Part 82 (1/2)

”Takee plisoner to mandalin. Mandalin man put on heavy chain, kick flow in boat, put in plison, no give to eat, and then choppee off allee head.

Makee hurt gleat deal mo'. Velly solly for plisoner. Bette' make big fi' and bu'n allee now.”

Mr Brooke smiled and looked at me, and I laughed.

”We'd better change the subject, Herrick,” he said. ”I'm afraid there is not much difference in the cruelty of the act.”

”No, sir,” I said, giving one of my ears a rub. ”But it is puzzling.”

”Yes, my lad; and I suppose we should have no hesitation in sh.e.l.ling and burning a pirates' nest.”

”But we couldn't steal up and set fire to their junks in the dark, sir?”

”No, my lad, that wouldn't be ordinary warfare. Well, we had better run into one of these little creeks, and land,” he continued, as he turned to inspect the low, swampy sh.o.r.e. ”Plenty of hiding-places there, where we can lie and watch the junks, and wait for the _Teaser_ to show.”

”Velly good place,” said Ching, pointing to where there was a patch of low, scrubby woodland, on either side of which stretched out what seemed to be rice fields, extending to the hills which backed the plain.

”Plenty wood makee fire--loast goose.”

I saw a knowing look run round from man to man.

”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 ash.o.r.e lighting a fire;” and, altering our course a little, he ran the boat in sh.o.r.e 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 quant.i.ty 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 sh.o.r.e 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 ma.s.ses.

”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 s.h.i.+pboard, 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 b.a.l.l.s 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?”