Asiatic Breezes Students on The Wing

Oliver Optic

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. ASIATIC BREEZES is the fourth volume of the second series of the All-Over-the-World Library. Starting out from Alexandria, Egypt, after the adventures and explorations of the Guardian-Mother party in that interesting country, which included an excursion up the Nile to the First Cataract, the steamer sails out upon the Mediterranean, closely followed by her little consort. The enemy who had made a portion of the voyage exceedingly disagreeable to the watchful commander has been thwarted in all his schemes, and the threatened danger kept at a distance, even while those who are most deeply interested are unconscious of its existence.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819914129
• Langue: English

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PREFACE
"ASIATIC BREEZES" is the fourth volume of the secondseries of the "All-Over-the-World Library." Starting out fromAlexandria, Egypt, after the adventures and explorations of theGuardian-Mother party in that interesting country, which includedan excursion up the Nile to the First Cataract, the steamer sailsout upon the Mediterranean, closely followed by her little consort.The enemy who had made a portion of the voyage exceedinglydisagreeable to the watchful commander has been thwarted in all hisschemes, and the threatened danger kept at a distance, even whilethose who are most deeply interested are unconscious of itsexistence.
But the old enemy immediately appears on the coast,as was expected, and an attempt is made to carry out a plan toescape from further annoyance. The little steamer sails for theisland of Cyprus, as arranged beforehand, and reaches herdestination, though she encounters a smart gale on the voyage,through which the young navigators carry their lively little craft.Plans do not always work as they have been arranged; and by anaccident the young people are left to fight their own battle, ashas happened several times before in the history of the cruise.
A considerable portion of the volume is taken upwith the record of some very stirring events in a certain bay ofthe island of Cyprus, where the little steamer had made a harborafter the gale, and where the Guardian-Mother had failed to joinher, as agreed upon. The story relates the manner in which theyoung captain, actively seconded by his shipmates, extricates hislittle craft from a very perilous situation, though it involves adisaster to the piratical enemy and his steamer. The conduct of theboy-commander brings up several questions of interest, upon whicheverybody has a right to his own opinion.
The steamer and her consort pass through the SuezCanal, which is minutely described, both in its construction andoperation. Some of those on board of the steamer are interested inScripture history, including the commander; and the residence ofthe Israelites in the "Land of Goshen," as well as their pilgrimageinto Asia, pursued by "Pharaoh and his host," are considered atsome length. Some of the different views in regard to the passageof the Red Sea are given, though he who presents them clings to thenarrative as he read it from the Bible in his childhood.
Though the party for reasons given do not go toMount Sinai, the peninsula to which it now gives its name is notneglected. Mount Serbal, and what is generally regarded as the HolyMountain, are seen from the deck of the steamer, though some claimthat the former is the scene of the delivery of the tablets of theLaw to Moses. The captain of the steamer does not regard himself asa mere shipmaster; for in recommending the voyage for the youngmillionaire, he makes a great deal of its educational features, notalone for its opportunities for sight-seeing, but for study andreceiving instruction. As earnest in carrying out his idea in thelatter as well as the former, he has made a lecture-room of thedeck of the vessel.
The physical geography of the regions passed throughis considered, as well as the history; and as the ship is in thevicinity of the kingdoms of the ancient world, the professor hassomething to say to his audience about Assyria, Babylonia, Arabia,the Caliphate, and gives an epitome of the life of Mohammed, andthe rise and progress of Islamism.
In the last chapters the story, which has beenextended through several volumes, appears to be brought to aconclusion in a manner that may astonish the reader. However thatmay be, the termination points to an enlarged field of operationsin the future for the party as they visit the vast empires whereblow the Asiatic breezes. WILLIAM T. ADAMS.
DORCHESTER, MASS., September 30, 1894.
CHAPTER I
PREPARING TO OUTWIT THE ENEMY "Only one greatmistake has been made, Louis Belgrave," said Captain George ScottFencelowe.
He was a young man of eighteen; but the title bywhich he was addressed was genuine so far as his position wasactually concerned, though it would hardly have passed musterbefore a court of admiralty of the United States, whose flag wasdisplayed on the ensign-staff at the stern. The vessel was a smallsteam-yacht, only forty feet in length, but furnished in aminiature way with most of the appliances of a regular steamer.
