"Hist!" whispered Ching Wang softly, catching hold of my legs as I came
down the rope to prevent my feet making a noise on touching the bottom
of the sampan; while he carefully guided me into a seat in the stern-
sheets. "Makee quiet, tyfong watchee. If catchee no go, all up
topside!"
I hardly needed this caution; although, after receiving it I was as
still as any mouse suddenly finding itself in the company of a cat
unsuspicious of its presence could possibly be.
It was quite dark now, the hull of the ship looming faintly above us, a
big black shadow, and the water was without a glimmer near, save where,
just ahead, the light of a flare-up, which the pirates had kindled on
the forecastle, shone out over the sea there, besides illuminating the
island beach--where a number of black figures could be seen moving about
opening some casks, which, Ching Wang explained to me, he had assisted
in getting up from the forehold, so as to distract their attention from
us for awhile; for, knowing that these casks contained salt pork, and
being acquainted with the predilections of his countrymen for this
dainty, he was certain they would have an orgy before proceeding to
further hostilities.
This impression of the Chinaman proved to be quite correct; for not only
did the pirates rout out the salt pork, but they immediately proceeded
to cook it in Ching Wang's coppers, which were full of boiling water
which he had got ready in the first instance for the purpose of throwing
over the gentlemen as they boarded the ship. He had, however,
subsequently changed his mind on this point, thinking that by adopting
the guileless subtlety of his race and pretending to side with our
enemies he might in the end be of more effectual service to us.
Of course the Chinaman did not mention to his new allies the original
use for which the coppers were intended, as such candour on his part
might have led to his getting into "hot water" and so spoilt his little
plot, the complete success of which was further assured by his
purloining Tim Rooney's private bottle of rum from his cabin in the
deck-house, and bestowing it with his benediction on the stalwart
Portuguese captain of the pirates. This gentleman, being partial to the
liquor, enjoyed himself to such an extent over the unexpected treasure-
trove, keeping it selfishly for his own gratification, that he was more
than "half-seas-over" ere his rascally fellow cut-throats had begun
their pork feast; so, he was equally disinclined with them for further
active operations against the ship, the captain and crew of which he
regarded for the moment in a most benevolent spirit on account of their
having saved him the trouble of making them captive, probably at the
expense of several lives on his side, by locking themselves in the cabin
below of their own accord!
I got out all this by degrees from Ching Wang, as, paddling in the most
noiseless fashion across the lagoon where it was darkest, and carefully
avoiding the other junks anchored out in the middle, he directed the
course of the sampan towards the opening in the reef. This became all
the more distinct as we got near its edge from the phosphorescent
glitter of the surf breaking over the coral ledge, excepting at the
place where the Silver Queen had steered through the rocks and breakers
and entered the calm sheet of water within.
The pirates ashore on the island and on board the junks were all too
busy to notice us, and indeed their eyes must have been wonderfully
acute to have done so through the darkness that enveloped sky and sea
alike, swallowing our little barque up in its folds; so, when we got
well outside the reef and beyond the line of breakers Ching Wang put up
a small sprit-sail, which he had been thoughtful enough to take out of
the long-boat when he had secured the sampan, rigging it on top of one
of his oars, and stepping it forward like a lug.
We then kept the wind which we knew was south-west on our port hand and
pretty well abeam, steering as nearly as we could guess to the northward
and westward, according to Captain Gillespie's directions to me; for
there was not light sufficient yet to see my little pocket-compass so as
to take the proper bearings for making a straight course to fetch the
mouth of the Canton river.
When daylight came, fortunately, not a trace of the reef or the ship and
pirate craft could be seen, though Ching Wang peered over our starboard
quarter, where we ought to have sighted any trace of them, while I
shinned up the little mast too for a better look-out.
Nothing was to be seen, not even a passing sail--only the rolling sea
far and wide as far as the eye could reach, now lit up by the early dawn
and rose-coloured in the east, where the sun, just rising above the
horizon, was flooding the heavens with crimson tints, that presently
changed to gold and then gave place to their normal hue of azure. This
the ocean reflected with a glorious blue, seeming to be but one huge
sapphire, except where crystal foam flecked it here and there from the
topping of some impatient wavelet not content to roll along in peace
till it reached the shore.
