"I expect they will be puzzled when they
hear that we are outside, and that the entrance is guarded. I
should not be surprised if they did not attack before morning. They
had such a lesson, yesterday, that I don't think they will try to
force the channel in our teeth again; but will play the waiting
game, sure that they will secure us, sooner or later."

So it turned out. The hours passed slowly on, but no sound was
heard. Then, in the dim morning light, a pirate fleet of eight
prahus was seen, lying at a distance of half a mile within the
reef.

As the day broke, the breeze sprang up, the sails were hoisted, and
the captain prepared to slip his cables. A similar preparation
could, through the glasses, be observed on board the Malay fleet.

"That will do very well," the captain said. "Those fellows will be
along in about eight or ten minutes after we have started; and the
fuse, according to the experiments we made as to its rate of
burning, will last about seven.

"Now, quick, lads, into the boat.

"Tom, you take charge of the sinking."

In another minute the boat was rowed to the channel, and the cask
lowered over the side. It was held there, for a minute, while the
mate struck a light and applied it to the touch paper. Then he
pressed the bung firmly into the top of the tube, the lashings of
the cask were cut, and the boat rowed back to the ship. The anchors
were already on board, and the brig was getting way on her as the
boat rowed alongside. The men jumped on board, and the boat was
suffered to tow behind, while all hands set the whole of the sails.
The vessel was soon running briskly before the land breeze.

The pirate fleet was instantly in motion. Every eye in the ship was
directed towards them.

"They will be there in less than ten minutes from the moment I
lowered the cask," the mate said, looking at his watch.

"Not much," the captain said, "they are rowing fast, now; but the
trees keep off the wind, and their sails do not help them. They
were a minute or two behind us in starting."

It was just eight minutes, from the time when the cask had been
lowered, that the first of the Malay boats rowed out through the
channel.

"I hope nothing has gone wrong," the mate growled.

"I am not afraid of that; though we may be wrong, a minute or two,
as to the length of the fuse."

Another boat followed the first. The third was in mid channel when,
suddenly, she seemed to rise bodily in the air, and then