Part 3 (1/2)
The captain had a conference on the poop; and after dark, as the breeze caer fro off at right angles to her forapore, while a strict watch was kept all night on deck
Morning broke at last, after soht hours of anxiety, and Bill the boatswain, on the forecastle, took a keen look round the horizon with the first appearance of the dawning light, as Captain Morton was doing on the poop
Gradually the haze cleared up fro circles, and as the sun rose and the horizon cleared still further off, there, so quite as fast as theer; and nohen she could be clearly made out, she did not ied schooner, with a long, low, dark hull, almost flush with the water, and a wicked look about her which could hardly be mistaken
The captain hailed the boatswain, and summoned him to the poop, where they were joined by the first e to say, seemed quite as accustomed to early hours as the officers of the shi+p
”It is she, without doubt,” said the captain ”I could almost swear to the description Where are those Malays?”
”Down below, sir; leastways, they was just now”
”Well, keep a sharp look-out; and as it seee you had better tell the men forward, and I arn those here quietly I suppose you have got the revolvers all right?”
continued the captain, as ”Mr Meredith” left the deck quietly
”Oh, yes, sir; uernsey, ”all ready for action; and I'll soon serve out the others”
”Very good; only be cool, Martens, till the time arrives, for we may be oing faster, though, with this breeze and all that sail set What! only three knots!” said he, as the boatswain hove the log and told hio forward and see at once”
And the long, low, dark-hulled schooner was co al on as if the _Hankow Lin_ was at anchor or becalmed
As Bill the boatswain passed forward he saw the Malays were gathered together in a cluster by the side, a had a peculiar, satisfied, malicious sort of s ready too,” said Bill to hiive sobll a hail, and rouse up the others”
sobll, however, was bustling about in his galley, and in response to a word frorins, and tapped the long knife in his belt, that looked almost as deadly a weapon as one of the Malay creases
”Golly, Massa Bill, me quite ready for the er dat callto the shi+p's coppers, which were full of boiling water, as he had lighted the fires again at daybreak, ”dere, is de soup for de yaller nigger's gang!”
The other hands were just turning out as Bill reached the forecastle, and Jeer from within as well as without; but, before the boatswain could explain hi that some one had cut the jib halliards, and the sail had coht across the shi+p's bows
”Treachery, shi+p couldn'tunder her fore-foot Those blessed Lascars did this, I suppose!”
He was in the ed schooner, as if disdaining further conceal, in response to the signal, gave a shrill whistle, at the sa his crease
With a yell of defiance he and his Lascar gang rushed aft in a body for the poop, where the captain and his officers were standing together, while the forecastle hands stood for the moment dumbfounded at the suddenness of the attack
Only for a moment, however; for, al a shout which ht have been heard on board the pirate, now little over a ripped between his teeth and his ar in his deadly grip the cabin-doors beneath the poop flew open, and the Lascar gang stopped their advance as if struck by lightning, uttering at the same time a howl of terror and dismay
VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIVE
CATCHING A TARTAR
No wonder that the murderous band of treacherous Malays stopped paralysed in their desperate assault on the poop