Louis called her his guardian-mother; and this was an expression that greatly pleased his fancy. He looked upon her as an influence greater and more powerful than all others on the earth combined. He was strong and energetic in the battle upon which he had just entered through the influence she exerted over him. He felt that life would be nothing to him without her. He heard her lock the door after he had kissed her and retired from the room. Scoble still sat upon the divan at the stern of the cabin, where the stout shipmaster had cast him like an unclean bird after he had been ironed. He could not help realizing that he had been conquered, but he had not been subdued. Louis hastened to the after end of the cabin as soon as he had disposed of his mother. The captain of the Maud seemed to be dazed, confounded, and astonished at the result of the conflict in which he had been engaged. One so arbitrary and self-sufficient had some difficulty in believing that he had actually been overcome, and in his own cabin. But the violence of his wrath had apparently subsided, and he was silent, looking from one to another of his late assailants. “What next?” he demanded, as he fixed his gaze upon Louis, evidently regarding him as the leader and chief engineer of the movement in progress. “We are not disposed to make you any more uncomfortable than is necessary to prevent you from doing any harm to my mother and myself; and I think we shall be abundantly able to protect ourselves, Captain Scoble,” replied Louis, taking upon himself the office of spokesman. “I wish to say for myself that, in spite of all you have done, I bear no malice towards you. I shall do nothing, and my friends here will not, to injure you, or even to annoy you, unless it shall be necessary to protect myself and mother.” “That is all very fine, you young scapegrace!” exclaimed Scoble, looking fiercely at the speaker. “We are on the high seas now, and you are engaged in a mutiny: you have captured the vessel, so far as I am concerned; and if I wished to get rid of you, as you say I do, I need only hand you over to the courts, and the penalty of your crime is death.” “Not much high seas just here, Captain Scoble,” said Captain Ringgold, laughing at the threat of the other. “I have been to sea more than you have, and I know something about this matter. The principal idea is that four persons have been kidnapped on board of this vessel, and they are making an effort to save themselves, and to avoid being carried out of this country to a foreign shore. We will take our chances on the mutiny question.” “Captain Ringgold, you are a sensible man; but you plainly do not know this boy who is leading you about by the nose,” continued Scoble, in quite a gentle tone for him. “That young thief robbed me of a good many thousand dollars.”