Captain Ringgold had decided that the Guardian-Mother and her consort, as the Maud had now come to be called, should keep together, the former regulating her speed by that of the latter. At the same time the commander had marked out the course on the chart of Captain Scott, so that he could proceed on the voyage alone if by any accident they should be separated.
This course was along the coast of Africa, passing Algiers and Tunis, as far as Cape Bon; then stretching across to Cape Passaro, the south-eastern point of the island of Sicily, leaving Malta on the right. From this cape the course was east for about four hundred miles to the southern capes of Greece, and passing through the channel between the island of Cerigo and the mainland into the Archipelago, where the course would generally be north-east to the Dardanelles. After going through this strait and the Sea of Marmora, the little squadron would arrive at its destination at the city of the Sultan.
Perhaps Captain Ringgold was a little facetious about it, but he called this voyage running away from Ali-Noury Pacha; and it is certain that Mr. and Mrs. Woolridge were very much relieved after the steamer left Gibraltar, where the Fatimé was still at anchor. But the need of coal and fresh provisions would require that some calls should be made at the various ports on or near the course.
The commander had consulted his passengers frequently in regard to where they should go and what they should do. They always protested that they should be happy wherever the commander took them; but now that the danger of encountering the Pacha appeared to be removed, they expressed their minds more freely, though they often changed them.
"I suppose we are going over some of this ground, or rather this water again, are we not?" asked Mrs. Belgrave.
"I think not," replied Captain Ringgold.
"But we all want to see something of Algiers," added the lady.
"Algeria is French now; but I have never been there," added Professor Giroud.
"It is only about eighty miles to Captain Scott's red cross off Algiers, and we shall be up with it at midnight; but as you desire to visit the place, we will go there," replied the commander; and he ordered the course to be changed a point to the southward.
"Algiers" was spelled out with the signal flags for the Maud; and she replied that the message was understood. At two o'clock in the morning the Guardian-Mother stopped her screw off the red and green lights placed at the ends of the two moles that enclose the inner harbor, and the Maud followed her example. The city is built partly on a hill five hundred feet high, and partly on the low ground in front of it. It is on the west side of a bay between Capes Caxine and Matifou, on each of which is a light.