ck, to which, being as it were licensed, I at once
returned.

The captain and Mr Reardon were on the quarter-deck, conscious that
savages as the Chinese or Formosan pirates were, they probably did not
despise the barbarian instruments known as telescopes, and that most
likely every movement on board the _Teaser_ was being watched. Any
suspicious act would be quite sufficient to make them sheer off, and
consequently the strictest orders were given to the men to play their
parts carefully, and make no movement that was not required.

Dressed as I was in flannels, my appearance was thoroughly in keeping
with the assumed peaceful character of the ship, and hence I heard and
saw nearly everything.

Just as I went on the quarter-deck the captain was saying to the first
lieutenant--

"Don't be so excitable, man. When I ask you a question, or give an
order, take it deliberately, and dawdle off to see it done."

"Right through, sir?" said Mr Reardon petulantly.

"No," said the captain quietly. "When I give the order, `Full speed
ahead,' then you can act. Till then you are mate or passenger,
whichever you like, of this dirty-looking trader. Ah, those three low
junks, or whatever they are, can creep through the water pretty
quickly."

"Yes; and the big junk too," said Mr Reardon, using his glass. "It is
astonishing how rapidly those great heavily-sailed craft can go. She's
full of men, sir," he continued; "I can see more and more beginning to
show themselves. Not much appearance of dishipline, though."

"So much the better for us," muttered Captain Thwaites, turning in his
cane arm-chair, and looking in the direction of the islands again, from
which the three smaller vessels were coming on rapidly. "Yes,"--he
said, as if to himself, "a head keeps showing here and there; they are
full of men too."

I was not experienced, of course, that only being my third voyage, but I
knew enough of navigating tactics to grasp the fact that the four
vessels were carefully timing themselves so as to reach us together, and
this evidently was their customary mode of procedure, and no doubt
accounted for ship after ship being taken and plundered. I felt
startled, too, as I realised the strength of the crews, and what a
simultaneous attempt to board might mean. With an ordinary merchantman,
even with a strong crew, undoubtedly death and destruction, while even
with our well-armed men and guns I began to have doubts. A slip in th