asure if I had the chance; but as for hailing her----I'd rather
die!'

'I'll give you a sovereign to take us aboard her.'

'Wouldn't do it for ten sovereigns.'

Charlie went back to Ping Wang and told him of the skipper's decision.

'I'm not surprised,' Ping Wang declared. 'He will sail off as quickly as
possible, I fancy.'

That, indeed, was the coper skipper's intention. He wished to start
immediately, and would have done so had it not been for the two thieves
who were drinking in the saloon.

'Now then,' said the skipper, coming down to the saloon and addressing
the thieves, 'if you won't leave, I shall have to sail off with you.'

'Right you are; I don't care,' one of them declared, and the other added
that he would thoroughly enjoy a cruise in a coper.

The skipper, however, had no intention of keeping on board two men
without money, and was compelled to wait about for their departure. But
just as he expected them to go, one man had a heated argument with his
companion, which ended in a fight. The skipper, fearing that his saloon
might be damaged, tried to stop the fight by seizing hold of the smaller
man, who, however, promptly freed himself, and with two quick-following
blows with his fist knocked the skipper down. The other man had in the
meanwhile jumped across the counter and seized a bottle, which he put in
his pocket.

'Come on, Jack,' he shouted to the man whom he had been fighting, and
hurried up on deck. Jack, seeing that the skipper was not likely to
interfere with him, followed his shipmate quickly on deck, and they made
for the coper's boat, but none of the ship's crew were in it.

'Cut the painter, Jack,' the taller man commanded, and Jack, using his
knife, soon did so. Then they grasped the oars and rowed away. It was
the only boat that the coper possessed, and when the skipper discovered
what the two fishermen had done he hurried on deck and shouted abuse at
them. The men took no notice, and soon arrived safely at their own ship.
Before they climbed aboard, the taller man said, 'Now let us sink the
coper's boat. Cut a hole in her.'

The other man was delighted with the idea, and without delay removed the
bottom boards and let in the water. That done, he followed his mate
aboard the trawler, sending the small boat adrift.

The skipper of the coper had, in the meanwhile, by tacking, made an
effort to keep his stolen boat in sight, but the night was dark, and the
fear of a collision with