"But the pirates would see our fire," I said.
"Yes, see fi'; tink allee fish man catch cookee fish."
"Yes, you're right, Ching. It will help to disarm any doubts. They
will never think the _Teaser's_ men are ashore lighting a fire;" and,
altering our course a little, he ran the boat in shore and up a creek,
where we landed, made fast the boat under some low scrubby trees, and in
a very short time after a couple of men were placed where they could
watch the junks and give notice of any movement. The others quickly
collected a quantity of drift-wood, and made a good fire, Ching tucking
up his sleeves and superintending, while Mr Brooke and I went out on
the other side of the little wood, and satisfied ourselves that there
was no sign of human habitation on this side of the river, the city
lying far away on the other.
When we came back, Ching was up to the elbows in shore mud, and we found
by him a couple of our geese and a couple of ducks turned into
dirt-puddings. In other words, he had cut off their heads, necks, and
feet, and then cased them thickly with the soft, unctuous clay from the
foot of the bank; and directly we came he raked away some of the burning
embers, placed the clay lumps on the earth, and raked back all the
glowing ashes before piling more wood over the hissing masses.
"Velly soon cook nicee," he said, smiling; and then he went to the
waterside to get rid of the clay with which he was besmirched.
Mr Brooke walked to the sentinels, and for want of something else to do
I stood pitching pieces of drift-wood on to the fire, for the most part
shattered fragments of bamboo, many of extraordinary thickness, and all
of which blazed readily and sent out a great heat.
"Makes a bit of a change, Mr Herrick, sir," said Jecks, as the men off
duty lay about smoking their pipes, and watching the fire with eyes full
of expectation.
"Yes; rather different to being on shipboard, Jecks," I said.
"Ay, 'tis, sir. More room to stretch your legs, and no fear o' hitting
your head agin a beam or your elber agin a bulkhead. Puts me in mind o'
going a-gipsying a long time ago."
"`In the days when we went gipsying, a long time ago,'" chorussed the
others musically.
"Steady there," I said. "Silence."
"Beg pardon, sir," said one of the men; and Tom Jecks chuckled. "But it
do, sir," he said. "I once had a night on one o' the Suffolk heaths
with the gipsies; I was a boy then, and we had hare for supper--two
hares, and they was cooked just like that, made into clay balls without
skinning on 'em first."
"But I thought they always skinned hares," I said, "because the fur was
useful."
"So it is, sir; but there was gamekeepers in that neighbourhood, and if
they'd found the gipsies with those skins, they'd have asked 'em where
the hares come from, and that might have been unpleasant."
"Poached, eh?"
"I didn't ask no questions, sir. And when the hares was done, they
rolled the red-hot clay out, gave it a tap, and it cracked from end to
end, an' come off like a shell with the skin on it, and leaving the
hares all smoking hot. I never ate anything so good before in my life."
"Yah! These here geese 'll be a sight better, Tommy," said one of the
men. "I want to see 'em done."
"And all I'm skeart about," said another, "is that the _Teaser_ 'll come
back 'fore we've picked the bones."
I walked slowly away to join Mr Brooke, for the men's words set me
thinking about the gunboat, and the way in which she had sailed and left
us among these people. But I felt that there must have been good cause
for it, or Captain Thwaites would never have gone off so suddenly.
"Gone in chase of some of the scoundrels," I thought; and then I began
to think about Mr Reardon and Barkins and Smith. "Poor old Tanner," I
said to myself, "he wouldn't have been so disagreeable if it had not
been for old Smith. Tanner felt ashamed of it all the time. But what a
game for them to be plotting to get me into difficulties, and then find
that I was picked out for this expedition! I wish they were both here."
For I felt no animosity about Smith, and as for Tanner I should have
felt delighted to have him there to join our picnic dinner.
I suppose I had a bad temper, but it never lasted long, and after a
quarrel at school it was all over in five minutes, and almost forgotten.
I was so deep in thought that I came suddenly upon Mr Brooke, seated
near where the men were keeping their look-out. He was carefully
scanning the horizon, but looked up at me as I stopped short after
nearly kicking against him.
"Any sign of the _Teaser_ sir?" I said.
"No, Herrick. I've been trying very hard to make her out, but there is
no smoke anywhere."
"Oh, she'll come, sir, if we wait. What about the junks?"
"I haven't seen a man stirring oh board either of them, and they are so
quiet that I can't quite make them out."
"Couldn't we steal off after dark, sir, and board one of them? If we
took them quite by surprise we might do it."
"I am going to try, Herrick," he said quietly, "some time after dark.
But that only means taking one, the other would escape in the alarm."
"Or attack us, sir."
"Very possibly; but we should have to chance that." He did not say any
more, but sat there scanning the far-spreading sea, dotted with the
sails of fishing-boats and small junks. But he had given me plenty to
think about, for I was growing learned now in the risks of the warfare
we were carrying on, and I could not help wondering what effect it would
have upon the men's appetites if they were told of the perilous
enterprise in which they would probably be called upon to engage that
night.
My musings were interrupted by a rustling sound behind me, and, turning
sharply, it was to encounter the smooth, smiling countenance of Ching,
who came up looking from one to the other as if asking permission to
join us.
"Well," said Mr Brooke quietly, "is dinner ready?"