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

by T. T. Jeans

  *CHAPTER IX*

  *Mr. Hoffman's Secret*

  Bored Travers--Bored Travers Continues--"Old Lest" in Form--"We've Got 'em at Last"--A Dirty Night--"Old Lest" Unfolds a Tale--Mr. Hoffman's Tale--"Old Lest" and Hoffman--A Marvellous Old Chap

  _Written by Commander Truscott_

  At the time of parting company with the _Ringdove_ the weather wasextremely unpleasant--heavy rain squalls and a bitterly cold northerlywind--but it was snug enough down below, and, to celebrate the return ofTravers, we gave him a great dinner in the ward room.

  It is hardly necessary to tell you that we were all in the verybrightest spirits, and spent a most jovial and riotous evening--allexcept, funnily enough, Travers himself. He was always a bit bored atthese shows, and "turned in" early, only too glad to find himself oncemore in his own bunk. He was known throughout the fleet asBored-Travers, or "B.-T.", his full surname being Gore-Travers, and wasrather a weird chap, with a superior, supercilious,"Bond-Street-on-a-swagger-morning air" about him, which, somehow orother, gave everyone the idea that he looked "down" upon everybody else.You couldn't help liking him, however, for all that. I had never seenhim enthusiastic about anything except a pretty girl or a game ofcricket, and now after dinner he looked bored to distraction, leantwearily against a stanchion, and told Lawrence and the others his yarn.It was like drawing teeth out of a horse, to get him to tell anything atall.

  "Oh! that night, um! Oh yes! I remember. One of those Mission nativechaps got hold of me when I'd got inside the gates--couldn't shake himoff--too much bore altogether, you fellows. He was so jolly earnest, Ijust went along with him. He said something about Old Hobbs and hisdaughter being carried away, or something. I had to go, you know--hadnever seen the girl--all you fellows said she was pretty--forgot 'A'company wasn't coming along too."

  He stopped in the most irritating way to fill his pipe. "Same beastlyold tobacco in the mess--can't get it to draw--never could."

  "Didn't you find them, and have a scrap down there on the beach?"Trevelyan asked. "There was a Chinaman down there--dead, with a Webleyrevolver bullet in him."

  "Did I kill him?" he asked, without the faintest display of interest."I knew the beastly revolver would go off some day and hurt someone.Someone took it away after that--lots of them--shoved a beastly clothover my head, and shoved me into a boat. They seemed to want me to staystill, so I did."

  "Did they knock you about much?" "Didn't you see Sally?" several asked,and Trevelyan very eagerly added, "How many boats did you see? Wethought there were three. We saw the keel marks of three in the mud."

  He seemed quite amused at their eagerness.

  "Well, you chaps, I think they must have knocked me on the head. Ididn't remember much about it--didn't see anything I could swearto--rather fancy, though, there were two boats, and, now you mention it,that I did hear a girl's scream just before. Don't remember anythingelse till I woke up, with a beastly headache, and a mouth like alimekiln, in a jolly sight better cabin than I've got on board here."

  "That must have been Hobbs's yacht! What happened then?"

  "Nothing at all--couldn't shave--had forgotten to bring my razors and"(yawning) "my dressing case with me--there wasn't a towel there, orwater even--and there they kept me till they shoved me ashore, whereyoung Ford found me."

  "Ford?" I said, chipping in. "I thought Rashleigh did that." TheSkipper had just shown me his report.

  "Rashleigh! No, sir. He was shoving out of it as hard as he could go.Young Ford came along and picked me off--he and the rest of his junk'screw--in the _Ringdove's_ cutter. The Chinamen wasted a lot of goodammunition over the lot of us, and I'd have made 'em pay for it if I'dbeen in" (yawning) "charge of 'em.

  "Plucky chap that," he went on placidly, ordering the marine servant tobring him more sugar for his coffee. "I told him so. Hope it won't makehim more conceited than he is.

  "How about that Chinese cove who came along with me in the _Ringdove_!"he asked, with some little display of interest.

  "He's all right, B.-T.," someone said. "Came aboard with the wounded."

  "Um! I thought I'd given him the slip. Promised him a hundred dollarsfor getting me out of it, and" (yawning several times) "I haven't got ahundred cents in the world."

  "That's all right. You've got your last month's pay due to you," OldBax growled impatiently. "But, man alive, shove on with your yarn."

  Travers simply opened his eyes a little more widely, looked amusedly athim, and yawned again.

