y, while the boats went on, the leads were heaved,
and the result was always the same; plenty of water, and so soft and
muddy a bottom, that even if we had gone aground, all that would have
happened would have been a little delay while we waited for the tide to
lift us off.

The course of the river was so winding that we could not see far ahead.
Hence it was that a careful look-out was kept as we rounded each bend,
expecting at every turn to see a kind of port to which the piratical
junks resorted, and with a village, if not a town, upon the shore. But
we went on and on without success, the river, if anything, growing
wider, till all at once, as we were slowly gliding round a bend, leaving
a thick track of black smoke in the misty morning air, one of the men in
the top hailed the deck.

"Sail ho, sir!"

"Where away?"

"Dead astarn, sir!"

"What?"

"Dead astarn, sir!"

Two of the men near me burst into a laugh, which they tried to hide as
the first lieutenant looked sharply round. But there, sure enough, were
the tops of the junk's masts dead astern, for the course of the river
proved to be just there almost exactly like that piece of twisted flat
wire which ladies fasten on the backs of their dresses, and call an eye;
the great stream forming first a small circle, and then going right away
to form the large loop of the eye, while the junks were lying at the far
side of the loop, so that to reach them where they lay, right across an
open plain about two miles in width, we had to sail for some distance
right away, apparently leaving them right behind.

A little use of the telescope soon showed that we were going quite
right, though, and we went steadily on with the boats ahead sounding,
and the men waiting to be called to quarters.

"I don't believe it's going to be a fight, Gnat!" cried Smith.

"Why not?"

"Can't smell anything like prize-money in it. They're only a couple of
big trading junks."

"Then why did they run away from us as they did?"

"Same reason as the one did last time. Thought we meant mischief. How
stupid it is taking all this trouble to crawl up a muddy river."

"What's he talking about?" said Barkins, stepping over to our side for a
moment before every one would have to be in his place, and unable to
stir.

"Says they're trading junks."

"Then it's all up. He knows. Either his wound or the doctoring has
made him go better. He's awfully sharp now. I'll go and tell the
ski