pper to turn back."

"That's right; chaff away," cried Smith. "Look at the place we're in!
There isn't a sign of a town. What would bring pirates up here?"

"Pirates don't want towns, do they, stupid?" cried Barkins; "they want a
place to lay up their ships in, and here it is. I'll bet anything those
are pirates, but we shan't catch 'em."

"Why?" I asked. "Think they'll go up higher where we can't follow?"

"Could follow 'em in the boats, couldn't we, clever? Hi! look! they're
on the move! They're pirates, and are going up higher because they see
us. But we shan't catch 'em. If they are getting the worst of it,
they'll run themselves aground, and get ashore to make a dash for it."

Barkins was right; they were on the move, as we could distinctly see
now, and my messmate said again--

"Yes, it's all over; they'll follow this river right away to the other
side, and come out in the Black Sea, or somewhere else. We draw too
much water to follow them farther."

But we did follow them a great deal farther, and found that on the
whole, in spite of our careful progress, we gained upon the junks,
getting so near them once from their position across a bend of the river
that a discussion took place as to whether it would not be advisable to
open fire at long range.

But no gun spoke, and we kept on slowly, carried by the tide, and with
the screw revolving just sufficiently for steering purposes, till once
more the course of the river grew pretty straight, and the junks were in
full view, our glasses showing the men toiling away at the long sweeps,
and that the decks were crowded.

This last was intensely satisfactory, for it swept away the last doubts
as to the character of the vessels. Up to this point it was possible
that they might have been trading junks whose skippers had taken alarm,
but no mercantile junks would have carried such crews as we could see,
with their bald heads shining in the sun.

Just about that time Smith and I passed Tom Jecks, who gave me a
peculiar look.

"What is it?" I said, stopping to speak.

"Can't you put in a word to the skipper, sir, and get him to stir up the
engyneers?"

"What for, Tom?"

"To go faster, sir. It's horrid, this here. Why, I could go and ketch
'em in the dinghy."

"Do you want the _Teaser_ stuck in the mud?" I said.

"No, sir, o' course not; but I say, sir, do you think it's all right?"

"What do you mean, Jecks?"

"This here river, sir. I ayv