ly
that the captain would not have thought of ordering a man aloft; for,
whether through catching Tim Rooney's remark or from some sailor-like
intuition, the ex-bricklayer in the very nick of time voluntarily
clambered up the rigging forwards and loosened the weather clew of the
foresail.

Mr Mackay who was aft, seeing his purpose, at once told the men at the
wheel to put the helm up; when, the Silver Queen's head paying off, she
lifted out of the trough of the heavy rolling sea and scudded away nor'-
eastwards right before the wind, which had now got back to the normal
point of the "trade" we had been sailing with previous to the storm--
when, as this new south-westerly gale was blowing with more than twenty
times the force of our original monsoon from the same quarter, the ship,
although with only this tiny scrap of her foresail set, was soon driving
through the water at over twelve knots the hour, in the very direction,
too, we wanted her to go, to fetch our port.

"This is what I call turning the tables," yelled the captain, putting
both his hands to his mouth for a sort of speaking trumpet as he roared
out the words to Mr Mackay at the wheel. "By Jingo, it's turning the
tail of a typhoon into a fair wind!"

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

ATTACKED BY THE PIRATES.

It was "the tail of a typhoon" with a vengeance; for as we raced onwards
through the boiling sea, now lit up by a very watery moon, lots of
broken spars and timbers could be seen, as well as several junks
floating bottom upwards, thus showing what the fury of the storm had
been and the damage done by its ravages.

Mr Mackay noticed these bits of wrecks and wreckage as the captain
spoke; and, mingled with a feeling of pity for those who had perished in
the tornado, came a satisfactory thought to his mind.

"Yes, sir," said he in reply to Captain Gillespie's observation, "we're
making a fair wind out of a foul one; but, besides that, sir, we've got
something else to thank the typhoon for, under Providence. It has
probably settled the hash of those piratical rascals that were chasing
us!"

"Humph! I forgot all about 'em," snorted out "Old Jock," equally
pleased at this idea. "No doubt they've gone to the bottom, and good
luck to 'em too. One can't feel sorry for such vermin as those that are
prowling after honest craft, and who'd cut one's throat for a dollar."

"We mustn't be too sure, though, sir," continued the first mate, as if
he had been turnin