"Beg pardon, sir," growled one of the men, who had a bandage round his
arm; "you wouldn't ha' said so if you'd been there. They was all alike.
The junk we took was burning like fat in a frying-pan, and me and my
mate see one o' them chaps going to be roasted, and made a run for it
and hauled him away--singed my beard, it did; look, sir."
Half of his beard was burned off, and his cheek scorched.
"Then my mate gets hold of his legs, and I was stooping to get my fists
under his chest, when he whips his knife into my arm 'fore I knowed what
he was up to. But we saved him all the same."
"Here," cried Mr Reardon, as the marines descended from the third boat,
and stood at attention in two parties facing each other; "who was
answerable for this? Why, it is an outrage. Brutal!"
"S'pose it was my doing, sir," said the boatswain, touching his cap;
"but I asked leave of Mr Brooke first, and he said yes."
"What, to tie the poor wretches up like that, sir, and half of them
wounded!"
"Beg pardon, sir; there was no other way handy. We lashed their arms
behind 'em to keep 'em from knifing us, and then they kept on jumping
overboard, and trying to drown themselves. We haven't hurt them."
"Cast them loose at once."
"Yes, sir; I should like half-a-dozen strong chaps in the boat, though."
"Well, take them," said Mr Reardon, who was speaking less severely now.
"I'll have the uninjured men in irons this time. Be careful."
"And if I'd my way, I'd have 'em all in iron boxes, 'cept their hands."
The boatswain said this to me, with a nod, as the first lieutenant
turned away, and, unable to control my curiosity, I sprang up on the
bulwark to look into the boat.
"Let's have a look too," cried Smith, and he jumped up to gain a
position much closer than mine, but quitted his hold and dropped back on
deck, lost his footing, and came down sitting; for, as he leaned over
the boat's gunnel, one of the prisoners made a sudden snap at him, after
the fashion of an angry dog, and the marines burst into a roar of
laughter.
Smith got up scowling and indignant.
"My hands slipped," he said to me aloud. And then, to carry off his
confusion, "How many are there, Herrick?"
"Three lots of six," I said, as I now saw plainly enough how it was that
the prisoners were in such a strange position. For they had been
dragged together and their pigtails lashed into a tight knot, a process
admirably suited to the object in hand--to render them perfectly
helpless; and their aspect certainly did not excite my anger.
Meanwhile the boatswain had stepped into the swinging boat, and he
turned to me, but looked at Smith as he spoke.
"Like to try whether either of the others will bite, Mr Herrick?" he
said.
Smith coloured and frowned.
"No, thank you," I replied; "I'm satisfied."
"Now then, you two," said the boatswain, "stand by with your bayonets;
and you, my lads, be ready as we cast them loose. Get a good grip of
each fellow by the tail; he'll be helpless then."
I stood looking on at the curious scene, and the next minute was
conscious of the fact that the first lieutenant had returned to
supervise the putting of the prisoners in irons himself; and, as the
tails were unlashed, he took note of the men who were injured, and had
them lifted out and laid on deck.
The others made no attempt to escape, for they were too firmly held;
but, as the armourer fitted on the irons, I could see their
wild-beast-like eyes rolling in different directions, and then become
fixed with a look of savage hate on our men, who were certainly none too
tender with a set of wretches who only waited an opportunity to destroy
life without the slightest compunction.
At last they were all lying on the deck--nine with serious wounds, the
other half for the most part injured, but only to a very slight extent,
and these were soon after taken one by one between a file of marines to
the place in the hold appointed once more for their prison.
Then the doctor came up for ten minutes, and, after a few words with the
sergeant of marines, examined the nine prisoners, passing over six to
the sergeant with orders, and having three laid aside for his own
ministrations.
We three lads stood watching the sergeant, who had evidently had some
practice in ambulance work, and skilfully enough he set to work sponging
and bandaging injuries. But all the time a couple of marines stood, one
on either side, ready to hold the prisoners down, for each seemed to
look upon the dressing of his wounds as a form of torture which he was
bound to resist with all his might.
"Nice boys, Mr Herrick," said the boatswain drily. "Do you know why we
are taking all this pains?"
"To save their lives and give them up to the authorities at Tsin-Tsin, I
suppose."
"Yes, sir."
"For them to be put on their trial for piracy on the high seas."
"Yes, sir, that's it; but it would be a greater kindness to let the
wretches die out of their misery."
"But some of them mayn't be guilty," I said.
The boatswain laughed.
"I don't think there's much doubt about that, sir," he said. Just then,
as the last man was treated by the sergeant, the doctor came on deck
with his assistants, both in white aprons and sleeves--well, I'm a
little incorrect there--in aprons and sleeves that had been white.
"I've no business here," said the doctor hurriedly; "but these men
cannot be left. Keep an eye on them, my men, and don't let them do me
any mischief. I can't be spared just now."
The next moment he was down on his knees by the side of one of the
prisoners, who, in his eyes for a few minutes, was neither enemy nor
piratical Chinaman, but a patient to whom he devoted himself to the full
extent of his skill, performing what was needful, and leaving his
assistant to finish the bandaging while he went on to the next.
In another ten minutes he had finished, and rose from his knees.
"There, Mr Herrick," he said; "do you call that horrible? because I
call it grand. If those three ill-looking scoundrels had been left
another hour they would have died. Now, with their hardy constitutions,
they will rapidly get well, perhaps escape and begin pirating again.
Possibly, when we give them up--oh my knees! how hard that deck is!--the
authorities will--"
"Chop off all head. Velly bad men--velly bad men indeed."
The doctor laughed, and hurried away while the last prisoner was carried
down below.
"There," said the boatswain, when all was over, "that job's done, Mr
Herrick. Nice fellows your countrymen, Ching."
"Not allee nice fellow," replied Ching seriously. "Pilate velly bad
man. No use. Why captain save him up?"
"Ah, that's a question you had better ask him. But I say, Ching, those
fellows came up here with cargo, didn't they?"
"Calgo?" said Ching.
"Yes; plunder out of the ships they took."
"Yes," said Ching.
"Then where is it? There was none on board the junks."
"Ching know," said the interpreter, laying his finger to the side of his
nose. "You likee Ching show?"
"Yes, of course. Prize-money, and you'd share."
"Ching likee plize-money. You bling ship along, and Ching show."