Part 38 (1/2)

”That's right; chaff away,” cried Smith. ”Look at the place we're in!

There isn't a sign of a town. What would bring pirates up here?”

”Pirates don't want towns, do they, stupid?” cried Barkins; ”they want a place to lay up their s.h.i.+ps in, and here it is. I'll bet anything those are pirates, but we shan't catch 'em.”

”Why?” I asked. ”Think they'll go up higher where we can't follow?”

”Could follow 'em in the boats, couldn't we, clever? Hi! look! they're on the move! They're pirates, and are going up higher because they see us. But we shan't catch 'em. If they are getting the worst of it, they'll run themselves aground, and get ash.o.r.e to make a dash for it.”

Barkins was right; they were on the move, as we could distinctly see now, and my messmate said again--

”Yes, it's all over; they'll follow this river right away to the other side, and come out in the Black Sea, or somewhere else. We draw too much water to follow them farther.”

But we did follow them a great deal farther, and found that on the whole, in spite of our careful progress, we gained upon the junks, getting so near them once from their position across a bend of the river that a discussion took place as to whether it would not be advisable to open fire at long range.

But no gun spoke, and we kept on slowly, carried by the tide, and with the screw revolving just sufficiently for steering purposes, till once more the course of the river grew pretty straight, and the junks were in full view, our gla.s.ses showing the men toiling away at the long sweeps, and that the decks were crowded.

This last was intensely satisfactory, for it swept away the last doubts as to the character of the vessels. Up to this point it was possible that they might have been trading junks whose skippers had taken alarm, but no mercantile junks would have carried such crews as we could see, with their bald heads s.h.i.+ning in the sun.

Just about that time Smith and I pa.s.sed Tom Jecks, who gave me a peculiar look.

”What is it?” I said, stopping to speak.

”Can't you put in a word to the skipper, sir, and get him to stir up the engyneers?”

”What for, Tom?”

”To go faster, sir. It's horrid, this here. Why, I could go and ketch 'em in the dinghy.”

”Do you want the _Teaser_ stuck in the mud?” I said.

”No, sir, o' course not; but I say, sir, do you think it's all right?”

”What do you mean, Jecks?”

”This here river, sir. I ayve read in a book about Chinee Tartars and magicians and conjurors. There was that chap in 'Aladdin' as left the boy shut up down below. He were a Chinee, wasn't he?”

”I think so, Tom; but what have the _Arabian Nights_ got to do with our hunting these pirates?”

”Well, that's what I want to know, sir. If there was magic in them days in China, mayn't there be some left now?”

”No, Tom,” I said. ”We've got more magic on board the _Teaser_ in the shape of steam, than there is of the old kind in all China.”

”Well, sir, you've had more schooling than ever I've had, but if it ain't a bit magicky about them boats, I should like to know what it is.”

”What's he talking about?” said Smith. ”What do you mean?”

”They're will-o'-the-wispy sort o' boats, sir,” replied Jecks. ”Don't you see how they keep dodging on us? Just now they was in easy shot, now they're two mile away. What does that mean?”

”Physical conformation of the road,” said Smith importantly.