Ford of H.M.S. Vigilant: A Tale of the Chusan Archipelago

by T. T. Jeans

  *CHAPTER VI*

  *The "Sally" goes into Action*

  The Chinaman draws Nearer--First Shots--The Maxim Gun--A Near Thing--Four to One--Running the Gauntlet--"Well Done, Sir!"--At Close Quarters--The The Grappling Iron--Left Alone

  _Continued by Midshipman Ford_

  "What shall we do?" I whispered to Scroggs. "Go down and have a look ather?"

  "Beggin' your pardon, sir, you'll just keep straight on, and edge a bitmore up in the wind, if she'll do it. Once you've got the wind, sir,and can keep it, you can do about what you like; keep away if you wantto, run down to her if you want to, and she'll have to do what you wanther to, and when you want her to."

  Then I remembered reading all about fights in the old time, and when wewere in the _Britannia_, and learnt about actions in the old sailingdays, how each side always tried to get to wind'ard first, beforefighting, and that the man who was to wind'ard could fight or not justas he pleased. I'd never thought much of it before, but now thatScroggs had put it so plainly, I saw, all at once, how practicallyeverything depended on having the wind'ard position.

  "How about giving her the mainsail?" I asked Scroggs. "She's gainingvery fast."

  "She's doing all right, sir! We doesn't want to run away. Just youedge up a bit more in the wind and wait for her. Time enough for themains'l if she be a pirate, and we have to chase her."

  So we edged up into the wind again and began to stand out to sea, beyondthe island.

  I pointed that out to Scroggs--I felt fearfully excited and nervous.

  "That's all right, sir, never mind about the island; you'll be gettingher out in the open, and she'll think you're just trying to give her awide berth." Then I remembered Dicky, and shouted through the littlesliding door for him to come and see the fun. He scrambled up on thepoop, rubbing his eyes, and we both stood looking at her, feelingfrightened because she looked so big and came on so like a ghost, anddidn't notice that we were getting wet through. I did wish then thatthe _Ringdove_ was in sight.

  "How about letting the hands have food, sir? Maybe, if we've luck,we're like to be busy later on, sir!"

  Of course Scroggs was right, and Dicky said that Nelson always gave hismen food before going into action--he squeaked again, he was sonervous--and that settled it; and the men were turned out, and werealmost too excited to eat anything. Ah Chee was quite stupid and sillywhen we tried to wake him--he must have been smoking opium during thenight--and the men had to make their own cocoa. Dicky and I managed togulp some down, and had a couple of gingerbread biscuits each. Wedidn't like looking at each other for fear of giving awayour--well--funk, though it wasn't exactly funk.

  By this time it was quite light, and the island was about three milesaway, right under our port bow, and the huge Chinaman was about half amile astern, and still a little to leeward.

  We dragged Ah Chee out of his hole again, but he hadn't recovered, andstaggered about, shaking all over; and when he'd steadied himself, gotboth eyes to focus properly, and seen the junk, he simply let out a howland crawled back, yelling "Pilons! Pilons!" which made me feel creepy,although I had to pretend it didn't. I had to pretend jolly hard.

  "He'll kill himself with that pipe, sir, and we'll want him later on,"Scroggs said, but I didn't know what to do. "You leave 'im to me, sir,"and Scroggs dragged him out again, took away his pipe and tobacco andopium, and then shut him down in the forehold and jammed the hatch coverover it. Glad enough too he was to crawl into it.

  The strange junk was coming up finely, heeling over and splashingthrough the water. We could only see one man on board, standing on thepoop watching us, and he looked peaceable enough.

  "She's got guns--I can see them sticking out!" Dicky squealed; but thatdidn't make it certain that she was a pirate, because all merchant junkscarry guns too. "Couldn't we go for her now, Scroggs, don't you think?She isn't half a mile off."

  Dicky and I were so excited and "quivery", we could hardly breathe, andthis waiting for her to catch up with us was the worst part. ButScroggs wouldn't alter course, and said: "Just you 'oist the mains'l,sir, and get them tarpaulins off the guns, and stand by. When she seesthat 'ere mains'l creaking up, she'll guess we're frightened, and maybeshe'll let fly at us."

  We got the tarpaulins off, and the men began working the clumsy windlasswhich hoisted the mainsail, and the great "clammy" thing went squeakingup the mast. That made us go faster and heel over more.

