y on, so
that their destruction became imperative if the natives of Cliff Island
were not to be abandoned to their tender mercies. But that sort of
thing could not go on for ever; the number of the brutes gradually
decreased, and at the end of about three hours the last ape in sight
succumbed to our attack, and it then appeared probable that we had
exterminated the entire tribe of the dangerous and formidable creatures.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

ATTACKED BY CHINESE PIRATES.

The destruction of the apes accomplished, I returned with avidity to the
task of felling the cedar trees on East Island and splitting the trunks
into planks for the completion of the cutter--for I had by this time
entirely abandoned the hope of rescue by a passing ship.

It was about three weeks later that, emerging on a certain morning from
my bedroom, and stepping out to the veranda to scan the offing,
according to custom, before beginning the regular routine of the day, my
gaze was instantly arrested by an object poised on the very verge of the
horizon, some twelve miles distant. Showing up almost black against the
vivid hues of the early morning eastern sky it was yet too small to be
capable of identification by the unassisted eye. I therefore darted
back into the house, and procuring the telescope brought it to bear upon
the stranger; and as I focused the image of that distant object in the
lenses of the instrument I experienced a moment of most bitter
disappointment. For when my gaze first fell upon that tiny speck the
thought instantly leapt to my mind that at long last the moment of our
deliverance had arrived; whereas a moment or two later my telescope
revealed to me the disconcerting fact that the craft in sight, and
heading straight for the group, was a Chinese junk!

It may be that certain of my readers will wonder why the approach of a
Chinese junk to the group should cause me such acute disappointment, and
they may perhaps ask the question: "Is not a Chinese junk as capable as
any other vessel of rescuing shipwrecked people and conveying them back
to civilisation?" To this question I would reply: "Yes, undoubtedly,
under certain circumstances." But let me explain the proviso implied in
that reply.

Had the boy Billy and I only been concerned I would have trusted
ourselves aboard the junk; but--there was the treasure to be considered,
and I was not altogether ignorant concerning the character and
reputation of Chinese sailors