his cap. "I suppose some of the
Lascars' friends bidding them good-bye!"

"That so?" said the captain. "It isn't discipline, but I suppose we
can't help it;" and he resumed his conversation with the passenger and
Mr Scuppers.

By and by, when the serang and his gang had gone forward again, to unbit
the cable chain and cat and fish the anchor, Jack went up on the poop to
the captain.

"Beg your pardon, Cap'en Morton," he said, "but I think that Malay chap
is up to something; can I speak to you privately?"

"Oh, never mind Mr Meredith," said the captain; "we are all friends
here; speak out."

"Well, you know, sir," said Jack, diffidently--he didn't like spinning a
yarn, as he called it, before strangers--"that I understand a little
Chinese; and I caught something of what the serang was saying to those
two beggars in the boat."

"Did you?" said the captain and Mr Meredith, the passenger, almost
together, eagerly. "What was it? what did the rascal say?"

"You may well say rascal, sir," said Jack. "For though I did not hear
all their conversation, from what I gathered I think they're up to some
mischief. I first heard the chap in the boat say, `And how about the
passengers?' or something like that as far as I could make out; and the
serang said, `There's only one come on the ship.'"

The captain nudged Mr Meredith here, and the first mate, and all three
chuckled.

"And then the man in the boat said, `You are certain there are not
more aboard?' And the serang answered, `No, only that one
passenger'--`strange man,' he called him--`and twelve men besides the
boy officer,'--I suppose meaning me, sir. And then the man in the boat,
who seemed to have some authority over the serang, said, `In about ten
days, if the wind is good or fair; and don't be in a hurry, but wait for
the signal!' and then the Malay chap turned and saw me, and the boat
shoved off."

"Very good, Harper," said the captain; "we'll keep an eye on him, never
fear;" and then, as Jack went off again to his post he turned to Mr
Meredith: "I confess that I was wrong, and you and the admiral right,
sir!" he said. "And now we must contrive to outwit these yellow devils,
and as they're half-Chinese and ought to know, show them how to catch a
Tartar!"

"Ay," said Mr Meredith, laughing, "we'll give them a lesson they'll
never forget, too, while we're about it! But, captain, we have plenty
of time before us--ten days or more, just as I calculated; an