I could, of course, look at my compass now, and I noticed that by
keeping the wind abeam we had been working in the right direction during
the night, the head of the sampan now facing pretty nearly nor'-nor'-
west, "and a little westerly too," as Tim Rooney enjoined on me at
parting.
Ching Wang told me in his pigeon English that we must have already run
from thirty to forty miles--"one hunled li," he said; so, we had
therefore accomplished a quarter of our journey towards the coast.
The sun rose higher and higher, until it was almost over our heads at
noon, when the wind dropping I found it very hot. Besides the
discomfort of this the fact of our not getting on so fast as previously
made me anxious about those we had left behind, although the Chinaman
told me the pirates would not be likely to start fighting again until it
was getting towards evening, which was their favourite time for attack,
as they always kept quiet in the day.
They would, he said, be especially afraid now of making a row in the day
more than at any other time, for fear of the sound of the fray being
heard by the gunboat, which they knew was cruising about near.
"I only wish we could see it now, Ching Wang," I cried, thinking that
before we got to the Canton river and returned with the man-of-war, all
our shipmates might be murdered and the poor Silver Queen set fire to by
the ruffians after pillaging her, as they would be certain to do when
Captain Gillespie and the brave fellows with him could hold out no
longer. "I only wish we could sight her now."
"You waitee, lilly pijjin," said he. "Bimeby soon comee."
It was dreary work, though, waiting, for we were going along very slowly
on the torpid sea, which seemed to swelter in the heat as the breeze
fell; but about two o'clock in the afternoon the south-west wind
springing up again, we once more began dancing on through the water at a
quicker rate, the sampan making better progress by putting her right
before wind and slacking off the sheet of our transformed sprit-sail.
An hour later, Ching Wang, who had gone into the bows to look out,
leaving me at the tiller, suddenly called out:
"Hi, lilly pijjin!" he shouted, gesticulating and showing more
excitement than he had ever displayed before, his disposition generally
being phlegmatic in the extreme. "One big smokee go long. Me see three
piecee bamboo walkee, chop chop!"
I rose up in the stern-sheets equally excited; and there, to my joy, I
saw right ahead and crossing our beam, a small three-masted vessel,
showing the white ensign and blood cross of Saint George, the most
beautiful flag in the world, I thought.
It was the gunboat, without doubt.
She had sighted us long before we noticed her; and seeing from our
altering our course now that we desired to speak her, she downed her
helm and was soon alongside the sampan.
Breathless, I clambered on board, a smart blue-jacket with "HMS Blazer"
printed in gold letters on the ribbon of his straw hat, handing me the
sidelines of the accommodation ladder, which reached far enough down for
me to step on to it from the gunwale of the sampan; and when the
lieutenant in command of the gunboat, a handsome fellow like Mr Mackay,
addressed me, I could not at first speak from emotion.
But my mission was too important to be delayed, and I soon found my
voice; a very few words being sufficient to explain all the
circumstances of the case to the lieutenant.
"Full speed ahead!" he called out to the officer on the bridge, as soon
as he had heard me out, directing also the blue-jacket who had received
me at the entry port to pass the word down that he wanted to speak to
the gunner; while Ching Wang was invited to come on board and the sampan
veered astern by its painter and taken in tow.
The lieutenant turned to me when these orders had been given, although
he did not keep me half a minute waiting; and, calling me by my name,
which I had told him, said, "We shall be up to the pirates before
nightfall, Mr Graham, for the old Blazer can go ten knots on an
emergency like this. I've no doubt we'll be in plenty of time to rescue
your shipmates before they have another brush with the pirates."
He then invited me to go below and have some refreshment; but I was too
anxious about those on board the poor Silver Queen to care about eating
then. However, I took a nice long drink of some delicious lemonade with
pleasure, for I was so thirsty that my tongue had swollen to the roof of
my mouth; while Ching Wang, who had recovered his usual placid and
imperturbable demeanour, accepted the hospitalities of the crew with
great complacency, his emotion not affecting his appetite at any rate.
