"She is settling in the water," said Louis, as he observed the condition of the disabled vessel.
"In a word, Louis, she is going to the bottom!" exclaimed Captain Scott. "Do you see anything of Mazagan?"
"I have been looking for him, but I can't make him out," replied Louis.
By this time one of the boats was in the water, and the men were crowding into her without any order or method in their movements. No one appeared to be in command, and every one was acting for himself. There must have been a couple of officers besides the captain; but no one exerted his authority. The other boat was soon in the water, and all who had not found a place in the first one crowded into her, some of them jumping overboard in their haste to save themselves.
The first boat shoved off from the side of the Fatimé, and all the people of the Maud watched it, some of the firing party seizing their rifles, and preparing to use them, to ascertain what the pirates intended to do. It contained ten men, as Morris counted them. The four men at the oars gave way as soon as it was clear of the vessel, but the head of the boat was directed to the shore.
"Those villains have had fighting enough, and I don't believe they will give us any more trouble," said Captain Scott, when the boat was fairly in motion for the shore. It was evident enough that they could do nothing to save the steamer, and they had abandoned her. The other boat presently came out from the farther side of the vessel, and it contained only seven persons, from which it appeared that the Fatimé's ship's company consisted of only seventeen men, unless some of them had been killed or wounded, and left on board.
"This looks like the end of the Fatimé, and I don't believe she will give us any further trouble in our voyage, wherever we may go," said Captain Scott, while all hands were watching the passage of the two boats to the shore.
"But why don't she sink?" asked Louis.
"Though that is a big hole in her side, the most of it was above water in the first of it, and the brine did not flow in very rapidly; but she is settling very fast now, and it is a question of only a few minutes with her now," replied the captain, as he rang three bells upon the gong in the engine-room to back her. "We are rather too near her if she makes much of a stir-about when she goes down."
"Help! Help! Save me! Save me!" came in rather feeble tones from the wreck of the Fatimé.