"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.
"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 some purpose in his mind which he would not explain to anybody.
His hint that if he were in command of the Guardian-Mother he would make a hole in the side of the Fatimé, pointed to something of this kind, though probably it was nothing more than a vague idea. He had suggested the plan upon which the ship and her consort were then acting, and perhaps it had some possibility of which the commander had not yet dreamed.
"Can you tell me why that steam-yacht of over six hundred tons is crowding on steam, and running away towards Port Said, while we are, by Captain Ringgold's order, headed for Cyprus?" asked the captain.
"Of course I can. He expects by this means to draw off the Fatty, and set her to chasing the Maud, so that the party will not be bothered with any conspiracies while we are going through the canal," replied Louis.
"If the Fatty chases us, the Guardian-Mother will put in an appearance before any harm comes to the Maud, or to any one on board of her."
"Precisely so; that is the way the business is laid out," replied Captain Scott; but he looked just as though something more might be said which he did not care to say.
"But it remains to be shown whether the Fatty will follow the Maud or the ship," added Louis.
"She will not follow the Guardian-Mother," said the navigator very decidedly.
"How do you know, Captain? You speak as positively as though Captain Mazagan had told you precisely what he intended to do."
"Of course he has told me nothing, for I have not seen him. Common-sense is all I have to guide me."
They were about to go into a further discussion of the question when Felix came tumbling down the ladder from the upper deck as though he was in a hurry.