The ship, as the larger steamer was generally called to distinguish her from the smaller one, was the Guardian-Mother. This may be regarded as rather an odd name for a steamship, but it had been selected by the young millionaire himself as a tribute of love, affection, and honor to his mother; for they were devotedly attached to each other, and their relations were almost sentimental. Mrs. Belgrave was one of the most important passengers in the cabin of the steamer.
Felix McGavonty was born in the United States, though his parents came from Ireland. He had been the companion of Louis Belgrave from their earliest childhood; and as they grew older they became the most consummate cronies. Felix almost worshipped his friend, and the friendship was mutual. He was a fair scholar, having attended the academy at Von Blonk Park, where they lived. He could speak the English language as well as a college professor; but he was very much given to speaking with the Irish brogue, in honor of his mother he insisted, and dragged into his speech all the dialects known in the Green Isle, and perhaps supplemented them with some inventions of his own. That great American humorist might have said of Felix just what he did of the kangaroo.
Captain Scott had been a wild boy, in fact, a decidedly bad boy. He had been picked up with his foster-father in the Bahamas. His only guardian bound him over to Captain Royal Ringgold, the commander of the Guardian-Mother, who had thoroughly and entirely reformed his life and character. He was a natural-born sailor, and his abilities were of a high order in that direction. When the ship's company of the Maud was organized, Louis had brought his influence to bear in favor of electing him to the command, for which he was vastly better qualified than any other member of the "Big Four."
Squire Moses Scarburn, another of the all-over-the-world excursionists, was the trustee of Louis's million and a half. He was a jolly fat man, rising fifty years old. He was a lawyer by profession, and had sat upon the bench, and Louis had always been an immense favorite with him. He had taken Felix into his house as an orphan; and his housekeeper, Mrs. Sarah Blossom, had cared for him in his childhood, looked after his morals and the buttons on his shirts and trousers, till she became very fond of him.
Just before the Guardian-Mother sailed on her cruise from New York, a couple of professional gentlemen, thrown overboard by the upsetting of a sailing-yacht, were rescued from a watery grave by the people on board of the steamer, largely by the exertions of Louis. One of them was Dr. Philip Hawkes, one of the most noted medical men of the great city. He was almost the counterpart of the trustee physically, weighing two hundred and twenty-six pounds and three-quarters, while the lawyer fell a quarter of a pound short of these figures. They were continually bantering each other about this difference.
The doctor called Uncle Moses, as the entire party addressed him, "Brother Avoirdupois;" and the lawyer retorted by christening the surgeon "Brother Adipose Tissue." The conductor of the party in Egypt had called them both "cupids;" and this term became very popular for the time. The other gentleman who had been saved from an untimely grave in the bay was a learned Frenchman. Both of them were in feeble health from overwork; and they accepted invitations to join the party, the one as the medical officer of the ship, and the other as the instructor in the languages as well as in the sciences generally, for which he was abundantly competent.
Louis Belgrave, in passing through the incidents of the story, had made the acquaintance of Mr. Lowell Woolridge, a Fifth Avenue millionaire and magnate. He had formerly been a well-known sportsman; but he had abandoned the race-course, though he kept up his interest in yachting. He was the owner of a large sailing schooner; and through this craft Louis and his mother became acquainted with the yachtsman's family, consisting of his wife, a son, and a daughter. The latter was a very beautiful young lady of sixteen, whose face captivated everybody who came into her presence; and Louis's mother had deemed it her duty to warn her son against the fascination of the maiden before he had found his million.
A slight illness had threatened the young lady with possible consequences, and the physicians had advised her father to take her to Orotava, in the Canary Islands. On the voyage the yacht had been nearly wrecked, and the family had been rescued by the officers and crew of the Guardian-Mother. The yacht sailed in company with the steamer; and they visited Mogadore, in Morocco. Here Ali-Noury Pacha, one of the richest and most influential magnates of the country, paid a visit to the ship. Unfortunately he saw the beautiful Blanche Woolridge, and was more attentive to her than pleased her parents.
They were alarmed, for of course the Pacha was a Mohammedan. Captain Ringgold found a way out of the difficulty by towing the sailing-yacht out of the harbor; and both vessels hastened to Madeira. The Moor followed them in his steam-yacht, the Fatimé; but the commander put to sea as soon as he realized the situation. At Gibraltar the Pacha confronted the party again. The commander had learned at Funchal that His Highness was a villanously bad character, and he positively refused to permit him to visit or to meet the lady passengers on board his ship. He was an honest, upright, and plain-spoken man. He stated that the Pacha was not a suitable person to associate with Christian ladies.
This led to a personal attack upon the stalwart commander, and the Pacha was knocked into the mud in the street. This had fanned his wrath to a roaring name, for he had been fined before an English court for the assault. His passion for revenge was even more determined than his admiration for the "houri," as he called the maiden. He had followed the ship to Constantinople, engaged a felucca and a ruffian, assisted by a French detective, to capture the fair girl, as the story has already informed the reader in other volumes.