  The guns were all painted a dirty grey, so didn't show up at all, butjust what Scroggs had expected happened. The junk all at once luffed up,shot up into the wind, came on to an even keel, her great sails beganflapping, we could see men pouring up from below, and four white cloudsof smoke shot out from her port side, and before we could say "knife",there were four splashes in the water behind us, and one shot camericochetting over us, humming like a top, and fell into the sea ahead ofus.

  Dicky and I ducked, and then we looked up to see if the ricochet haddone any damage, and Scroggs pointed out a hole in the mainsail, closeto the mast, where it must have gone through, and a piece of sailflapping down.

  I'm certain that I wasn't frightened then, for I thought more of themast than myself, and knew what a bad "egg" it would have been if theshot hadn't missed it.

  I looked at Scroggs.

  "Give 'em one, sir! Give 'em one!" he was beaming all over his face;"we can 'ardly miss 'er, sir."

  I shouted for the six-pounder to open fire, but the mainsail was in theway, and they couldn't get the sights on.

  "Gun won't bear, sir," the captain of the gun shouted, and I jumpedfor'ard to see for myself that he was right.

  "What shall I do now?" I asked Scroggs, and felt stupid, and could justsee the pirate junk paying off again to give us her other broadside.

  She seemed so close that there wasn't time to think.

  "Put your helm down and come into the wind yourself, sir."

  I shouted to Dicky to do so, and the _Sally_ came up all shaking.

  "Now you've got her," Scroggs said, and as he spoke the junk shot offher starboard guns, and we could hear them yelling and beating tom-toms.There was too much to do this time to "duck", and besides, they hadfallen astern by luffing and then paying off again, so their shotsdidn't come so close.

  Then Fergusson, the captain of the six-pounder, fired. The little shellburst as it touched the water halfway across, and we heard the piratesyell again. Scroggs let out a dozen oaths, and told him to steadyhimself; and his next went nearer, and the next burst close alongside,and they didn't cheer that--they'd never seen shell burst before, Iexpect, and wondered what it was, and how we could fire so fast.

  "Take your time," I shouted, and was so excited that I bit a great pieceout of my lip. We fired again, and must have hit her, for a cloud ofsmoke came out of her bows, and a very different kind of yell came back,and we yelled too; but she'd loaded again by this time, luffed up, andgave us her port guns. There was a crash and a whistling sound, and outthrough the poop bounded a round shot, struck against a big chock ofwood at the foot of the mainmast, and bounced overboard. It only missedone of the men at the tiller by a hair's breadth, and he let out asqueal, he was so surprised, and then got red and tried to pretend thatit wasn't him. "They're only smooth bores," Scroggs shouted. "Who'ssquealing like a furry rabbit?" and Fergusson fired again--she wasn'tfour hundred yards away--and missed her. They started easing off riflesat us too, and the bullets went splattering through the sails andsplashing into the water.

  The _Sally_ had been jumping about up to now--that was why Fergusson hadkept on missing--but for just about two minutes she was quite steady.She almost seemed to know things were not quite all right, and Fergussonmust have got off a dozen rounds, and nearly all of them hit. I was soexcited, I yelled every time, and we could see smoke coming out andpieces of wood flying, and though she turned to give us her starboardbroadside, she didn't fire them, and fell right off
the wind, with herstern facing us. She wasn't three hundred yards off, and suddenlyremembering the Maxim gun, I rushed aft; but before I could climb up thepoop, Dicky turned out "trumps" and began firing. "Tut tut--tut tut,"it went, and you could see a lane of bullet splashes; and as we liftedour stern they must have poured into her, and we heard shrieking, andcould see the Chinamen throwing up their arms and falling, till the rollof the _Sally_ took the sights off again.[#]

  [#] A Maxim gun is an extremely difficult weapon to use, unless the gunplatform is absolutely steady.

  Then the signalman shouted, "They've had enough, sir!" and we saw thatthey daren't turn round again, and were easing off their sheets to rundown wind.

  You should have heard us cheer; and there wasn't any need to tell themen at the helm to "hard a-starboard", for they did it of their ownaccord, and we eased away our sheets and ran after her.

  "I thought he'd be sorry for it, sir," said Scroggs coming up. "Look upthere, sir; that does one real good."

  I looked, and saw that we had the White Ensign flying from the mizzenpeak. Dicky and I grinned with delight. We'd been told not to hoistit--they'd not even given us one--but there it was--grand!

