gained the deck. "Where have you come from? What are you about?"

"We hail from Brisbane; we are engaged in trading with the natives," I
answered. "And may I ask you in return where you come from, and what is
the object of your voyage?"

"We come from Callao, and are engaged as you are," he answered.

I did not like the tone of his voice or manner, and thought it useless
asking any further questions. As I looked round the deck it struck me
that the people I saw were as ruffianly a crew as I had ever set eyes
on, and that the sooner we took our leave the better. I therefore
merely observed that on seeing his vessel coming up the channel,
supposing that he intended to enter the harbour we had pulled out to
offer him our assistance, but that as he did not require it we would
wish him good evening.

"I don't like the looks of those chaps," observed Tom, as we pulled
away. "They're after no good."

"I do not suppose that they will interfere with us," I remarked.

"I'm not so sure of that," said Tom. "They'll interfere with the
natives and spoil our trade; at all events it would be as well to keep a
watch on them, and the sooner we are out of their reach the better."

Old Tom was not generally an alarmist; but I did not fancy that even out
in the Pacific, in the middle of the nineteenth century, any crew could
be found who would venture to commit an act of violence on an English
trader when they would be so surely discovered and brought to justice.
Still, I fancied that Harry, who was always prudent, would take all
necessary precautions. On hearing the account we gave of the trader he,
however, to my surprise, laughed at my apprehensions.

"She may not be altogether honest, and I daresay her crew would not
scruple to ill-treat the natives; but they will not venture to interfere
with us, or to misbehave themselves while we are here to watch them," he
observed.

He, however, afterwards, having had a conversation with old Tom, instead
of the usual anchor watch at sunset, ordered half the crew to remain on
deck, the guns to be loaded, and the small arms placed in readiness for
instant use. Sam Pest was in the first watch, and as I walked the deck
I spoke to him as I frequently did.

"I have been hearing about the strange craft which came in this evening,
sir," he said, "and from what they say I think it's more than likely
she's the one I was aboard of some time ago. Strange pranks she played.
Her skipper was