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."