  "I did that, sir," the signalman said bashfully. "Stole it aboard the_Vig._, sir," and he grinned, and everybody grinned at everybody else,and looked to see what damage that round shot had done, just forcuriosity.

  My aunt! we did just bubble through the water, half burying our bows;the breeze must have freshened up without our noticing it. The piratewas digging out too, and had got a good start, and it wasn't any usefiring at her, because we had a funny corkscrew rolling motion, andcouldn't be certain of hitting anything. We only had two hundred roundsof shell to begin with, so I didn't dare to waste them, and waited tillwe could draw up closer and make certain of hitting. She was makingstraight for the island, and at one time we thought that we must try anddisable her before she ran herself ashore. Dicky and I began to talkabout capturing her. We were little fools, as it turned out.

  Presently we saw that a channel opened out, right in the middle of theisland, and she was making straight for it. I got out our chart, butcouldn't find the island--not to make sure of it--so hauled Ah Chee outfrom the forehold. He was plucky enough now the pirate was runningaway, and nodded his head and said, "Vely good--vely good--plenty good,"and pointed to the channel, so I knew we were all right to follow her.

  She was almost in it before we began firing at her, and we hit her bigsquare poop time after time, and saw pieces of wood flying in the air;but it didn't seem to make any difference to her, and she still kept onsteadily.

  In another three minutes we shot into the channel ourselves--betweenhigh cliffs--and as the tide was running with us and the strong windbehind us, we scooted along at a tremendous pace. We were catching herup fast, too, and had got to within two hundred yards, and Fergussonbegan pouring in six-pounder shells. I really wanted to frighten her somuch that she would surrender, and I would be able to tow her back tothe _Vigilant_, and give her up to Captain Lester. And I wanted to takeback some of the crew as well, for Captain Lester had told me, "Don'twant dead 'uns; dead 'uns don't tell things".

  The noise our little gun made was tremendous, now that we were inbetween high rocks. You could hear a crash! crash! and then a rollingsound and another crash after every shot. It must have frightened thepirates, if it did nothing else; and whatever happened I don't know, butwe suddenly saw her main shrouds on one side give way, her fore mainmastbent over like a whip, and before they could do anything, down it camewith a snap, and the great sail with it, and the foremast and foresailwent too a moment later, and she simply seemed to stop dead, turning herbroadside to us and unable to move--just like a huge bird with one wingbroken.

  I had an insane idea of running alongside, but Scroggs put our helm harddown, and we swung round like a top, not fifty yards from her, and slidup into the wind. I rushed aft, furious with him.

  "You'd have been atop of her in another second, sir."

  "That's what I wanted," I said angrily. "What d'you mean by touchingthe helm?"

  "Begging your pardon, sir, if you once got alongside, we'd be done for!She's got a hundred men aboard, and we twelve wouldn't 'ave stood achance."

  But I was so excited, that I never thought of that, and was just goingto give him a piece of my mind about his cheek, when the pirate let offhis broadside right in our faces. We were so close that the noiseseemed to knock our ears in. I was half stunned and dazed, feltsomething hot all over me, and was thrown against the mast. I pickedmyself up, and found my hands and my clothes covered with blood.Scroggs was nowhere to be seen, two of the Hotchkiss gun's crew werelying near the gun groaning, and the dinghy had been smashed to pieces.

  Sharpe, the second petty officer, was bringing the _Sally_ round intothe wind again, and Dicky was busy with the Maxim gun, but thesix-pounder wouldn't bear--the mainsail was in the way.

  "Heaps of time, sir," Sharpe said, looking at me in a funny way. "Theydaren't go near their guns to reload 'em. I thought you'd been killed,sir!"

  "What happened?" I asked him, trying to shake the blood from my face andeyes; I felt quite stupid. "Where's Scroggs?"

  "Scroggs is gone, sir. One o' them round shot took him in the middle,just as you were standing by, and carried what was left of himoverboard, and another struck some of the six-pounder cartridges, andthey blew up and knocked over Adams and Cooke, and threw you up ag'inthat mast, sir."

  Poor old Scroggs! and I'd been beastly to him too. I have always beensorry for that.

  Dicky gave a yell when he saw me. He looked funny about theeyes--rather mad--and burst out crying, just for a second. "I thoughtyou'd been killed," he stuttered, "and I've killed dozens of thosebrutes to revenge you."

