f course, they had no one to lead them on or rally their drooping
energies on the pinch.

The schooner, it was found, was none other than the _Diavolo_, a pirate
craft commanded by a Portuguese renegade, who had already earned for
himself a somewhat questionable reputation in Eastern seas; and how
Captain Morton got wind of the intentions of the Malay crew to mutiny
and bring his ship for destruction may be thus briefly told:--

Several large tea-traders having mysteriously disappeared on their
voyage home to England, after shipping Malay crews on board, the English
admiral on the station had conferred with the Chinese authorities, and
from them learned that the _Diavolo_ was suspected, and that a spy had
discovered that an attempt would be made on the _Hankow Lin_, which was
just loading at the time, and which had, like the other missing ships,
shipped some Malay hands, in consequence of the loss of the main portion
of her English crew on the voyage out.

Accordingly, precautions were taken to counteract the conspiracy of the
Malay crew and capture the pirate by putting on board arms and
munition--of which they supposed the ship to have none--and concealing
in the saloon a force of blue-jackets to combine with the English part
of the crew should the contemplated mutiny break out--the result of
which precautions proved, as we have seen, to be eminently successful.

While the calm lasted, the bodies of the dead pirates were hove
overboard, and the three bluejackets and Phillips who had lost their
life in the first struggle with the Malays committed carefully to the
deep with every solemnity; and then the _Hankow Lin_, as soon as the
wind sprang up again, as it did by sundown, was headed towards Singapore
in accordance with Lieutenant Meredith's wish, although it was sorely
against Captain Morton's will to bear off from his direct course to
England, which was almost right in front of him, the Straits of Sunda
bearing a point or two off the lee beam.

However, Captain Morton lost nothing by his compliance with the
lieutenant's wish. The _Hankow Lin_ when she arrived at Singapore was
allotted a half share of the value of the pirate schooner and all she
contained; and that craft being pretty nearly crammed full of plunder,
which she had accumulated from the different ships that had been
captured and scuttled by her in her nefarious career, the sum thus
awarded to Captain Morton was more than sufficient to compensate his