Afloat at Last Part 27

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 w.a.n.g, 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 circ.u.mstances 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 pa.s.s the word down that he wanted to speak to the gunner; while Ching w.a.n.g 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 s.h.i.+pmates 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 w.a.n.g, who had recovered his usual placid and imperturbable demeanour, accepted the hospitalities of the crew with great complacency, his emotion not affecting his appet.i.te 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 sh.e.l.l and the hoppers of her machine- guns filled; while the crew with rifles in their hands and cutla.s.ses 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 e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n.

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 pa.s.sing to and fro between the junks and the s.h.i.+p.

Just then a puff of smoke came from the stern of the s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+pmates being too great to be expressed by words.

Ching w.a.n.g, 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 sh.e.l.l 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 sh.e.l.l, 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, sh.e.l.l 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 w.a.n.g and myself in the latter, pulling to the s.h.i.+p 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 cutla.s.ses 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 w.a.n.g 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 sh.e.l.l 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 w.a.n.g'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 "d.i.c.k."--"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 const.i.tution and persisting in eating and living where another man would have expired long since.

And the s.h.i.+p? She wasn't lost after all, as might have been thought, albeit ash.o.r.e 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 s.h.i.+p.

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 pa.s.sage through the reef was well buoyed and the s.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sisting 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 s.h.i.+p again with the present of a month's wages for a spree ash.o.r.e. "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.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

HOMEWARD BOUND.