  "What did you do all the time?" "Give you decent grub?" "Did you seethe boss of the show?" Questions simply poured in, but he languidlyhelped himself to more sugar, and stirred his coffee.

  "Why the dickens can't our cook make better stuff than this? The grubwas beastly, and I grew a beastly beard, and everything was" (yawning)"beastly. There was a chap there--an old Scotch engineer fellow--seemedto belong to the show--came across to yarn once or twice--said he wastired of having no one to talk to--but he bored me, so didn't comeoften."

  "Weren't you excited when you heard the firing?" the young Padre asked.

  "Interested," Travers drawled; "I'm never excited--just interested," andhe put on his most superior look, and the young Padre retired inconfusion. "There was a bit of a shindy--guns, and all that--about aweek after I'd been there. It was rather interesting--at any rate thecoves there thought so."

  I remembered now that Rashleigh had reported having heard the sound ofguns in the direction of the Chung-li Tao Group about that time, and hadhad his head snapped off by the Skipper for his pains. He may have beenright, after all. "What happened? Who were firing?" I asked.

  "I don't know, sir; think they must have had a bit of a 'pick up' amongthemselves. I did mention it to the old Scotchman, but he wasn't givinganything away just then, and I never thought of asking him again."

  "Was he a prisoner too?" I asked. He was very irritating.

  "Oh no! Think he bossed the show--when he was sober. Told me one daythat they'd sent the Old Yank and Sally somewhere, where we'd never findthem. Seemed to know a good deal about it, and seemed sorry for thegirl too."

  "I'm going to turn in now, you fellows, if you don't mind. Thank youvery much, but I haven't slept in a bed for six" (yawning) "weeks," andhe stretched himself and yawned again and went away.

  Trevelyan disappeared with him and came back triumphantly. He had thatglove which we had picked up behind the Mission House. "We were right,after all, sir! That was his glove, and he had borrowed Lawrence'shandkerchief. I've got that much out of him. He says he'll never stuffa handkerchief up his sleeve again. He'd given a couple of pounds" (ifthere had been anyone to borrow from) "not to have dropped it."

  "It's the first thing I've ever got back after he once borrowed it,"Lawrence sang out, and we all laughed with him.

  The Skipper came in presently (Hoffman had been dining with him, but hadturned in directly afterwards), and we dragged Old Bax, the FleetPaymaster, to the piano and made him sing, "Tam Pearce, Tam Pearce,bring me my grey mare"; and the Skipper joined in the chorus and smoked,and Old Bax "cadged" his best cigars from him and smoked them, one afteranother. The Skipper grunted and growled, and was redder in the facethan ever, took off his mess jacket and loosened his braces, and beateveryone else at feats of strength, and was as happy as a sand-boy. Hewent down into the gunroom to say a few words, as he put it, and I wentwith him. He squeezed himself in, and, as they all stood up, growledout, "Umph! Sit down, please! 'Old Lest' will give you all ashow--later on. If those two steamers are there when we get into-morrow afternoon, umph! we'll go in and sink 'em. If there ain'tenough water for the boats, we'll swim" (huge yells of delight). "Goodnight, gentlemen; three of you have done a bit of fighting, the FleetSurgeon hopes to get Morton off the sick list in a day or two, and Ihope you others will do as well. Umph! You can have half an hour'sextra lights."

  They m
ade a perfect deafening noise, gave three cheers and a "tiger",and then he came back to the ward room, and stayed there till aftermidnight--the youngest of the lot of us--he and Old Bax chaffing eachother in broad West Country dialect. Old Bax had "wiped his eye", thelast time they had gone shooting, by bagging a woodcock which theSkipper had missed with both barrels, and never lost an opportunity ofreminding him of it.

  Whitmore and I slipped away long before the ward room singsong wasfinished, and the ship quiet again, because we had to make allarrangements for manning and arming boats if necessary. You see, we hadso many seaman ratings away, that it was rather difficult to fill theirplaces.

  Hoffman had his breakfast in his cabin, and spent two hours alone withthe Skipper during the morning, and I did not see him again till we werenearing the Hector Group late in the afternoon. He then came up andhelped Lawrence pick his way among the islands towards the one where hesaid that Hobbs and Sally were imprisoned.

  We all hoped to discover the tramp steamer and the yacht anchored there,but very much feared that the prisoners might have been spirited awayagain in one or other of them. The anxiety grew greater as we drewnearer, and was shared by every soul on board, for everyone knew by thistime all that I myself knew.

