op chop, soon lilly pijjin come
down topside."

His selection of me, though apparently a very flattering one, was due to
the fact of my being the only one capable of squeezing through the port,
Weeks, who had grown awfully fat on the voyage, being incapable of
accomplishing the feat, while all the rest of us were far too big.

"How will ye be able to steer for Canton?" asked Captain Gillespie
sniffing--"even if ye know all about managing the boat?"

"Oh, sir," cried I, quite joyous at the idea of starting off on such an
expedition and coming with a British gunboat to take the pirates by
surprise and give them a licking, "Ching Wang'll see to the sampan, as
he calls it, and I will steer, sir, if you give me the course, sir.
I've got a little compass here on my watch chain."

"Humph!" he ejaculated; "I think ye'll do, boy. Ye're smart enough at
any rate for the job; and, besides, there's no one else that can get
through the port. Ye can go!"

"Thank you, sir," said I, grateful for even this semi-reluctant
concession, being afraid he might refuse; and then, squeezing gingerly
through the port and carefully lowering myself down by a rope which Tim
Rooney hitched round the captain's bunk, I landed on the bottom boards
of the boat that old Ching Wang had ready below.

I recollect well Tim's whispering softly as I let go my hold of the port
sill, "Sure, now, take care av y'rsilf, Misther Gray-ham, sorr, an'
don't forgit what the skipper's tould you about your coorse whin ye gits
outsoide the rafe; ye're to steer nor'-nor'-west, wid a little more west
in it, an' kape a good look-out for the blissid gunboat--an'--an' God
bliss ye me bhoy, an' that's Tim Rooney's dyin' wish if ye niver say him
ag'in!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE "BLAZER" TO THE RESCUE.

"Hist!" whispered Ching Wang softly, catching hold of my legs as I came
down the rope to prevent my feet making a noise on touching the bottom
of the sampan; while he carefully guided me into a seat in the stern-
sheets. "Makee quiet, tyfong watchee. If catchee no go, all up
topside!"

I hardly needed this caution; although, after receiving it I was as
still as any mouse suddenly finding itself in the company of a cat
unsuspicious of its presence could possibly be.

It was quite dark now, the hull of the ship looming faintly above us, a
big black shadow, and the water was without a glimmer near, save where,
just ahead, the light of a flare-up, which the pirates ha