The captain had a conference on the p.o.o.p; and after dark, as the breeze came stronger from the south, the ship's course was altered, she running off at right angles to her former direction, as if bearing up for Singapore, while a strict watch was kept all night on deck.

Morning broke at last, after some eight 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 p.o.o.p.

Gradually the haze cleared up from the water in widening circles, and as the sun rose and the horizon cleared still further off, there, some five miles astern, and going quite as fast as themselves, if not faster, was the stranger; and now when she could be clearly made out, she did not improve on acquaintance.

She was a lateen-rigged 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 p.o.o.p, where they were joined by the first mate and "Mr Meredith," who, strange to say, seemed quite as accustomed to early hours as the officers of the ship.

"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 seems that it will come to a scrimmage you had better tell the men forward, and I will warn 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; mine's here," said the boatswain, tapping the bosom of his guernsey, "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 mistaken after all in the men. I can't tell why we are not going faster, though, with this breeze and all that sail set. What! only three knots!" said he, as the boatswain hove the log and told him the result. "Something must be wrong, Martens; go forward and see at once."

And the long, low, dark-hulled schooner was coming up hand over hand, walking almost up into the wind's eye on the weather-gauge, coming on as if the _Hankow Lin_ was at anchor or becalmed.

As Bill the boatswain pa.s.sed forward he saw the Malays were gathered together in a cl.u.s.ter by the side, amidships, looking at the vessel coming up, and the serang had a peculiar, satisfied, malicious sort of smile on his evil countenance.

"Guess they're getting ready too," said Bill to himself. "I'll give s...o...b..ll a hail, and rouse up the others."

s...o...b..ll, however, was bustling about in his galley, and in response to a word from the boatswain he grinned one of his usual broad grins, and tapped the long knife in his belt, that looked almost as deadly a weapon as one of the Malay creases.

"Golly, Ma.s.sa Bill, me quite ready for the muss when him come! dat for de yaller n.i.g.g.e.r dat call me black-man; and dese, ma.s.sa," he said, pointing to the ship's coppers, which were full of boiling water, as he had lighted the fires again at daybreak, "dere, is de soup for de yaller n.i.g.g.e.r's gang!"

The other hands were just turning out as Bill reached the forecastle, and Jem Backstay and the rest were soon made aware of their danger from within as well as without; but, before the boatswain could explain himself properly or give any orders he was startled at seeing that some one had cut the jib halliards, and the sail had come down by the run, and was towing in the water right across the ship's bows.

"Treachery, shipmates!" he called out. "No wonder the poor crippled thing couldn't make more'n three knots with that 'ere sail towing under her fore-foot. Those blessed Lascars did this, I suppose!"

He was in the midst of his exclamation when the lateen-rigged schooner, as if disdaining further concealment, hoisted the dread black pirate flag; and the serang, in response to the signal, gave a shrill whistle, at the same time drawing his crease.

With a yell of defiance he and his Lascar gang rushed aft in a body for the p.o.o.p, 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, almost at the same instant, s...o...b..ll, uttering a shout which might have been heard on board the pirate, now little over a mile off, dashed at the Malay chief, with his long knife gripped between his teeth and his arms working like windmills; and as he clutched the serang in his deadly grip the cabin-doors beneath the p.o.o.p 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 a.s.sault on the p.o.o.p.

There, right facing them, in front of the saloon doors, stood the whilom quiet, delicate-looking pa.s.senger "Mr Meredith," dressed in the smart uniform of a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, a drawn sword in one hand and a revolver in the other; while drawn up behind him were the whole of the first cutter's crew of HMS _Albatross_, the name of which vessel stood out embossed on the bright ribbons of their straw hats--ten in number of stalwart blue-jackets, armed with cutla.s.ses and with pistols stuck in their belts--levelling the shining barrels of their Snider rifles point- blank at their heads. No wonder that the swarthy scoundrels recoiled in terror.

"Surrender!" exclaimed Lieutenant Meredith in a loud stern voice; and the men, frightened by the force opposed to them, might possibly have submitted, when, at the moment that s...o...b..ll made his onslaught on their leader, Jack Harvey, who stood by his captain on the p.o.o.p, rather injudiciously fired off a shot from his revolver, which struck and broke one of the Malays' outstretched arms, with crease uplifted ready to stab his enemies.

With a ferocious yell the band again rushed forward.

"Fire!" said the lieutenant; and with one report the blue-jackets delivered a volley which stretched four Malays in front of them lifeless on the deck; and then rushing forward with their drawn cutla.s.ses, a terrific hand-to-hand fight ensued. Captain Morton and his officers on the p.o.o.p fired into the ma.s.s of the Malays, and then leaped down to join the fray; and the boatswain, with Jem Backstay and the other sailors from the forecastle, caught up handspikes and fell upon their rear.

Even in the very midst of the fierce struggle s...o...b..ll and the serang, in deadly embrace, were rolling on the deck, each trying to get the upper hand so as to be able to use their knives. Neither could succeed in shaking the other off; and as the two rolled and twisted together about the deck, now a ma.s.s of blood and gore, they gradually edged away from the thick of the fight, until they rolled together close to the fore-hatch; then, with one vigorous effort, the black cook, as if he had reserved his final _coup_ until he had wearied the other out, lifted the Malay over the combing of the hatchway, and both tumbled into the fore- hold, with a smash and crash which even made itself heard above the din, the black cook shouting out as he felt himself falling, dragging his enemy with him, "Golly, yer yeller beggar, I got you at last!"

