the foundation for his abbreviation."

"Fatty it is, Captain, if you say so. I wonder what the Fatty is about
just now?" added Louis.

"Flix will soon enlighten us on that subject, for he has a wonderfully
sharp pair of eyes."

"Do you really believe we shall get over to Cyprus, Captain Scott?"
asked Louis, looking sharply into the eyes of the navigator.

"Why should we not?"

"Because I don't believe Captain Ringgold intends to turn us loose on
the Mediterranean, and let us go it on our own hook, or rather on your
own hook; for you are the commander, and all the rest of us have to do
is to obey your orders," said Louis; and the little tiff between them
had gently and remotely suggested to him that Captain Scott had