The commander immediately beat another retreat; but the Fatime, as the Moroccan steamer was called, followed her to Gibraltar.  Here the Pacha desired an interview with Captain Ringgold, who refused to receive him on board, for he had learned in Funchal that his character was very bad, and he told him so to his face.  When the commander went on shore he was attacked in the street by the Pacha and some of his followers; but the stalwart captain knocked him with a blow of his fist in a gutter filled with mud.  Ali-Noury was fined by the court for the assault, and, thirsting for revenge, he had followed the Guardian-Mother to Constantinople, and through the Archipelago, seeking the vengeance his evil nature demanded.  He employed a man named Mazagan to capture Miss Blanche or Louis, or both of them.

Captain Sharp, who was cruising in the Viking with his wife, while at Messina found the Pacha beset by robbers, and badly wounded.  The ex-detective took him on board of his steamer, procured a surgeon, and saved the life of the Moor, not only in beating off the robbers that beset him, but in the care of him after he was wounded.  They became strong friends; and both the captain and Mrs. Sharp, who had been the most devoted of nurses to him, spoke their minds to him very plainly.

The Pacha was repentant, for his vices were as contrary to the religion of Mohammed as to that of the New Testament.  Captain Sharp was confident that his guest was thoroughly reformed, though he did not become a Christian, as his nurse hoped he would.  Then his preserver learned that the Pacha had settled his accounts with Captain Mazagan, and sold him the Fatime.

It appeared when Captain Sharp told his story to the commander of the Guardian-Mother at Aden, that Mazagan had been operating on his own hook in Egypt and elsewhere to “blackmail” the trustee of Louis.  The Pacha had ordered a new steamer to be built for him in England; and when she arrived at Gibraltar, he had given the command of her to Captain Sharp, to whom he owed his life and reformation.

At Aden, Captain Ringgold discovered the white steamer, and fearing she was the one built for the Pacha, as Mazagan had informed him in regard to her, he paid her a visit, and found Captain Sharp in command of her.  The Moor was known as General Noury here, and he made an abject apology to the visitor.  Convinced that the Moor had really reformed his life, they were reconciled, and General Noury was received with favor by all the party.

The Blanche was sailing in company of the Guardian-Mother for Bombay when the wreck with several men on it was discovered.  And now having reviewed the incidents of the past, fully related in the preceding volumes of the series, it is quite time to attend to the imperilled persons on the wreck.

CHAPTER IV

First and second cutters to the rescue