molten gold. Every one was suffering more or
less from the lassitude produced by excessive heat; the pitch was
bubbling up from the seams of the deck; a strong, hot, burning smell
pervaded the vessel; the chickens in the hencoops hung their heads and
forgot to cackle; the ducks refused to quack, and sat with their bills
open, gasping for breath; the pig lay down, as if about to yield up the
ghost; and even Ungka, who generally revelled in a fine hot sun, and
selected the warmest place on board, now looked out for a shady spot,
and sat with his paws over his head to keep it cool. The bulkheads
groaned, the booms creaked against the masts, every particle of grease
being speedily absorbed; while, if the hand touched a piece of metal, it
felt as if heated by the fire. Two of the youngsters of the crew were
actually amusing themselves by frying a slice of meat on a bit of tin
exposed to the sun. As one looked along the deck, one could see the
heat-mist playing over every object, on which the eye rested. If it is
hot thus early in the day, what will it become by noon, we thought,
unless a breeze spring up to cool us? However, no breeze did spring up,
and hotter and hotter it grew, if possible, till Dick Harper declared we
should all be roasted, and become a fat morsel for one of the big
sea-serpents which were known to frequent those seas. We got an awning
spread, and breakfasted on deck, for below it was insupportable; and
though we none of us starved ourselves, we were unable to do the ample
justice we generally did to the viands. Van Graoul lighted his pipe,
and leaning back in his chair, watched the smoke, with calm composure,
ascending in a perpendicular column above his nose. Fairburn kept his
eye carefully ranging round the horizon, to look out for any signs of
coming wind; for we could not but suspect that this calm was the
forerunner of a hurricane, or a gale of wind of some sort. I tried to
read; but I found that reading was impossible. It was even difficult to
carry on a conversation with any degree of briskness. Hour after hour
slowly passed away, and there was no change in the weather, when a sound
struck our ears which suddenly aroused us all from our apathy.

"A gun!" exclaimed Fairburn; "and a heavy one too--"

"There's another--and another," we repeated in chorus.

"De pirates of Sooloo or Borneo attacking some merchant vessel,"
observed Van Graoul.

"Can it be the _Emu_ engaged with a man-of-