Louis delivered the order to the pilot in the standing-room, and he went forward to attend to the duty assigned to him, and this time they had a hand-lead for such occasions as the present. On his way back the messenger stopped at the engine-room, and had some talk with Felipe, who was still driving the machine at its best. Louis had a purpose in doing so, for he desired to obtain some information from the engineer in regard to the speed of the Fatimé.
"I don't know precisamente," replied the engineer, mixing his English and Spanish. "I was at Mogadore when come the Fatimé from England. I hear the Pacha; he say the vapor was not quick enough; he must go more than twelve miles in one hour. He say this to Señor Tomlin: he was the engineer; he come from England. He say he was best for once y medio nudos la hora."
"She was good for eleven and a half knots an hour," repeated Louis, translating the substance of the reply.
"He made twelve nudos some time," added Felipe.
"All right; that will do," said Louis, encouraged by this information, as he hastened forward to communicate it to the captain.
"She is not making more than eleven knots now, if she is doing as much as that," replied Scott when he had heard what the deck-hand had to say. "But she has not got a full head of steam yet. We shall come out off Point Al Boassa more than a mile ahead of her."
The Maud was making a nearly straight course of three miles while the Fatimé was going a mile and a half outside of the rocks and reefs. The former was making the best speed possible for her, and Scott was sure it was not less than twelve knots; but she was forced to her utmost to accomplish this result.
The run from one point to the other was three and a half miles; and it has taken longer to tell about it than it did to do it. The Maud was approaching the second headland, where the race must terminate, unless the captain decided to follow the coast to the south-east, in order to keep in shoal water where the chaser could not follow her.
"Mark under water two!" shouted Morris with energy, for he was still heaving the lead on the starboard side.
"All right; that is just as it should be," said the captain, as he put the helm a little to starboard. "That is the shoalest place within half a mile of the shore."