all events it was so with me on that particular occasion, for it seemed
to me that daylight would never come. Meanwhile, however, our flare,
after blazing fiercely for a full half-hour, gradually died down and
finally burned itself out; and I made no attempt to replenish it, for I
knew that, whatever the result might be, its work was effectually done.
All that remained was to await the result as patiently as might be.

As soon as the flames had died down sufficiently to allow of my seeing
anything, I got the ship's night glass and diligently searched the
entire horizon with it, and presently picked up something that gradually
resolved itself into a craft which, from its stunted rig, I set down in
my own mind as a junk. With the solitary exception, perhaps, of a Malay
proa, a Chinese junk was the very last kind of craft that, under the
circumstances, I desired to see. While of course it is by no means the
case that every Chinese junk carries a pirate crew, the Chinese
generally, and especially Chinese seamen, are regarded by Europeans with
a certain measure of dubiety as possessing a code of morals peculiarly
their own, and of such a character that I, for one, would hesitate long
before placing myself and, still more, my companions in their hands and
at their mercy. Still, there was nothing for it now but to wait and see
how matters would turn out.

When I first saw her, the doubtful craft was in the south-western board,
some seven miles distant, heading to the southward, apparently
close-hauled, and moving very slowly. As I have said, the wind was a
mere breathing; and although the moon was now well down in the western
sky and the stranger's sails were in shadow, there was a certain
indefinable something in their appearance which told me that they were
wrinkling and collapsing with every heave of the swell. I kept the
telescope bearing steadily upon her, for she was drawing down toward
that part of the sea which was shimmering in liquid silver under the
moon's rays, and I knew that when she reached that radiant path I should
get a clean, sharply-cut silhouette of her and be able to determine her
exact character with some certainty. As luck would have it, however,
she tacked before reaching the moon's track, and I was still left in a
state of some doubt, although doubt was fast giving way to apprehension.
In any case, unless the breeze should freshen, which it might with the
coming of the dawn, several hours must