"Then you know that he is one of the greatest scoundrels that ever went six months without being hung," said he of the Guardian-Mother warmly.
"There I must beg to differ from you. He may have been what you say in the past, but he is not in the present," replied he of the Blanche, quite as decidedly as the other had spoken.
Captain Ringgold proceeded to demonstrate the truth of his remark concerning the Pacha by relating his experience from Mogadore to Alexandria, detailing the plots and conspiracies of His Highness and his agents against the peace and safety of his party. Captain Sharp admitted the truth of all the attempts to capture Miss Blanche and Louis Belgrave.
"Then you must admit that he is an unmitigated scoundrel," added Captain Ringgold.
"Much that you charge to him was the work of his agents."
"He hatched up the conspiracy with Mazagan, for Louis heard every word of it in the café at Gallipoli. The attempt was made in Pournea Bay in the Archipelago to take Miss Blanche and Louis out of the Maud."
"I grant it; but Mazagan far exceeded his instructions, as he did at Zante."
"How much money did the Pacha offer Mazagan to obtain the persons mentioned?"
"Twenty thousand dollars, or a hundred thousand francs; but that is a bagatelle to him. The Pacha is another man now," added the ex-detective impressively.
"How long has he been another man?" asked Captain Ringgold with something like a sneer.
"But Mazagan has been operating the same old scheme in Egypt within two months," protested the commander of the Guardian-Mother very vigorously.
"Then he was not acting under the instructions of the Pacha."
"We should have found it difficult to believe that if you had told it to us in Cairo," said the objector in a manner that might have made one who did not know the captain decidedly belligerent. "Mazagan told Louis that the Pacha had offered him two hundred thousand francs if he succeeded in his enterprise, or half that sum if he failed."
"Then the fellow lied!" exclaimed the captain of the Blanche.
"He told Louis if he would persuade his trustee to give him half the full amount of the reward, he would collect the other half of His Highness, as promised in case of failure."
"That Mazagan is a villain and a scoundrel I have no doubt," said Captain Sharp. "Since the affair at Zante, the Pacha has had no hand in the matter."