  I shouted something, and a funny hot kind of feeling came up inside me,and the only thing I thought of was to go on killing; and we edged up,just to leeward of the junk, and fired at her with the six-pounder asfast as Fergusson could load--Sharpe had sent him two more hands, andhad hauled Adams and Cooke aft, out of the way.

  Not a single live Chinaman could we see on deck--they'd all gone downbelow out of sight--but every now and again we could hear shrieks comingfrom inside her, and knew that our shells were finding them out. I feltmad, and Dicky was mad, and only Sharpe kept his head. We must have madesome holes in her below the waterline, because she was now much lower inthe water, and I simply longed to see her sink and drown all thecrew--I'd forgotten all about trying to capture her.

  Then suddenly, as we were expecting her to go under, someone pointeddown to leeward, down the channel, and, looking there, I saw four greatjunks beating up towards us. They were about a mile away, and hadcovered themselves with pendants and streamers--all the colours of therainbow--and began firing guns to frighten us, I suppose.

  I went cold all over, for I knew we couldn't manage four more, and I sawthat Sharpe thought so too. Dicky didn't seem to be quite right in hishead, for he shook his fist at them, and yelled to me that there weremore for him to kill. "Off out of it, sir; we can't tackle that lot.We're only nine all told, not counting orficers, sir. Back again, sir;beat up to wind'ard, sir; and get away into the open sea."

  We hadn't a moment to lose, either, and I knew he was right, and stoodaway from the sinking junk, and started to beat up the channel, throughwhich we had just entered. The entrance was about half a mile towind'ard of us, the tide was against us, and jolly slow progress wemade, though I knew it was the same for those who were chasing us. We'dsailed so much more quickly than that sinking junk, when we ran beforethe wind, that I hoped we should be as good when we were beating; but Isoon had a most horrible feeling that we were not pointing so high asthey were, and not going so fast through the water, either.

  We had time to look after Adams and Cooke now--Adams had one thighbroken, and I knew that that wasn't so bad; but Cooke had his hands andface and legs all badly burnt with the explosion, and was in awful pain.We made them as c
omfortable as we could down below under the poop, butit was horrid to hear Cooke moaning and shrieking sometimes.

  We soon got so close inshore that we had to go about on the starboardtack, and we swung round and plugged away for the entrance, which neverseemed to get any nearer. The junks behind us were still gaining, twoof them very quickly. These two were leaving the others a long wayastern, and just to show you what asinine ideas come to one, I thoughtfor a moment that we might draw them on and on, till they were soseparated that we could tackle them one at a time.

  The breeze had been gradually freshening, and was now blowing down thechannel quite hard, and as we went off on the starboard tack, we heeledover till the deck seemed almost upright (we were heeling over toport--the left side).

  But then an awful thing happened. Suddenly, above my head, there was anoise like a pistol shot, and, looking up, I saw that one of thestarboard main shrouds had parted, and that the mainmast was beginningto bend over. If I held on for another minute, the other two would becertain to go--the strain on them was awful--and the mast would havegone too. There was only one thing to be done, and I shrieked to "Harda-port!" She heeled over, another shroud uncurled and parted, butbefore the last could go she staggered round into the wind, the strainwas taken off, and the mast straightened again.

  Sharpe came running aft; he was as white as a sheet. "It will take us anhour to repair, sir! What can we do?"

  It was plain as a pikestaff that we couldn't beat out. Everyone on boardknew that at once, and they all looked to me, but knew what would haveto be done just as well as I did, and I could see them watching thepirates out of the corners of their eyes.

  The current was taking us down towards them, and they were all comingalong at a tremendous rate. It was no use drifting among themhelplessly; we couldn't beat out with only the mizzen and foresail, sothe only thing to do was to get before the wind again, with our sailsout to starboard, so that most of the strain came on our port rigging,and try to run past them. Clarke and another man sprang up themainmast, going up the big bamboo hoops which kept the sail close to themast, and began reeving a temporary rope to act as a backstay, and weswung round, gybed very carefully, and the little _Sally_ went boundingback to them.

  The only one on board who wasn't--well--frightened was Dicky. He'd havecharged an express train; he was so mad with fighting and killing peoplewith that Maxim. We moved Cooke and Adams from under the poop, and putthem down below in the big hold, out of danger, and by that time we wereabreast the sinking junk; and as we went rushing by she gave a lurch, wesaw her guns slide overboard, she went under, and we could see at leastfifty Chinamen struggling in the water. Dicky yelled and shook his fistat them, and called them all the names he could lay his tongue to.