If I did not care about eating, though, I was highly interested in the
preparation of the Blazer presently for action, her five-inch breech-
loaders being loaded with Palliser shell and the hoppers of her machine-
guns filled; while the crew with rifles in their hands and cutlasses by
their side mustered at quarters.
"I think, Mr Graham," said the lieutenant, noticing my admiring gaze,
"we'll be able to teach your Malay friends something of a lesson--eh?"
"I hope so, sir," I replied. "I don't think there's much thinking about
it, though. I'm only afraid they'll run away before we can reach them."
"No fear of that," said he laughing. "The Blazer, as I've told you, can
travel fast when we want her; and if she's not fast enough, why, that
gun there on the sponson forrud can send a speedier messenger in advance
of her, to tell the pirates she's coming!"
"Will it reach them inside the reef, sir?"
"Reach them inside the reef!" he repeated after me in a quizzing sort of
way. "Of course it will, my lad, and further too. That gun will carry
seven miles at an elevation of less than forty-five degrees!"
"Oh, crickey!" I exclaimed; whereat he and the other officers laughed
at my astonishment, which my face betrayed, of course, as usual. The
crew, though, who were near were too well trained to laugh, except
according to orders. Being men-o'-war's men, they only smiled at my
ejaculation.
It was getting on for sunset when we sighted the Pratas shoal, the masts
of the Silver Queen being seen much further off than the reef, although
I forgot to mention that her sails of course had been furled after she
grounded; and, as we got nearer and nearer, we did not hear any noise of
rifle shots, or the junks' matchlocks, as would have been the case if
they had been fighting again--my comrades I was certain would die
dearly.
I hoped that they had not begun yet; for I could not bear to think that
their fate might have been sealed in my absence, and all those brave
fellows, perhaps, been butchered by the pirates!
Closing in upon the reef and making for the entrance on the south-west
side, we noticed that boats were passing to and fro between the junks
and the ship.
Just then a puff of smoke came from the stern of the ship, followed by
the sound of a rifle shot in the distance, after which followed a
regular fusillade of musketry fire.
The lieutenant had meanwhile not been idle, the man-of-war's launch and
pinnace having been lowered with their nine-pounders in the bows, all
primed and loaded; and, on my getting after him in the pinnace, he gave
the order to pull in towards the scene of action, the gunboat meanwhile
bringing her big Armstrongs to bear on the fleet of junks in the middle
of the lagoon, only waiting until we got well up to the ship before
firing so as to take the pirates by surprise.
I cannot describe the feeling I had as we dashed forward, the thought of
checkmating the bloodthirsty scoundrels and saving my shipmates being
too great to be expressed by words.
Ching Wang, whom the lieutenant allowed to come in the pinnace with me,
also looked wonderfully excited again, for one generally so
phlegmatic:--he seemed really to turn his back on the traditions of his
race.
We, though, rushed forwards; and, when close to the Silver Queen, the
lieutenant ordered the captain of the gun in the bows to "fire!" into a
junk that was coming round under her stern.
"Bang!" and a shell burst right in the centre of the junk's bamboo deck,
sending forty of the villains at least to Hades, for she was crowded
with men. A wild yell of surprise came from the pirates at the report
of the gun, succeeded by a faint hurrah from those on board the Silver
Queen. This told us that Captain Gillespie and the rest now knew, from
the second report caused by the bursting of the shell, that their
rescuers had at last arrived, in the very nick of time.
Then a big boom rolled in from seaward as the gunboat opened fire with
her five-inch Armstrong, shell and shot being pitched into the group of
junks as fast as those on board the Blazer could load; the launch and
pinnace, with Ching Wang and myself in the latter, pulling to the ship
and boarding her on both sides at the same time.
Captain Gillespie and all the hands who had been intrenched in the
cabin, now burst out of their prison; and after this, those pirates who
were not cut down by the men's cutlasses or shot, surrendered at
discretion, as did also their brother scoundrels on the island and in
the junks, who were all caught completely in a trap, there being no
creeks here for them to smuggle their boats into, nor mountain
fastnesses to retreat to, the gunboat commanding the only way of escape
open to them, and her launch and pinnace within the lagoon having them
at their mercy.
