wo midshipmen and Mr Hudson jumped on board
again and hunted about for food. It was rather difficult to find in the
dark, but they got some jars of water, and a bag of rice, and a
collection of nameless things which they supposed were to be eaten.
They got also a small stove, with fuel, and a saucepan. Altogether,
considering that they seized whatever they could lay hands on, they had
reason to be satisfied with the result of their search. Fortunately,
just that particular spot was in comparative darkness, though on either
side the pirates were firing away at each other as furiously as ever.

Captain Willock took the helm, and the two midshipmen, with Joe Hudson
and the Malay, each seizing an oar, away they pulled at a pretty good
speed from the scene of action. The shot, however, every now and then
came whizzing over them, and made Madame Dubois shriek out rather too
lustily. Her daughter, on the contrary, kept perfectly silent, or if
she spoke, it was to entreat the old lady not to be alarmed.

"But, _ma chere fille_, if those horrid balls should hit us, how
dreadful!" was the answer.

"Yes, _ma mere_, but crying out will not stop them," remarked Miss
Cecile; an observation which Jack highly admired.

He and Alick and the rest pulled with all their might, as they had good
reason for doing, with the prospect of liberty before them, and
imprisonment or death if they were recaptured. As they drew out from
the light thrown on them by the flashes of the guns, and away from the
shot, they all breathed more freely, and Madame Dubois began to leave
off screaming, giving way only at intervals to a short hysterical cry as
the sound of a more than usual crashing broadside reached her ears. At
last they were completely shrouded by the gloom of night, and they could
only now and then hear a faint rattle in the distance.

Captain Willock steered north-west, the direction in which he supposed
Canton to lie. On they pulled for several hours, till at last they grew
very tired and hungry, so they stopped rowing and cried out for food.
Joe Hudson had charge of the provisions. From the first bag he opened
he produced some tough, dry lumps, on the nature of which no one could
pronounce till they had reached the Malay. He bit away at one, and then
remarked--

"Want boiling; crawl, crawl; berry good do."

"Slugs," cried Jack. "Hand something else out."

The next bag was full of some long, dried things, which might have be