American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the OrientOptic, Oliver
General
American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the Orient
Optic, Oliver
Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
His knife was taken from him; but Louis assured him he should not
be harmed if he made no resistance. The party then proceeded to the
engine-room. Not one of them had seen or heard a word from Felipe since
they started on the excursion. He attended to his duty, and heeded the
bells apparently without knowing or caring who rang them. Pedro, his
custodian, was fast asleep on the seat back of the machinery, and did
not appear to have heard the noise or the yells from the standing-room.
He was an easy victim, and when he had been secured he was conducted
to the pilot-house, where he was laid out on the floor in front of
Francisco. He was fastened to the settee.
Felipe wanted to know what had happened. He had tried to ascertain,
but Pedro showed him his knife, and would not allow him to leave
the engine-room. The situation was explained to him, and all he was
required to do was to run the engine. Scott had taken the wheel when
Francisco was deposed, and his companions joined him when they brought
in their last prisoner. Diego was still yelling; but they did as they
do in Spain when it rains--they let him yell.
"Do you know where you are, Scott?" asked Louis, as he looked out the
window in front of the wheel.
"Of course I do; we were about half-way between Gibraltar and Algeciras
when I took the wheel, and then I headed her for the red light on the
New Mole. You have not told me, Captain Belgrave, what you intend to do
with the prize and the prisoners we have taken."
"We will go alongside the Guardian-Mother, and Captain Ringgold may do
what he pleases with them," replied Louis.
"That was just my idea of what you would do with them," added the
pilot. "But there is no one of our number in the standing-room to watch
the movements of Captain Velazquez. He may get up some mischief that
will bother us. If you prefer, Captain Belgrave, to take the wheel, I
will stand guard at the stern."
"You are a better helmsman than I am, Scott; you had better keep the
wheel, and I will keep watch of Diego," replied Louis. "If anything
happens, send me word. Morris will be within hail of you to be your
messenger, though I don't think anything is likely to happen in this
part of the steamer. If I want you, I will send Morris to take your
place."
"That blackguard can chop off the tow-line when he takes a notion to do
so," suggested Felix, as they moved aft.
"That would only be jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire,"
replied Louis. "We are not more than two miles from the New Mole, and
we shall be there in twenty minutes."
"Then it is time for him to chop it off now."
"I don't know what he will do. If he cuts loose from the Salihé, he can
be easily overhauled by the custom-house officers, if there are any
here," answered Louis.
"Faix, I think it is Spanish officers, and not English, we want; and
why don't you run into the town on the other side of the bay?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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