  It struck me as peculiar how intimate and accurate was Hoffman'sknowledge of the local pilotage. There seemed to be some strange "bond"between him and the Skipper, and I felt sure, from the Skipper's mannerto him, and from his silence to me, that there was something which I didnot know, and which would explain a good many things when I did know it.

  One thing indeed the Captain had told me, blurting it out when Ireported "defaulters" to him, and found him and Hoffman together."Hoffman tells me that that rascally Englishman, who sold that yacht ofhis to Hobbs, is bossing this show. He's hanging on to Hobbs and Sally,and trying to force the poor little lass to marry him--umph! or make herfather pay a pretty penny. He'll skin him out pretty thoroughly, I'llbe bound."

  "If you don't get hold of her quickly, Captain, I believe she'llconsent," Hoffman said.

  "Just to save old man Hobbs's dollars, eh? Poor little lass, eh?" theSkipper grunted.

  "Partly that and partly because he is such a handsome, dare-devilscoundrel, that I don't think she'd be unwilling;" and Hoffman moanedand buried his face in his hands. He was still as weak as a rat, andcouldn't control his feelings.

  "Poor little soul!" the Skipper said softly. "God help us to get herout of his clutches!"

  At about five bells (2.30 p.m.) in the afternoon we eventually sightedthe island, a low irregular line on the horizon right ahead, a gloomyenough prison under its dark sullen banks of rain clouds. The wind hadgone down during the morning watch, and the sea was fairly smooth, butthe rain still came down mercilessly, and everything was dripping withmoisture and extremely uncomfortable. "Masthead lookout!" roared theSkipper from the fore bridge, "keep your eye lifting for two steamerslying under the land," and to assist him sent up the sharpest eyedsignalman.

  In spite of the drenching downpour, the fo'c'stle and under the forebridge was crowded with men, all their eyes glued on the land as we veryslowly forged towards it through the muddy yellow water. I don'tsuppose that there was a single field glass or telescope in the ship notin use.

  Then there came a yell from the masthead which made us all look up."Yes, sir, I can see them--two steamers under the land, right ahead,sir;" and we all stared ahead, and in a few minutes could see themourselves, and, quite without orders, everyone cheered and waved hiscap, looking up at the Skipper from the fo'c'stle to see whether he waslooking happy. The cheers were as much for sighting the steamers as forknowing that now "Old Lest" would have a chance of paying off oldscores, and the Skipper, looking bigger than ever in his drippingtarpaulins, roared out to ask me if I'd ever been aboard a man-of-warbefore, and knew what discipline was; so I sent my midshipman down tostop the noise.

  "Umph! Truscott, we've got 'em at last;" and he slowly dug his fingersinto the palms of his hands, as if he was crushing something, glared atme, and shook them in my face.

  We slowly steamed along, till we took soundings under six fathoms, andthen anchored. "Can't go in any farther," I heard Hoffman tellLawrence, and again wondered how he had picked up all this knowledge.

  The cable had scarcely finished rattling out before the Skipper, turningto me, said, "Man and arm boats, Commander; I'll go in directly. OldLest ain't going to let grass grow under his feet."

  "We've only got about two hours more daylight, sir," I told him,thinking that there was scarcely time for the boats to get ashore.

  "Umph!" he growled, and went down below.

  In forty minutes I'd got them all away, the steam pinnace, with theSkipper and Hoffman aboard, towing the launch and sailing pinnace, andthe steam cutter towing the barge and the two cutters. We were so shortof men that Marshall and his marines had to man the sailing pinnace, andvery few men were left aboard to give them a cheer as they shoved off,only about half a dozen seamen, a few marines, and the stokers.

  I had thought of keeping Trevelyan on board, but the Skipper growledout, "Send him in with me. 'Old Lest's' brain's not as sharp as it was.He'll smell out something."

  It was still raining hard, but the sea remained smooth. Personally, Ithought it rather unwise not to wait for the morning; but the Skipperwas so anxious not to give the pirates a moment's rest, and to start bysinking those steamers or driving them ashore--to do anything, in fact,to prevent them escaping--that the risk was probably worth taking. Thesteam pinnace had her fourteen-inch torpedo dropping gear fitted, andthe Skipper's main idea was to blow holes in the steamer and the yacht,and so effectually to prevent them moving. Once more, it was not somuch our chief object to destroy the pirates or recapture the yacht, asto rescue the little American girl and her father. We hoped that we hadnow found where they were concealed, and our first object was to preventthem being smuggled away again.

