me now.

The ship's head had been turned and laid for the islands we had so
lately left; but our progress was purposely made exceedingly slow, the
screw just revolving, and the water parting with a gentle ripple to
right and left.

Meanwhile the tailor and his mates were hard at work by the light of the
swinging lanterns, and, upon my being sent by Mr Reardon to make
inquiries, the tailor answered that he should be up to time with the
twenty Chinee gownds, and went on stitching again as if for his very
life.

I was on the watch that night, and stood listening for long enough to
the yarns of one of the men, who had not been in Chinese waters before,
but "knowed a chap as had;" and he had some blood-curdling tales to tell
of the cruelties perpetrated by the desperate gangs who haunted the
coast in fast-sailing junks.

"But they're an awfully cowardly lot, arn't they, Billy?" said another.

"Well," said the man, "it's like this, messmet; they is and they arn't,
if you can make that out. They'll scuttle away like rats if they can;
but if they can't, they'll fight that savage that nothing's like it; and
if it is to come to a fight, all I've got to say is, as the chap as
hasn't got his cutlash as sharp as ever it can be made 'll be very sorry
for it."

"Oh, I don't know," said another; "there won't be much cutlashing;
'tain't like it used to was in the old days. Most everything's done
with the big guns now; and if they do get alongside to board, why, a
man's cutlash is always stuck at the end of his rifle, just as if it was
a jolly's bag'net growed out o' knowledge, and then it's all spick and
spike."

"Maybe," said the man; "but you mark my words, they're a nasty lot when
they gets wild, and you'll have to look pretty sharp if you don't want
to get hurt."

It was not cheering, after a very wearying day and a very short night
before, to listen to such talk, and I began to wonder whether the
captain would take sufficient precautions to keep the Chinese off, for I
felt that to properly carry out the plan, the fighting men must be kept
well out of sight till the very last; but I soon came to the conclusion
that I need not worry about that, from the spirited way in which
everything possible to disguise the ship had been done.

Then, as I leaned over the side looking over the black water, in which a
faint star could be seen from time to time, I began to smile to myself
at the quiet, dry way in which my ideas had been