Part 38 (1/2)

”Yes, _ma mere_, but crying out will not stop them,” remarked Miss Cecile; an observation which Jack highly admired.

He and Alick and the rest pulled with all their might, as they had good reason for doing, with the prospect of liberty before them, and imprisonment or death if they were recaptured. As they drew out from the light thrown on them by the flashes of the guns, and away from the shot, they all breathed more freely, and Madame Dubois began to leave off screaming, giving way only at intervals to a short hysterical cry as the sound of a more than usual cras.h.i.+ng broadside reached her ears. At last they were completely shrouded by the gloom of night, and they could only now and then hear a faint rattle in the distance.

Captain Willock steered north-west, the direction in which he supposed Canton to lie. On they pulled for several hours, till at last they grew very tired and hungry, so they stopped rowing and cried out for food.

Joe Hudson had charge of the provisions. From the first bag he opened he produced some tough, dry lumps, on the nature of which no one could p.r.o.nounce till they had reached the Malay. He bit away at one, and then remarked--

”Want boiling; crawl, crawl; berry good do.”

”Slugs,” cried Jack. ”Hand something else out.”

The next bag was full of some long, dried things, which might have been eels, but were very probably snakes. Frogs and snails in a dried or pickled state were not more tempting; but at last they came on a basket of sh.e.l.l-fish, which, with some unboiled rice, stopped the gnawings of hunger, but did not make a very satisfying meal. They were afraid then of lighting a fire, but they agreed that they would do so in the morning.

Once more they took to their oars. They now, however, could not make much progress, nor could they have done so had a breeze sprung up, as they possessed no sails. They hoped, therefore, that it would continue calm. In this, however, they were destined to be disappointed. Not long past midnight a gentle zephyr began to play over the surface of the water, and soon it turned into a light breeze, and that increased into a stiff one, and by degrees it grew stronger and stronger, and the sea got up and tossed the boat about, and that made Madame Dubois scream as loud as before, and now and then the spray washed over them, and then she screamed louder still; and next it was discovered that the boat leaked, and it was necessary to employ two men constantly in baling to keep her afloat. The more she tumbled about the more she leaked, and the louder poor Madame Dubois screamed. Her daughter proved herself a regular heroine, and made no noise, and only grasped the side of the boat tighter as it rose and fell on the seas. The morning approached, but matters did not improve; the wind blew stronger; the waves grew higher and seriously threatened to swamp the boat.

”I say, Alick, this is no fun,” observed Jack. ”What's to be done?”

”We must get under the lee of the land till the gale moderates,”

answered Murray.

The wind, it must be observed, was favourable; but the sea had now got up so much, that it was dangerous to run before it. Captain Willock agreed to Murray's proposal, and, watching their opportunity, they got the boat round head to the seas, and pulled in for the sh.o.r.e. This was very trying after all their labours; but they were not the only people in the world who have to toil in vain, or have to undo all the work they have done and begin again. They now s.h.i.+pped less water, but they made very little way in consequence of the heavy sea. Daylight at last came, but did not exhibit a pleasant prospect. The green seas tumbled and foamed about them; the dark clouds hurried along overhead, while about three miles off appeared the land with the harbour they had left a few miles along the sh.o.r.e on the port bow. The idea that they might get into some bay or inlet, and remain, there till the weather moderated, was a considerable consolation. Still, pull as hard as they could, they could not make their heavy boat go ahead, but rather found themselves drifting farther off the sh.o.r.e. The great thing, however, was to keep the boat afloat. Hour after hour thus pa.s.sed away, till at last the wind began to fall and the sea quickly went down; and, instead of making for the sh.o.r.e, it was proposed putting the boat about and continuing their course. The captain was looking out for a lull to do this, when an exclamation from his lips made everybody turn their eyes in the direction towards which he pointed, the port they had left, where several large junks were seen rounding the headland which formed its side on the west. They all anxiously watched the junks; they were steering to the north-west.

”They are in pursuit of us,” observed Jack.

”Little doubt about it, I guess,” said Captain Willock.

”Can we not escape them?” said Murray.

”By lying quietly down at the bottom of the boat we might,” said the captain. ”We'll wait, though, till they come near.”

The junks advanced, and from their appearance it seemed too probable that they were the very fleet of pirates which had entered the harbour the previous evening, and that, having been victorious, they were again sailing in search of fresh plunder.

”We had a narrow escape, then,” observed Jack. ”If we had remained, we should, long before this, have been food for the sharks in the bay.”

”I guess that we shall be lucky if we are not down the throats of some of them before night,” pleasantly observed Captain Willock.

Madame Dubois did not understand him, or it would have set her off screaming again. She willingly enough lay down in the bottom of the boat, and Jack in his choicest French begged she would keep quiet; her daughter followed her example; and as the sea had gone down, the oars were laid in, and the rest of the party placed themselves under the thwarts out of sight. As, however, the junks were steering almost directly for them, they had little expectation of escaping notice. Jack had great difficulty, he confessed, in refraining from jumping up every instant to watch the progress of the junks.

”What do you say, Alick?” he exclaimed, suddenly. ”Suppose we arm ourselves with the boat's stretchers, and the moment a junk runs up to us jump on board and capture her? It's the best thing I can think of to do.”

”We should probably be knocked on the head, and be sent overboard again,” answered Alick. ”We must stay quiet, and wait the course of events.”

”I suppose it is the wisest thing, but I should like to have a fight for life,” said Jack, with a sigh.

The boat kept slowly turning round and round, and just then, by lifting his head up a little, he saw the mast-heads and sails of two junks, which were bearing close down upon them. There seemed now an impossibility of their escaping detection.

”We are in for it,” whispered Jack. ”Let's have a fight.”

”I guess it would be a short one,” answered Captain Willock; ”stay quiet, Mr Rogers, if you don't want all our throats cut.”