ore than an
hour I was unable to find anything, and at length returned to the ship
in response to a rocket recall. Meanwhile, the carpenter had been
below, and, after a most careful investigation, had returned with the
report that he could find no indication that the ship had sustained the
slightest damage; consequently, upon my return, the cutter was hoisted
up and sail was again made. But on the morrow, with the arrival of
daylight, the discovery was made that all three blades of our propeller
had been completely shorn off, a mishap which, a little later on,
resulted in landing us in what might have been a very awkward mess.

Possibly this accident may have had the effect of reminding our lady
skipper of something that had all but slipped her memory. Be that as it
may, the loss of our propeller blades had no sooner been discovered than
she issued certain orders, in response to which several heavy cases were
swayed up on deck and opened, with the result that when the sun went
down that night the _Stella Maris_ was an armed ship, sporting two
main-deck batteries of beautiful four-inch quick-firing guns of the most
up-to-date pattern, six of a side, with two one-pound Hotchkisses on her
forecastle, and four Maxims on her poop.

CHAPTER SIX.

KENNEDY'S BANSHEE.

It was shortly after noon, on our fifth day out from Moulmein, and we
were just within the Malacca Strait, when the wind began to fail us; and
by two bells in the first dog-watch it had fallen stark calm, and the
yacht's head was slowly boxing the compass. We were close enough in
with the land to see from the deck the ridge of the mountain range that
forms the backbone, as it were, of the Malay Peninsula, though not the
coast line itself; but there were quite a number of islands in sight,
some of which were of respectable size, while there were others that
could not have had an area of more than a few acres--some of them indeed
being scarcely more than rocks. Most of them, however, seemed
inhabited, for even on some of the smallest we were able, with the help
of our telescopes, to distinguish one or more ramshackle huts, some
perched on the top of long, stilt-like poles; also there were at least a
hundred small fishing craft in sight, as well as a few proas, probably
coasting craft, becalmed like ourselves.

"Now," said Mrs Vansittart, addressing herself to Kennedy and me as we
sat upon the poop rail, longing for the sun to go down and leave us the