  I had tried to keep my eye on those four junks all the time, and thoughI was still feeling "silly" after being "bashed" against the mast, Icould see that they didn't seem to know quite what to make of us. Theleading ones were half a mile ahead of the others, and we were comingdown so fast towards them that we didn't give them much time to make uptheir minds. We saw them run into the wind for a second or two, and thenthey came along, on the other tack, straight for us, the leading oneabout two hundred yards in front of the second. They were almost as bigas the one we had sunk, but only had three masts, so didn't look quiteso ferocious.

  I thought that we could slip by and pass the first two to port (ourleft-hand side), but as we got closer it seemed to me that the first onewas trying to ram us, and I had sense enough to know that if she did,our masts would probably go overboard, and that all would be U P withus. Sharpe was still up aloft, reeving that temporary shroud, so Icouldn't ask him what to do, and began to feel very frightened.Fergusson kept on firing the six-pounder very fast, and kept on hittingher, but that didn't seem to have any effect, and she didn't altercourse. We were hardly fifty yards away now, and Fergusson let off thatgun faster than ever, and we could actually hear the shells bursting andsee the pieces of wood flying out of her bows, and gashes opening out inher foresail. Her crew were yelling most awfully, and making such abanging noise with tom-toms and brass clappers, that that frightened meall the more. We were simply tearing along, with the water bubblingalong the sides like a mill stream. We should be into her, or she intous, in a moment, and I held my breath and clutched hold of something,not knowing what to do. The men at the helm were looking at me fororders--they looked scared, too--and I was just going to tell them to"starboard", when I saw her begin to luff up. I yelled to them to"steady", and before you could say "knife", she slid along our portside, with her huge sails leaning right over us. The horrid brutes wereall hanging on and glaring at us, and they shrieked and yelled, and Isaw some of them throw things at us, and some of them fire off rifles.She couldn't fire her guns, because she was heeling over so much; but Iknew she would let them off directly she was on a level keel, and I sawa lot of them scrambling over each other to get at them, and knew theywould fire almost directly--right in our faces. But as they slid past,like an express train, Dicky began firing the Maxim right down in themiddle of them.

  I shall never forget how they screamed and fell down in heaps; and then,whether I gave the order or not (Clarke said I did, but I think that themen who were steering did it of their own accord), we put our helm "harda-starboard", and flew round under her stern. Fergusson fired two shellsstraight into her poop, and in their fright they let off theirguns--right away from us.

  The battle between the Sally and the pirates]

  We put up our helm and flew away down wind, and left her standing still,all her sails shaking, and in any amount of confusion.

  "Well done, sir!" Sharpe shouted from aloft, and that seemed to wake meagain, and Dicky and his Maxim gun's crew were yelling with delight, andthen everybody cheered because the second junk wouldn't face us, butluffed up and popped off her guns. She was too unsteady, or too much ina hurry, and we were going too fast, to give her a chance of hitting us."Passed two of 'em, sir," Sharpe sang out cheerily; "get those stinkthings overboard, sir." That was the first thing which made me noticethat I'd been coughing, and choking, and running at the eyes, and thatthere was a horrid smell.

  There was a round basketwork thing spluttering and fizzing, and thebeastly stinking smoke coming out of it, lying jammed in a corner closeto me. I got it overboard somehow, and heard it fizzle as it fell inthe water--ugh! the stink was awful. The others which had come on boardwere got rid of somehow or other--the men had thrown them or they hadrolled overboard--but everyone was coughing and wiping their eyes,especially the six-pounder gun's crew, who were to leeward, and so hadgot most of the smoke.

  When I could see out of my eyes properly, there was Dicky grinning at mefrom the poop, and I did really think, at the time, too, that he musthave either gone off his head or was actually enjoying himself. The twojunks which we had passed were coming along after us now; the first onewas a long way astern, and the second broad on our port quarter.Fergusson had got the smoke out of his eyes too, and began banging atthis cowardly second one; and we could see that she was trying to edgeaway out of range of his shells.

  But now we were rushing down towards the last two junks. They werelashing along on the port tack, heeling over till we could almost seetheir keels, and were coming straight towards us on the other side--tostarboard (our right-hand side). I couldn't see them at all from thehigh poop because our sails were in the way, so went down close to themen steering, and could then see them by looking under the foot of themainsail. Sharpe came and stood by me, and I didn't feel so nervous.

  The nearer one was about a hundred yards off.