"Begorra I am plaized to say you ag'in, Misther Gray-ham, sorr!" cried
Tim Rooney, wringing my hand again and again as Mr Mackay released it--
all the poor fellows who had been relieved from almost instant death by
the coming of the gunboat seeming to think that I had brought about
their rescue, whereas, of course it was Ching Wang who ought to be
thanked, if anybody had to be praised, beyond Him above who had sent us
on our mission and brought the Blazer up in time. Tim, too, was even
more absurd about the whole matter than any of the rest.--"Bedad, you've
saved us all, sorr," said he again and again; and I could only get him
off this unpleasant tack by asking what further damage the pirates had
done after I left.
They had not done much, he said, their leader having only just succeeded
in breaking open the main-hold, and just beginning another attack on the
cabin, when the report of the shell from the Blazer's pinnace as it
burst made the pirates scramble overboard for their lives.
"But, sure, I caught that chafe villain av theirs, at last, Misther
Gray-ham."
"Oh, did you!" I cried. "That chap in the red sash?"
"Aye, I kilt him as de'd as mutton jist now by the dor av me cabin in
the deck-house, where, would ye belaive me, sorr, the thaife wor
drainin' the last dhrop av grog out av me rhum bottle!"
"He didn't steal it though," said I, telling him all about Ching Wang's
plot for making the rascal drunk; whereat Tim was highly delighted,
patting the Chinaman on the back as the latter blandly smiled and beamed
upon him, not understanding a word he said. After this matter was
settled I bethought me of my bird "Dick."--"And how about the starling?"
"Oh, that's all roight," said Tim. "He scramed out `Bad cess to ye'
whin he saw the ugly pirate cap'en fall, an' sure, that wor as sinsible
as a Christian."
Everybody had got off pretty well, the majority only having a few slight
scratches and flesh wounds; all, save, of course, the three of the hands
who had been killed on deck in the first attack, and poor Mr Saunders,
who, Tim said, was sinking fast.
He did not die yet awhile, though, having a wonderful constitution and
persisting in eating and living where another man would have expired
long since.
And the ship? She wasn't lost after all, as might have been thought,
albeit ashore there on Prata Island and inside the reef. Oh, no. Mr
Mackay managed it all, and surprised everybody by the way he did it--
making even Lieutenant Toplift of the Blazer open his eyes.
I'll tell you what he did.--Our chief mate battened down two of the
pirate junks, making them water-tight, and then, weighting them with
heavy ballast till their decks were almost flush with the water, he made
them fast under the bows of the ship.
The ballast was then taken out of them, when, of course, as they floated
higher they lifted the Silver Queen; and a stream anchor being then got
out astern she was floated out into the lagoon, where on subsequent
examination she was found pretty water-tight below and staunch and sound
all round.
To get her out of the lagoon, the passage through the reef was well
buoyed and the ship lightened of her cargo, a large portion of which was
taken out of her and stowed in the junks.
She was then kedged over the reef, as Tim Rooney had suggested to Mr
Mackay in the first instance as the best plan; the Blazer's officers and
crew helping us to get her outside, and afterwards assisting us in
loading her up again.
Then, our dear old barquey sailed for Hongkong, where she put in for
temporary repair so as to be able to prosecute the remainder of her
voyage, and here poor Mr Saunders died at last, and was laid to rest in
"Happy Valley," the English burying-place, that has such a poetical name
and such sad surroundings!
We were detained nearly a month here docking, and during our stay
Captain Gillespie rejoiced all hands by rewarding them for their pluck
in fighting and floating the ship again with the present of a month's
wages for a spree ashore. "Old Jock" could well afford to be liberal,
too; for a native speculator gave him a better price for the balance of
his marmalade than he would have realised if he had fed the men on it
throughout our home voyage.
Our repairs and refit being at last completed we set sail for Shanghai,
casting anchor in the Yang-tse-kiang eight days exactly after our
leaving Hongkong.