of him, caught him by the
legs with one hand, while with the other he grasped the arm which held
the weapon. His great difficulty was to prevent the pirate from
changing the creese from his right-hand to his left. While thus
desperately struggling, Jack observed two dark heads close to him, with
the most fierce and malignant countenances. The men were probably armed
with creeses. Jack expected every moment to feel the sharp blades
running into him, when the shouts of his friends alarmed his foes, and
they darted away in the hopes of securing their own safety.

Terence and Alick, meantime, naturally felt very anxious for Jack's
safety. They shouted loudly his name.

"All right," he sang out; "I have got a fellow, but he is as slippery as
an eel, and very hard to hold. Lend a hand here, do."

The tone of his voice showed that he was struggling hard with his
prisoner. His friends dashed after him with their boats, but his own
boat, of which Needham was coxswain, had already got up to him, and were
hauling him and the Chinese on board.

"Look after the other two fellows. They are away there," he shouted,
never for a moment losing his presence of mind.

Alick's boat darted after one, Terence's after the other. It was not
likely that the men could have got very far; but a black head at
midnight on the world of waters is not very discernible. Murray, as his
boat pulled on, kept his eyes about him on either side. He caught sight
of a head. "There he is," he cried, leaning forward and making a clutch
at the pirate. A creese flashed up as he did so, and he got a cut in
his arm which was intended for a more vital part. The next instant the
man had disappeared; but as his object was to escape, and not to get
drowned, he had to come up again to breathe. As he did so, he got his
creese ready to give another plunge with it; but the seamen were not
quite so green as he supposed, and this time they were ready with the
boat's stretchers, and, as he lifted up his arm, he got a blow which
sent his formidable weapon to the bottom, and wellnigh broke his arm.
This prevented him from diving, and the next instant he was, in spite of
his struggles, hauled into the boat, and he found himself lashed with
his hands behind him to the after-thwart. There was another prisoner to
be accounted for. Terence told his crew not to make a noise as they
went in chase. The man was the strongest of the three prisoners. He
had taken a ci