wonderful fascination
he exercised over his fierce and ruffianly crew, find himself a
wealthier man than when he trod his brig's deck with a full cargo of oil
beneath his feet and ten thousand dollars in his cabin.

* * * * *

Let me first of all, though, before relating all that befell us during
our sojourn on Strong's Island, where I, at least, spent many long,
happy months, speak of the _Leonora_, once the _Waterlily_, and _alias_
the _Luna_, the _Leonie_, and the _Racinga_. As the _Waterlily_ she
was first known, and under that name sailed her maiden voyage in the
opium-trade, and beat the record. At this time Hayes made his appearance
at one of the Treaty Ports in a ship named the _Old Dominion_. On the
way out from New York his crew had mutinied, headed by the steward, a
Greek. In the fight that ensued Hayes killed the Greek outright by
a blow of his fist, and threw another with such violence against a
deck-house that he died in a few hours. An inquiry was held, and Hayes,
so it was stated, came out of it well. The _Old Dominion_ was sold, and
Hayes entered the Imperial Chinese service as commander of a gunboat.
Another gunboat was commanded by one Ben Peese. Of this period of his
life Hayes never cared to speak, but the story of Peese and himself was
given as follows:--

The two became friends, and in conjunction with some mandarins of high
rank, levied a system of blackmail upon the Chinese coasting junks that
brought them--_not_ the junks--in money very rapidly, and Hayes's daring
attack on and capture of a nest of other and real pirates procured for
him a good standing with the Chinese authorities. Peese soon got into
trouble, however, and when a number of merchants who had been despoiled
had succeeded in proving that his gunboat was a worse terror to them
than the pirates whom he worried, he disappeared for a time. The
_Waterlily_, which was then on the point of sailing for Calcutta, was,
at this time, chartered at a big figure by some rich merchants to take
a cargo of provisions to Rangoon. Shortly after her departure Hayes
resigned and went to Macao. Here he was joined by his colleague, in
command of the _Waterlily_. How Peese had got possession of her was
not known. Hayes told people that his friend had bought her, but those
intimate with Peese knew a great deal better. Anyhow, some months later,
the merchants who chartered her said that Peese, who had been given
command after his forced resignation fr