  We kept the boats in view till they disappeared in the gathering duskand the heavy rain, and then could only wait for them to return. It wasso cold on deck, that I went down to warm myself in front of the wardroom fire. Mayhew, the Fleet Surgeon, was sitting cosily in front of it,and made room for me. "Heard or seen anything?" he asked. "I shallhave them all on the sick list if they ever do come back. I've neverseen a night I should less like to spend in an open boat."

  I hadn't been there five minutes, when the quartermaster came clatteringdown from the quarterdeck in his dripping oilskins and sea boots. "Wecan see some flashes ashore, sir. I think our boats are firing as well,sir."

  Both of us ran on deck. Several dull "booms" gave us the direction inwhich to look, and every now and again we could see the twinkle of a gunflash a very long way off, generally a single one, then perhaps two orthree quickly, one after the other. It was just as if someone a hundredyards away was striking matches, which the wind blew out as they werestruck. The reports came along a few seconds later, and among them wecould hear quite distinct sharp cracks. These were from our boats'guns, I expect. In spite of it being so wet, every soul on board was ondeck, staring through the darkness and the incessant rain, to try andmake out the boats returning. We ran a searchlight, throwing the beamsvertically upwards to guide them, and could do no more. This beamlighted up the raindrops, and made everything even more depressing thanit was before.

  I only wish that all men were obliged to supply themselves with oilskinsor thick pea-jackets, for, as it was, hardly one in twenty away in thoseopen boats had them, and I could imagine pretty plainly the state theywere in now.

  By ten o'clock there was no sign of them whatever, and I was veryanxious. Midnight came (I don't know what foolhardy ideas hadn'toccurred to me in the meantime), and shortly afterwards we heard thesound of more guns, and a muffled, long-drawn-out "boom", which made mealmost jump out of my skin, my nerves were so very much on the stretch."That's a torpedo, sir," the signalman said. I didn't much care what itwas; I really was so thankful to know that the
y were still in existence.

  The noises ceased almost immediately, and I again trusted that they wereon their return journey. A long, dreary wait followed, and then one ofthe people on the bridge spotted flames from the steam pinnace's funnel.We watched them flicker out every now and again, drawing steadilynearer, and I sent down to Mayhew to have everything ready in case therewere any wounded. Presently she came close enough to hail, and to seethat she was towing the launch, sailing pinnace, the barge, and thecutter. She had a good deal of "list" to port, and I thought at firstthat she must have been damaged, but then saw, as she rounded up to comealongside, that she had dropped her starboard torpedo, which accountedfor it. The boats ran alongside, and the Skipper came up the gangway.

  "What luck, sir?" I asked him. "Where's the steam cutter and the secondcutter? Anyone hurt, sir?"

  His face was purple blue with the cold, but he was in the highestspirits. "Blown a hole in that tramp steamer; made the little yacht runup inside the creek. That's a good beginning for 'Old Lest', eh?Haven't had a man touched, and left the second cutter and the steamcutter inshore to come off at daybreak. Got the galley fires alight?"he asked, before he went below. "The men are pretty well dead with thecold and the wet."

  "I'd thought of that, sir," I told him; "they shall have some hot cocoaand pea soup directly they have fallen out."

  I had never seen such a washed-out crowd of people as clambered on boardthat night. Even though those in the boats had pulled their oars on theway off to the ship, they were simply blue and shivering and stiff. Youmay guess that I got all the gear replaced, and the men dismissed totheir messes as quickly as possible.

  When I went in to report to the Captain, he was standing in front of hisblazing fire in a thick dressing gown. He had a great bowl of pea soupin his hands, and Blucher was leaning up against his legs. "Umph!that's good," he said, smacking his lips and rubbing himself. "Warmsone's inside, eh?" and he roared to "Willum" to bring his eighteenpennyHavanas, and made me smoke one: I should have very much preferred apipe.

  "Willum" had been sent round to collect all those officers who had beenaway, and they came trooping in in all kinds of rigs, all looking jollypleased with themselves, and Willum served them out hot drinks, and theSkipper said, "Here's luck to the little lass and the old _Vig_," andwhen they were thoroughly warm sent them all away to turn in.

  "They're not going to turn in yet, sir," I told him; "they are going tohave a sardine supper in the ward room."

  "Umph! Good idea that! 'Willum'," he roared, "make me some sardinesandwiches, and put plenty of onions in 'em."

  "How about sending the steam pinnace inshore with some hot soup for thepeople in the boats you left behind?" I asked him, after he'd devoured aplateful of sandwiches and had sent Willum for more.

