back?"

"'Cause I can't make out why we are wasting our time here, with the
cargo all aboard and the wind fair."

"Don't you fret yourself about that, Jem Backstay. The skipper knows
what he's a-doing, and has got a heap o' 'sponsibility on them shoulders
o' his'n--a fine ship and a valuable cargo to get home safe to old
h'England with a short crew, and a lot o' murderin', blood-suckin'
pirates all over the h'Indian seas!"

"Pirates, Bill!"

"Ay, pirates! I spoke plain enough, didn't I? But you needn't shiver
in your skin like one of them white-livered Lascars we've got aboard in
place of honest sailors, worse luck! You needn't have no cause to fear
for the number o' your mess, bo; the cap'en--God bless him!--will see us
safe through, you may be sure."

"Right you are, Bill; you know the old man better nor I, and I s'pose
he's taking cautions like?"

"No fear, mate. He's got his head screwed on right enough, my bo."

"And that's the reason, p'raps, he'd that long palaver with the
admiral's flagship afore we come up the river?"

"Ay," said Bill sententiously; "may be so."

"Well, Bill, if so be there's pirates about, they might do a'most as
they likes wi' us, for I don't think there are three cutlasses aboard,
and ne'er a musket as I can see, and only powder enough to fire off that
little popgun there to summons a pilot."

"Aye," answered the other nonchalantly.

The _Hankow Lin_ was lying in the Pearl River, off Whampoa, some twelve
miles below Canton, to which anchorage all sailing vessels having
business at this port of the Celestial Empire are restricted by the
mandarins, only steamers being permitted to ascend the reaches of the
river to the city proper and anchor in front of Shah Mien, the English
settlement.

The vessel had shipped all her tea and silk, which formed a valuable
cargo; and, with her anchor hove short, so that she seemed to ride just
over it, and her topsails loose all handy to let fall and sheet home,
she appeared ready to start at a moment's notice on her homeward
voyage--down the ugly Canton River and across the pathless Indian seas
and the miles of weary ocean journey that lay between her and her final
destination, "the tight little island," with its now historical "streak
of silver sea," supposed to guard it from Continental invasion.

What delayed the _Hankow Lin_?

Ah! her captain could tell perhaps, for it might be taken for granted
that there was some urgent reason for