She had a cabin twelve feet long, whose broad divanscould be changed into berths for the four principal personages onboard of her. Abaft this apartment was a standing-room with seatingaccommodations for eight persons, or twelve with a little crowding,with luxurious cushions and an awning overhead when needed.
Her pilot-house, engine-room, galley, and forecastlewere as regular as though she had been an ocean steamer of athousand tons. Her ordinary speed was ten knots an hour; but shecould be driven up to twelve on an emergency, and had even made atrifle more than this when an extraordinary effort was required ofthe craft.
She had been built for a Moorish Pacha of thehighest rank and of unbounded wealth, who had ordered that noexpense should be spared in her construction and outfit. She wasbuilt of steel as strong as it was possible to build a vessel ofany kind; and in more than one heavy gale on the Mediterranean shehad proved herself to be an unusually able and weatherly craft.
Though she had formerly been called the Salihé, hername had been changed by her later American owners to the Maud.Everything about her was as luxurious as it was substantial. Shehad a ship's company of seven persons, only two of whom had reachedand passed their majority, the other five varying in age fromfifteen to eighteen.
The principal personages were boys, three of themhaving attained the mature age of eighteen, while the fourth wasonly fifteen. This quartet sometimes called themselves the "BigFour," though it was a borrowed designation, meaning somethingentirely different from its present signification. Captain Scotthad been the first to apply the term; and he had done so simplybecause it tickled the tympanum of his ear, and it really meantnothing at all.
The Maud was the consort, or more properly thetender, of the Guardian-Mother, a steam-yacht of over six hundredtons' burden, now engaged in making a voyage around the world. In apreceding volume it was related in what manner Louis Belgravebecame a millionaire, with fifty per cent more than money enough toentitle him to this rather indefinite appellation. How he happenedto be the proprietor of one of the finest steam-yachts that everfloated on the ocean was also explained, through a somewhatcomplicated narrative, and the details of a cruise to Bermuda, theBahama Islands, and Cuba, followed by a voyage across the Atlanticand up the Mediterranean, the steamer and her tender having justsailed from Alexandria after the tour of Egypt.
The ship, as the larger steamer was generally calledto distinguish her from the smaller one, was the Guardian-Mother.This may be regarded as rather an odd name for a steamship, but ithad been selected by the young millionaire himself as a tribute oflove, affection, and honor to his mother; for they were devotedlyattached to each other, and their relations were almostsentimental. Mrs. Belgrave was one of the most important passengersin the cabin of the steamer.
Felix McGavonty was born in the United States,though his parents came from Ireland. He had been the companion ofLouis Belgrave from their earliest childhood; and as they grewolder they became the most consummate cronies. Felix almostworshipped his friend, and the friendship was mutual. He was a fairscholar, having attended the academy at Von Blonk Park, where theylived. He could speak the English language as well as a collegeprofessor; but he was very much given to speaking with the Irishbrogue, in honor of his mother he insisted, and dragged into hisspeech all the dialects known in the Green Isle, and perhapssupplemented them with some inventions of his own. That greatAmerican humorist might have said of Felix just what he did of thekangaroo.
Captain Scott had been a wild boy, in fact, adecidedly bad boy. He had been picked up with his foster-father inthe Bahamas. His only guardian bound him over to Captain RoyalRinggold, the commander of the Guardian-Mother, who had thoroughlyand entirely reformed his life and character. He was a natural-bornsailor, and his abilities were of a high order in that direction.When the ship's company of the Maud was organized, Louis hadbrought his influence to bear in favor of electing him to thecommand, for which he was vastly better qualified than any othermember of the "Big Four."
Squire Moses Scarburn, another of theall-over-the-world excursionists, was the trustee of Louis'smillion 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, andLouis had always been an immense favorite with him. He had takenFelix into his house as an orphan; and his housekeeper, Mrs. SarahBlossom, had cared for him in his childhood, looked after hismorals and the buttons on his shirts and trousers, till she becamevery fond of him.
Just before the Guardian-Mother sailed on her cruisefrom New York, a couple of professional gentlemen, thrown overboardby the upsetting of a sailing-yacht, were rescued from a waterygrave by the people on board of the steamer, largely by theexertions of Louis. One of them was Dr. Philip Hawkes, one of themost noted medical men of the great city. He was almost thecounterpart of the trustee physically, weighing two hundred andtwenty-six pounds and three-quarters, while the lawyer fell aquarter of a pound short of these figures. They were continuallybantering each other about this difference.
The doctor called Uncle Moses, as the entire partyaddressed him, "Brother Avoirdupois;" and the lawyer retorted bychristening the surgeon "Brother Adipose Tissue." The conductor ofthe party in E