  "No good; couldn't find 'em in the dark. I've stuck 'em right in underthe guns, in the middle of the creek which runs up there. They've gotto fire a Very's[#] light, if the yacht tries to get away, so tell 'emto keep a good lookout on the bridge."

  [#] A Very's light is somewhat the same idea as a Roman candle firework.It throws out one very brilliant ball of coloured light.

  "It was grand work in those boats," he continued; "they couldn't see us,and went on firing and wasting ammunition. I kept on running away inthe steamboat, easing off a few shells at them, and then going backagain, and they'd fire off twenty or thirty rounds where she had been."

  "I expect you had some pretty narrow shaves, for all that, sir?"

  He growled out "Umph!" and winked at me very slowly.

  Now that he and I were alone, I saw that he had something which hewanted to tell me, and when presently he had sent Willum to bed, helighted a fresh cigar and began. "You know that man Hoffman? Whatd'you think of him, eh?"

  "I can't quite say, sir. Can't quite 'place' him."

  "What would you say if I told you he _is_ the pirates--bosses the show,or did. What d'ye say to that?"

  I supposed I looked surprised. I certainly felt so.

  "He's told me all about it. He is running this show, or was."

  "What d'you mean, sir?" I could hardly understand him.

  "It's this way, Truscott," and, puffing his cigar, and grunting andgrowling, the Skipper told me the most extraordinary yarn I had everheard.

  Hoffman had for years owned quite a small fleet of merchant steamers,and had endeavoured to compete with the native junks for the coastaltrade between Ningpo, Shanghai, and the Chusan Archipelago. Localprejudice and the hatred of the white foreigner had been too much forhim, and he had failed. The idea then occurred to him that if he couldmake a clean sweep of the merchant junks throughout the islands, hewould have the monopoly of the carrying trade.

  "That explains why we have seen so many small steamers about lately," Iburst out, absolutely dumbfounded.

  "Umph! It does," the Skipper nodded, and went on to tell how Hoffmanhad built and armed a fleet of large junks, and carried out the raids ofwhich we knew so well.

  "But what's he doing now?" I exclaimed. "Coming on board here halfstarved?"

  The Skipper explained. "That rascally skipper of the yacht was hisfirst lieutenant. It was he who did most of the work, headed most ofthe expeditions, and thought himself as big a 'pot' as his master. Hethought he would strike out a new line for himself, too, and kidnappedHobbs and Sally. Thought he'd get enough ransom to make his 'pile' inone swoop."

  The Skipper went on to tell me that this wasn't Hoffman's idea of doingbusiness, and that it was owing to him that they escaped, that time theywere picked up by the _Huan Min_. It meant finally breaking with theEnglishman, and (Hobbs told us, I remember, that he had heard a scufflethat night) they actually had come to blows, Hobbs and his daughterbeing shoved off alone in the boat during the confusion.

  Next morning Hoffman had found himself practically a prisoner. Nearlythe whole of the Chinese sided with the good-looking scoundrel, who hadso often led them on their forays, and the German had to clear out, andwas lucky to find a junk whose crew remained faithful to him. That ishow he first came to Tinghai, and it was there that he saw Hobbs and hisdaughter for the first time. The girl reminded him of his wife, ordaughter, at home in Germany. He hadn't seen either of them for twentyyears, and the daughter would have been about her age. At any rate,whatever it was that made him take such a fancy to her, he wasn't goingto let her fall into that chap's hands again. Directly he had heard ofthe raid at the Tu Pu Monastery, he had gone across to endeavour toregain his influence over his men, found that impossible, but learntthat they were going to raid Tinghai itself and kidnap Hobbs and thegirl again. He had come back in his junk as fast as he could, but toolate to save her.

  That accounted, then, for his sudden appearance at the burning Mission.He had landed in the same bay as the pirates themselves, an hour or morebehind them, and rushed up to the Mission, but too late to save her.

  "Travers says that he saw two boats there, sir. Probably those were thetwo close together, and probably Hoffman's made that third mark we sawfarther along the shore."

  "Dare say it was," the Skipper grunted; "and he tells me, too, that hegot away about half an hour after they had left."

  "Trevelyan is a regular Sherlock Holmes," I said. "I must tell him;he'll be very pleased."

  But the Skipper scowled and growled, "No, no; I don't want anyone toknow yet;" and went on with his yarn, whilst I listened, wideawakeenough, you may be sure, although it was past two in the morning.