  "Wait a little, sir! Wait a little!" Sharpe said. We were both peeringunder the sail, and Dicky had gone for'ard to see if he could get thesix-pounder to fire. "When she's a leetil bit closer, turn away fromher, sir."

  There was only fifty yards between us now, and we were rushing to meetat a point.

  Thirty yards! Twenty yards! I couldn't breathe. They yelled
and shooktheir arms about; we could see them all clinging to the weather gunwale.

  I looked at Sharpe. "Now, sir!" he cried, and I sang out, "Starboard!"and our bows slewed away from her.

  "Haul in the sheet, sir! Quick, sir! or she'll be on to us and carryaway the sails," and everyone jumped to the sheets and began hauling inthe huge booms of the foresail and mainsail. The _Sally_ heeled over,with the wind on her beam, and seemed almost to give a leap through thewater. We thought that we should just shoot past the third junk, andwere going to cheer, but the next thing I knew (the sails hid her now)there was a bump, and the junk suddenly appeared right on top of us. Iwas flung down--we all were--the _Sally_ seemed to rebound, and therewas another crash under her poop. I bent my head down, expecting themasts and sails to come toppling on top of me; but she must have onlystruck us grazing blows, because they didn't, and when I looked up againwe had cleared her. "For God's sake, ease off those sheets!" Sharpeyelled, "or we'll gybe," and I had enough sense left to know that if wedid gybe we should either capsize or carry away all our damagedstarboard main rigging and lose our masts. The men at the helmscrambled to their feet, and had enough wit left to "starboard" alittle. The sails were just shaking, uncertain whether they would swingright across to port, but that extra bit of starboard helm just did thetrick and saved her. They were all too busy with the sheets to fire theMaxim or the six-pounder, and the next I knew was a roaring hot noiseright in our faces--she had fired her broadside at us. My head and earsseemed banged in, and I shut my eyes, wondering where I should be hit.Then I heard Sharpe yell, "Mr. Morton's down, sir!" and I opened them tosee Dicky lying on the deck where the dinghy had been, with his face andhead covered with blood. I forgot about everything else, and jumpedacross to him, and tried to stop the blood with my dirty handkerchief,and make him say something; but Sharpe sang out, "For God's sake, sir,look where you're going!" and I heard the most awful noise of yellingunder our port bow, and there was the fourth junk, towering above us andrasping along our side. I was knocked over again. I saw some ironthings, like grapnels, thrown on board, with ropes fastened to them.One near me caught in the starboard gunwale, but jerked itself free;another missed the main rigging, but two caught somewhere on the poop,and I could see the lines on them tautening and the pirate junk turningafter us, to ease the strain.

  There was a horrid feeling that the _Sally_ wasn't going so fast.Sharpe rushed past me with an axe in his hand, and I found myself on thepoop next to him. He was hacking away with all his might, and cutthrough one rope; but there was the other grappling iron, caught in thedamaged woodwork, and it had about six feet of chain secured to it, andhe couldn't break that. He hacked and hacked, and we all tried to pullthe grappling iron itself free, but couldn't move it, because the crewof the junk were hauling on the rope at the other end of the chain, andthere was a tremendous strain on it; the rope and chain were as taut asa bar.

  "HE HACKED AND HACKED"]

  I can't quite tell you what happened for the next few seconds; theyseemed like years.

  The third junk was firing her broadside guns, and the one that had gothold of us was firing rifles; and we were covered with smoke, and couldhear woodwork smashing somewhere all round us, and how it was we werenot all killed I don't know to this day.

  "I can't do it; God help us, sir!" Sharpe groaned, and left off hackingat the chain, and began to try and cut away the side of the poop wherethe grappling iron had fixed itself; but the edge of the axe was allblunted, and would hardly even cut wood. It was perfectly awful, andyou could see the cruel brutes in the bows of the fourth junk hauling inthe rope, hand over hand. They thought that they had caught us, andwere making the most tremendous noise, shouting and yelling.

  They had hauled themselves to within twenty feet of us, and would bealongside in another few seconds. We could see them crowding for'ard,waving swords, and getting ready to pour on board. They began throwingstink balls, too, but these fell into the water, or, at any rate, wewere too terrified to notice them.

  I suddenly wondered why the Maxim wasn't working--I'd not thought ofit--and looked round and saw why. It was all battered in a heap, andtwo of its crew were lying underneath it.