While this episode was being acted, the Malays were still fighting desperately with their creases, a formidable weapon in the hands of men fighting for their lives; and many of the tars were wounded, and one or two killed. The Malays stood in a group at bay, and fought on desperately, like rats driven into a corner, their numbers being still but little inferior to those of their opponents. At this moment the woolly head of s...o...b..ll appeared above the fore-hold with a triumphant grin on his black face, all wet with perspiration; and in a second he leaped on the deck, carrying on his shoulder the body of the serang, who was knocked senseless by the tumble into the hold, although the darky's head, accustomed to such rude shocks, was not one whit the worse.

Laying down his burden he hurried to the caboose.

The remaining Malays were huddled up in a corner by the capstan, hemmed in by the bluejackets. To all cries of "surrender" they turned a deaf ear, and they were evidently trying to prolong the struggle until their piratical accomplices, as they no doubt were, in the schooner came up to help them.

Lieutenant Meredith, being a humane man, did not wish to slaughter the wretches like sheep, so refrained giving the fatal order to fire another volley, which would have terminated the contest, and was endeavouring to capture them alive. The struggle was so prolonged, however, and so many of his men were wounded, that he was just going to give the word "Fire!"

when s...o...b..ll came to the rescue in a novel way, which completed the victory.

The darky emerged from the caboose with a bucket of boiling water filled from the galley coppers, which he had got ready with apt forethought, and dashed it full on to the group of huddling Malays.

They did not want a second dose.

Giving out an appalling howl of pain, which no cut or shot had evoked, they threw down their arms with one accord, and the blue-jackets before, and Bill Musters and Jem Backstay in the rear, seized the trembling scoundrels.

"Gag them all, as well as bind them, men!" said the lieutenant to the blue-jackets. "I don't want them to give the alarm to the schooner.

Look alive, men! Be smart there; we've no time to lose! She isn't half a mile off now, and will be alongside in a few minutes!"

Lieutenant Meredith was right.

It was almost a dead calm, and the _Hankow Lin_,--her way deadened by the jib, which still trailed in the water across her bows, for no one had time, during the deadly fight in which they had just been engaged, to hoist it clear on board again--was almost motionless on the water; while every breath of the fast-expiring breeze was gently wafting the pirate schooner nearer and nearer.

The sail that obstructed her motion was at last cut away, and the ship began to creep along through the water; but it was too late for her to have got away from her enemy if those on board had so wished--which, however, they didn't!

"Look out, my men," shouted out Captain Morton, who was as keenly alive to the urgency of their situation as the naval lieutenant,--"we've all our work cut out for us!"

In truth they had; still, although only just out of one fight, in which some two or three had already lost their lives, and several were severely wounded, the blue-jackets under their gallant officer, who had already won the Victoria Cross for his bravery, ably seconded by Captain Morton and Mr Scuppers, and the crew of the _Hankow Lin_ set to work to prepare for a fresh struggle with all the alacrity and glee of schoolboys going out for an unexpected holiday.

The conquered Lascars were tightly bound, and then tumbled below, the hatch being secured over them; and all then set to work to unload the heavy hogsheads which had caused the tar such uneasiness on account of their c.u.mbering his decks, when they had first been shipped on board at Canton, some ten days before.

"There, Jem!" said the boatswain, as the staves of the first cask were knocked to pieces, and a nine-pounder Armstrong gun disclosed in all its ship-shape nicety. "There, didn't I tell you that the skipper had his head screwed on straight?"

"Aye, aye, bo, right you were," answered the brawny foretopman as he knocked in the head of another hogshead. "I'll never doubt him again, you be sure."

There were four guns altogether, and the two other casks contained their ammunition, and spare rifles for the _Hankow Lin's_ crew.

These cannon the lieutenant now caused to be loaded heavily with grape- shot, and placed at the midship ports to windward, on the side that the pirate was approaching; the ports still kept closed, but everything ready for raising them, and running out the guns to command the schooner's deck when she got alongside.

The hands were then mustered. Captain Morton, Mr Scuppers, the lieutenant, and Jack Harper had escaped without a scratch on the part of the officers; but Mr Sprott, the second mate, had a cut across his face from a Malay crease, which caused him considerable pain, and undoubtedly spoiled his beauty; although the brave fellow refused to be put on the list of the non-fighters. Amongst the men, two blue-jackets were killed outright, as well as Phillips, the ship's carpenter of the _Hankow Lin_; while one blue-jacket was wounded severely, and two slightly, as well as another of the ship's regular hands.

Altogether, their defensive force consisted now, therefore, of the lieutenant, captain, and three other officers--for Sprott would fight, and Jack Harper was quite as good with a revolver as any of his seniors--and fifteen men, counting in s...o...b..ll, who was as good as two others any day, besides Jem Backstay, who was a regular giant.