  "Hoffman thought that the people at his depot in the Chung-li Tao Groupwould still stand by him, so packed off there," the Skipper went on totell me, "and found the old Scotch engineer in charge of the place. Itwas this man who had separated him and the Englishman--that night theyfought. He was a friend of his, and gave up the place and the junks;and everything was going well, till one morning the Englishman appearedoff the town, fired a few rounds from the tramp steamer, the junks'crews wouldn't fight, and Hoffman had to surrender. He was eventuallyt
aken to the Hector Group, and kept there till he managed to escape tous again."

  "Travers heard some fighting, but never saw Hoffman," I interrupted.

  "Well, Hoffman was hardly likely to give himself away by interviewinghim. At any rate, that was the reason he gave me when I asked him," theSkipper said. "He was waiting until he felt more sure of his peoplebefore trying to get him away--he couldn't trust any of them--and thechance never came."

  "By the way, sir," I said, suddenly remembering that he had not comeback, "where is he now?"

  "Umph! I left him and one of his Chinese fellows in the boats. They'regoing to try and get ashore to-night at low water, find their way acrossthe mud, and see if Sally and Old Hobbs are still there. The boats areto wait for them for half an hour after daybreak. If Hoffman and hisman don't turn up then, the boats have to come back to the ship, andI've told him I'll have another waiting at the back of the island forhim. There's a big rock somewhere there--can't mistake it, he says--andI want you to send a boat round there in case he can't get back thisside."

  "He's not strong enough for much hard work, I fear, sir," I said.

  "'Fraid not, Truscott; 'fraid not."

  "Whenever did you know all about this, sir?" I asked. I was a littlenettled that I hadn't been told before.

  "Only this morning," the Skipper replied; he was lighting his thirdcigar since coming back. "Only this mornin'--couldn't keep it tohimself any longer--came and told me. Umph!" (I suppose that he saw Ilooked as if I might have been told too) "I'd have told you then,Truscott, but I wasn't certain of him till to-night, and wasn't going tolet you think 'Old Lest' had had his leg pulled again, if he turned outa wrong 'un."

  "What happened to-night, then, sir?" I asked.

  "Directly they saw us coming along, the yacht began to pushinland--close up to the town, up a bit of a creek--and just as it wasgetting dark, we saw the tramp steamer trying to do the same. I wantedto shove along after them, but he wouldn't let me, said we should haveto pass within twenty yards of a battery, and they had had plenty oftime to man the guns. He said it didn't matter either, as the trampcouldn't get up there, and would be aground before she'd gone fiftyyards. He promised to find her, too, later on, and I took him at hisword. They blazed off a few rounds at us, I kept 'em busy for a fewminutes, and then lay off, out of sight, as if I'd gone back again."

  "I didn't know what had happened, sir, when I could neither hear nor seeanything of you. I was in a bit of a 'stew' when you didn't come back.

  "I wanted to go and torpedo her, but he wouldn't let me. Said she'd behalf out of water in another two hours, and he'd do the job then,without getting into danger."

  "He did, too; guided us in--how he did it, beats me--somehow or othergot her in between us and the battery, and we let rip a torpedo rightinto her bottom, just amidship. We weren't fifty yards away, and not asoul saw us till we'd fired. I tell you, Truscott, that man's straight.'Old Lest' don't often make a mistake when he's sized a man up and seenhim under fire. He's as straight as a die. It was his own steamer heblew up."

  "Well, he's the first man's advice you've ever listened to, sir," Isaid, smiling.

  "Umph!" he growled, "but 'mum's' the word;" and he patted old Blucher,who was squatting between his knees and yawning.

  "If he can't get back to that cutter--and I don't know how the dickenshe means to do so--he'll go across to the back of the island."

  "What boat shall I send, sir?" I asked, getting up, for it was time tobe off; it was nearly three in the morning.

  "Send the other cutter, and Trevelyan; I believe in that chap," hegrowled. "Umph! You are going to turn in, eh? Umph! All right! I'llwrite home to the Missus and the Admiral. Don't know when I can send'em. Umph!"

  "Have you read Rashleigh's report?" he asked me, as I was going out."I've read it again. He don't say much about Trevelyan and Ford."

  "No, he doesn't, sir; and I've heard their accounts. They throw rather afresh light on the loss of the two junks. Well, perhaps not quite that,but they seem to have done better than we thought."

  "Umph! Good night! Tell 'em to send their reports to me--to write'em."

  I left him lighting a fresh cigar--a marvellous old chap he was--andwarned Trevelyan and his boat's crew before I turned in myself.

  On deck they had seen nothing of the two boats, still remaining inshore,and I felt extremely sorry for the drowned rats in them.