would have gone to pieces like so much touchwood, leaving us struggling
in the water.

"I don't see what good this reconnoitring is doing," I said to myself,
as I sat there in the darkness wondering what was to happen next; but
sailors on duty are only parts of a machine, and I waited like the rest
to be touched or spoken to, and then acted as I was instructed. For
from time to time Mr Brooke's hand rested upon mine, and its touch,
with its pressure or draw, told me at once the direction in which he
wished me to steer; and so it was that, in that intense darkness, we
sailed silently round those junks, going nearer and nearer till I knew
exactly how they lay and how close together. But all the while I was in
a violent perspiration, expecting moment by moment to hear a challenge,
or to see the flash of a match, the blaze up of one of the stink-pots
the junks would be sure to have on their decks, and then watch it form a
curve of hissing light as it was thrown into our boat.

But not a sound came from the junks we so closely approached, and at
last, with a sensation of intense relief, I felt Mr Brooke's hand rest
on mine for some time, keeping the rudder in position for running some
distance away with the wind, before the boat was thrown up again full in
its eye, and we came to a stand, with the mat-sail swinging idly from
side to side.

Hardly had we taken this position, when once more from the direction of
the river came the low beat of oars. As we listened, they came on and
on, passed us, and the sounds ceased as before just where the junks were
lying.

This time there was no signal and no answering light, the occupants of
the boat finding their way almost by instinct, but there was a hail from
the junk to our left, and we could distinguish the murmuring of voices
for a time, and the creaking of the boat against the side as the fresh
comers climbed on board.

"Ah, good information, Mr Herrick!" whispered Mr Brooke. "We have
seen nothing, but we know that they have received reinforcements, and
now in a very short time we shall know whether they are going to sail or
wait till morning."

"How?" I said.

He laughed gently.

"Easily enough. They will not sail without getting up their anchors,
and we must hear the noise they make."

"But I don't quite see what good we are doing," I whispered.

"Not see? Suppose we had stopped ashore, we should not have known of
these men coming to strengthen the crews, and