which they made great efforts to lower down on
deck, but of course got no further.

They had orders from the first lieutenant to take it coolly, and coolly
they took it, looking like a lazy, loafing set of Chinese sailors, whose
intentions were to do as little as they could for their pay.

Mr Reardon, in a shooting-suit and straw hat, went about giving orders,
and the captain and Mr Brooke had cane seats on the quarter-deck, with
a bottle and glasses, and sat sipping beer and smoking cigars, as if
they were passengers.

Then came long hours of patient--I should say impatient--crawling along
over the same course as we had followed the previous day, with no sail
in sight but the big junk, which took not the slightest notice of us,
nor we of it.

There was no doubt whatever, though, of her actions. She kept sailing
on at about the same rate as we steamed, evidently for the sake of being
in company, and to have a European vessel close at hand to close up to
in case of danger from the shores of the mainland, or one of the islands
we should pass, for it was an established fact that the pirates seldom
attacked ships that were in company.

All through the early part of the morning the novelty of the affair
interested the men, and there was a constant burst of eager conversation
going on, but as noon came, and matters were in the same position, and
we still far away from the spot where the barque had been burned, every
one grew weary, and I fidgeted myself into a state of perspiration.

"It will all turn out wrong," I thought, "and then they will blame me."

With these fancies to worry me, I kept away from my messmates as much as
I could; and when by accident I encountered either of my superiors, I
saw that they looked--or I fancied they did--very stern.

"All these preparations for nothing," I said to myself, as I saw the
guns all ready, but covered over with tarpaulins, cartridges and shells
waiting, and the crews armed and impatient.

Dinner had been long over, and I need hardly say that I did not enjoy
mine. Some of the men were having a nap, and the heat below must have
been very great, for it was scorching on deck.

At last we were abreast of the rocky islands dotted here and there, and
upon the reef I could just make out a few pieces of the burned vessel.

But as I swept the rocky islets and channels and then the horizon, I
could not make out a sail, only our companion the junk, with her bows
and stern high