ith her in the Strait of Gibraltar. But come into the
pilot-house, Louis, for I want to show you something there;" and he led
the way.

When both of them were fairly in the little apartment, he pointed to the
barometer. If Louis was not much of a sailor, he had learned to read the
instrument, and he saw that the mercury had made a decided fall from the
last reading.

"I see; and it means bad weather," he replied.

"Flix called my attention to the fall some time ago; and after a look at
the chart I decided to alter the course," said the captain, as he
pointed out the island of Cyprus on the chart spread out on the falling
table over the divan.

"I have no doubt you have done the right thing at the right time, as you
always do in the matter of navigation."

"But look at this chart, Louis;" and it almost seemed to him that the
captain had fathomed his unuttered thoughts, because he was taking so
much pains to explain what he had done, and why he had done it. "The
course I gave out at first would have carried the Maud to Cape Gata, on
the southern coast of the island."

"I understand it so far."

"The tumble of the barometer opened the matter under a new phase. We
should have made Cape Gata about three to-morrow morning, and in my
judgment in a smart southerly or south-westerly gale. The cape would
afford us little or no shelter, as you can see for yourself; and it
would be a very bad place in a heavy blow. Our course is now north
north-east half-east for Cape Arnauti, on the north side of the island,
where we shall be under the lee of the island, though we have to get
forty miles more of westing to make it."

Louis thanked the captain for his lucid explanation. The next morning,
in a fresh gale, the Maud was off the cape mentioned.

[Illustration: "IT HAD BEEN A STORMY NIGHT." Page 51.]

CHAPTER VI

A STORMY NIGHT RUN TO CAPE ARNAUTI

It had been a stormy night, though the gale had not been so severe as
either of the two the Maud had before encountered on the Mediterranean.
It did not come on to blow hard till about eight bells in the afternoon;
and at five o'clock in the morning Captain Scott estimated that the
little steamer ought to be off Cape Arnauti; but all the lights of the
island were on the south side. He kept her well off shore, where there
were neither rocks nor shoals. There was nothing less than twenty
fathoms of water a couple of miles from the shore.

The gale had come from the sout