American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the OrientOptic, Oliver
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American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the Orient
Optic, Oliver
Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
"He take me!" exclaimed the young Spaniard, pointing in the direction
of the anchorage of the Pacha's steamer; and his limbs actually shook
with terror.
"No, he will not take you, Felipe; he will not take anybody," replied
the captain in a mild tone.
"I run away with the Salihé, and he have the law," added the engineer.
"He may cause you to be arrested; but if he does, I will see that you
are properly defended," replied the commander, who realized that the
young man was technically guilty of stealing the little steamer, though
she had been returned to the owner.
"No matter if you did run away with the Salihé; the Pacha abused you,
and you were justified in leaving him in any way you could. My feet
would not keep still if my body was abused," said Captain Ringgold,
though he realized that the case presented some difficulties.
Felipe did not understand the speaker, for his language was above the
comprehension of the Spaniard. The first sentence he had uttered, that
the engineer should not be taken, was plain enough to him, and that
was really all he had been able to make out; but he was satisfied with
this, and thanked the captain.
"Have you drawn the fires, Felipe?" asked the commander.
"Not yet," replied the engineer, who was better posted on the
technicalities of the machinery than in ordinary matters. "I was to
draw the fires when I see you come down."
"Bank them, and keep the steam up."
This was also understood, and the engineer hastened back to the
machine, willing to leave his case with the commander, who, he thought,
was a bigger man than Ali-Noury Pacha.
"Shore boat alongside, sir, containing a half-drowned Turk," reported
Mr. Boulong at the cabin door.
"A Turk!" exclaimed the captain.
"Perhaps I should have said a Moor; but he looks more like a
turkey-buzzard just now," the first officer explained. "I rather think
he comes from the Pacha's steamer. He wants to come on board."
"I will go out and look at him," replied the captain, as he followed
Mr. Boulong out of the cabin and to the gangway of the Maud, which was
on the quarter. "We have no interpreter if the fellow is a Moor."
"None is needed, for the man speaks English as well as I do," replied
the officer. "He wears the uniform of a Moor; but I don't believe he is
one."
The man in the shore boat stood up in the stern-sheets. He wore the
Moorish costume; but his garments were soaked with water, and hung
to him like a Monday morning wash on the clothes-line. His clothes
certainly needed washing, for they were be-grimed with oil and coal
dust. He was not regarded as dangerous, and he was permitted to come on
deck.
"I run away from the Fatimé," said he without waiting to be questioned
and in good enough English.
"Are you a Moor?" inquired the captain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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