  I don't know what I did, or quite what happened then, but I found myselfunder the poop, hunting among all the wreckage for my revolver.

  I didn't find it, but got hold of a cutlass and was rushing up again,when I heard Sharpe give a yell of joy, and was just in time to see thatawful rope "part", and the people in the bows of the pirate junk fall ontheir backs in a heap.

  "We're away, sir!" Sharpe shouted, and, darting for'ard to thesix-pounder, sang out to the men steering to turn her round a little,and fired four times right into the pirate's bows.

  They came round, too, and fired their guns at us; but we were beyondworrying about gunshots now, after all we'd been through, and paid offagain before the wind, the third and the fourth junks following us closebehind, and the first two a long way behind.

  My head was simply going round and round, and my ears were ringing andbuzzing. We were still in a cloud of powder smoke from the junks, andour poop was a perfect wreck.

  I had time to look round now--the Maxim gun was lying there, knocked topieces, the two men near it were quite dead, horribly smashed up onewas, and there was hardly an undamaged plank to be seen. The nativeboat hanging over our stern had been smashed to pieces, and the wreckageof it was trailing in the water. We cut it adrift. Bits of wood andsail and rope were lying all over the decks, and up above our sails werefull of holes. The main gaff was hanging down and beating against thesail, and tearing long strips out of it; but the mast still stood, andthe rudder wasn't damaged, and we were simply roaring through the wateragain.

  Then the third junk began creeping up on our starboard quarter, notoverhauling us very fast, which showed that our speed wasn't muchdecreased; and directly the six-pounder would bear, Sharpe, who hadtaken charge of it, began firing into her, and hit her several times.We could see her trying to edge away.

  Right astern was the fourth junk, and half a mile astern the first andsecond. The third and the fourth kept on yawing, so that they couldbring their guns to bear and fire at us, but lost ground doing this, andonly made a few more holes in our sails.

  My people began to cheer--the seven who were left--because the open seashowed right in front of us; and then they cheered more loudly, becausethe first junk, which seemed to be very low in the water, suddenly shotup into the wind, the second junk, which had always given us a wideberth, followed her, and both of them began tacking over to the island.

  That left us only two to tackle--the fourth, which was about threehundred yards astern, and the third, which was broad on our starboardquarter, but was edging away to try and get out of range of Sharpe'slittle shells, and was quite out of it, as far as her own guns wereconcerned.

  But before she could get out of range, something happened which made hergybe badly--we were all running before the wind, you must remember.Whether Sharpe had smashed her steering gear or not, I don't know, but,at any rate, she lowered her foresail and hauled into the wind as if torepair something, and lost a great deal of ground before she paid off,and came after us again.

  Something, whatever it was, must have been very badly damaged, for shehauled her wind again; and the fourth did so too, sailing close up toher, and then--hurrah! how we cheered!--they both began beating towind'ard towards the island, and we were left alone.

  I don't know how the men felt, but I felt giddy and weak and horriblysick, and had to hold myself up against the mizzen mast, because myknees trembled so much, and my head was splitting, and my mouth feltabsolutely dry, and my ears were all buzzing and humming, and verypainful.

  I jumped down to Dicky; he was lying just where he'd fallen, and he wasquite unconscious, and had an awful gash across the side of his head.Some splinter must have struck him.

  The signalman said he knew something about "first aid", and brought the"first aid" bag, and bandaged h
im up, and wiped the blood off his face,and we brought him aft.

  Please don't think that I was cool enough to have written this downright on the spot. I couldn't possibly have done it. Everything wentso fast, that you had no time for thinking, and really, after beingthrown against the mainmast, when Adams and Cooke had been injured, Iwasn't any use at all.

  I was shaky and "jumpy" for days afterwards, and it wasn't till I gotback to the _Vigilant_ that I could write this down, and then I had toget everyone who was on board the _Sally_ to help me.

  It was Scroggs, and after he was killed, Sharpe, who had done it all,and but for them--well--I shouldn't have been able to write about it, orany of us either, for the matter of that.

  And if, after Scroggs and Sharpe, you asked me to tell you who did nextbest of the men, I should say the two able seamen who stood to thetiller ropes and steered for that horribly long hour, and didthings--right things--at the proper time, even without orders. Theyhadn't had the excitement of firing back, either, to keep them keen andfrom getting in a funk. One was John Corder, and the other WilliamYoung, and they both got their ratings as leading seamen some timeafterwards, and I only wish that my father were a rich man, and could domore for them.