we had prepared, it was soon hoisted up, and
stepped in its place more securely now than at first, because there was
no necessity for again lowering it. Roger Trew was very speedily at the
top.

"Hurrah!" he shouted; "hurrah! The prows are shoving off to sea,
pulling away like mad! Yes, there's the reason too--a large
square-rigged, white-sailed vessel coming round the point. By her look,
too, she is English; and they know pretty well that if they were to be
caught by her, their day of pirating would be over. Hurrah! hurrah!"

As may be supposed, we were all eager to mount to the top of the post,
and have a look at the stranger. Mr Thudicumb with his spy-glass
followed Roger.

"Yes, there is no doubt about it. She is a British man-of-war; and I
daresay she has been cruising in search of these very fellows. They are
all off, though; yes--five, six, eight prows, making their way to the
eastward. She will see our flagstaff on the rock, I hope, and send in
here. But I forgot; the pirates carried that away."

Thus he continued making his observations. We all stood eagerly round
him, though the ocean was hid from us.

"She has caught sight of the prows," he exclaimed, "and is making more
sail. They are, however, well to windward of her, and I am afraid she
will have a hard job to catch them up. Perhaps she will make a tack in
here; and if so, she will see us."

"Would it not be as well to hoist a signal on the Flagstaff Rock, to
supply the place of the flag carried off?" observed Mr Hooker.

"Of course, of course," was the answer; "and the sooner we do so the
better."

As we knew that the house had been burned down, and no accommodation was
to be found on the shore, it was agreed that the ladies, with Oliver and
Potto Jumbo, Mr Sedgwick and Tanda, should remain at the fort, in case
any stray Malays might have failed to get off. It was important also to
drag away the dead bodies as soon as possible. In a very few hours they
would render the fort scarcely bearable; besides which they would be
certain to attract beasts of prey. Tanda and Potto Jumbo undertook to
perform this unpleasant work, and to bury them in some soft ground at
the bottom of the hill. The rest of us then set off to the sea-shore,
carrying a large sheet which had been saved from the wreck to act as a
signal.

"And Hooker, my dear fellow--Hooker," exclaimed my uncle, as we were
starting, "do let me know as soon as possible if our tre