CHAPTER IX
A Game of Long Bowls
'Excellency, we have come to the end of the passage; we can go no further,' declared Hung, some two minutes after the Professor and his party had set out down the alley-way. 'A ladder leads to the deck above, while there are sleeping places for the crew on either side. Is it here that you will make a stand?'
'Halt! Put your loads on the floor and wait. Come with me, David.'
The leader of the expedition, still puffing heavily at his cigar, and showing an almost unruffled countenance in the lamp-light, stepped casually to the foot of the ladder and began to ascend to the deck of the native craft which he had chartered at Shanghai for the accommodation of his staff, and upon which such a treacherous and unforeseen attack had been made. But if he were the essence of coolness, and declined to hurry, he was by no means a fool, as he showed very plainly in the course of a minute. For while the Professor refused to be frightened and scared out of his wits, he declined at the same time to throw away the lives of his party for the want of necessary caution.
'Don't come higher,' he whispered to David. 'I'll beckon if I want you. Ah, it is still too dark for those ruffians to see us from the poop where they are at work. Come up, lad, and look about you.'
He tossed his cigar over the side, and David heard the hiss of the water as it met the burning weed. A moment later he was beside the Professor.
'Well?' demanded the latter, when some seconds had elapsed. 'What do you say to the situation? Critical I think, eh? Very critical. By the row those demons are making they have broken through into our cabin in more places than one. In a few minutes they will have a leader, and then there will be a rush. We certainly couldn't have stemmed it; they would have killed us with the greatest ease; but where shall the next stand be made?'
Where indeed? David cast his eyes in every direction, piercing the gloom as far as possible. The bare decks gave no promise of successful defence. To retreat to the wide cabin below, which served as the crew's quarters, was but to repeat a former experiment. There remained the rigging and the alley-way, and neither was very enticing. He shrugged his shoulders, as if he had caught the habit from Alphonse, and then turned to his employer.
'We can put up a fight anywhere almost,' he said. 'Out here we should soon be rushed and knocked down. In the alley-way we could hold them for hours. But it couldn't go on for ever; there are too many of them. My idea was calmly to board the other ship and push her off. That would give us a breathing spell. We could then discuss matters again and consider our plans from a different standpoint.'
The Professor chuckled loudly; unconsciously he reached in an inner pocket for his cigar case, and extracting a weed, bit the end off. David even heard the sharp snap of his teeth coming together. 'Boy,' suddenly exclaimed the leader, 'they say that great minds think alike; then yours and mine are great indeed, for the plan you have suggested is mine also. That is why we carried our baggage all along the alley-way. Summon the others on deck. We go aboard the stranger and merely change our quarters; but bid them be silent, for even now those fiends might hear something to rouse their suspicion.'
However, it was not a likely contingency, for as David went to the hatchway to call to those below fiendish yells rose from the poop of the vessel. Then some ponderous weapon was fired, the flame for a moment allowing the Professor to catch a sight of the crowd on the roof of the cabin. A second later they were swallowed up in the gloom, though their shrieks and shouts still told of their presence.
'All on deck, sir,' reported David in his most official manner.
'Then follow to the other ship. Not a sound, friends; not a sound. Once aboard David and Dick run to find a suitable place which we can defend; Hung and his comrades set their boxes down and prepare to stop a rush. Alphonse and I cut the hawsers which hold the two ships and push them apart. Forward!'
In one corner of his mouth the unlighted weed was held, and all unconscious of the fact that he had not set flame to it, the Professor sucked hard at the weed, exclaiming as he found it did not draw. Then, as if habit were too strong for him, or perhaps because he realised that none were likely to see him in that gloom, he stepped back to the hatchway, descended a few rungs of the ladder, and opening his lantern sucked at the flame. Then he followed the others, and was soon at the side of the vessel. Casting his eyes upward, he could see the rigging of the other ship against the stars, while a dull creaking, and an occasional bump showed that the two ships were riding close together.
'But with rope fenders between them,' he told himself, 'else in this swell they'd grind holes in one another. Ah, the rascals threw planks across from rail to rail, which was most thoughtful of them.'
With half his attention given to the enemy, and the other half to his own following, he helped to hand the various bales and boxes across the planks connecting the two ships. Then he crossed over himself, and searched for the ropes it was necessary to sever. Here a sudden difficulty presented itself. One of the connecting links was a stout chain, which the swell and the drift of the vessels had pulled so taught that there was no unloosening it.
'We shall have to cut it,' cried the Professor. 'Alphonse, an axe, quick, those rascals are dropping into our cabin.'
But to call for such an article when just arrived on a strange ship is one thing; to find it an altogether different matter. Neither Alphonse nor Hung, nor any of the Chinese could hit upon one. And while they searched the uproar made by the enemy, which had almost ceased for a time, became of a sudden even more deafening.
'Discovered our absence; awfully bothered,' ejaculated the Professor. 'But they won't be long in discovering our ruse. Can no one find an axe? David, the scheme fails if we do not hit upon one within the minute.'
Alphonse ground his teeth in a manner which would have made our hero squirm on any ordinary occasion. The Professor sucked hard at his cigar and muttered beneath his breath, while Hung threw himself upon the tantalising chain and tugged vainly at it. Then David recollected an incident he had watched at the beginning of the battle between themselves and the Chinese pirates.
'One moment, sir,' he said. 'An axe? Yes, I know where to find one.'
Without hint of his intentions, he cooly stepped on to the planks still uniting the two vessels, and leaped down upon the deck of the one which had proved such insecure shelter for them. Not a sound did his light shoes make, while his figure was swallowed up within a few seconds; for though it was already lighter, the dawn was not there yet, and gloom still hung over the water. Behind him he left a Professor not so unruffled as he had been. To speak the truth the leader of the party was dumfounded for the moment, and only awoke to the danger our hero was necessarily likely to encounter when the latter was already out of sight. He called to him loudly; he even leaped on to the planks himself. Then Alphonse stopped him with a grimace and a tug at the sleeve of his jacket.
'Pardon, monsieur,' he said, 'a leader stays with the bulk of his command. It is the young and brave who attempt such deeds. Monsieur David is no chicken; he will be back with us within the minute.'
'Or hacked to pieces by those villains; but you are right, I will stay. Still I wish that I had guessed his intentions. Dick there, and all the others, get ready, in case he is seen and pursued.'
Alphonse clicked the lock of his rifle promptly, while Dick ranged up at the end of the planks, his magazine revolver gripped in his hand. Then the ever-smiling Jong lisped an apology, pushed the Professor aside, and solemnly clambered on to the planks and crossed them. There was a huge knife in his hand, and his smile was but the cloak to a most sinister expression.
'Velly likely he no wantee helpee,' he lisped, as he dropped to the deck of the other vessel. 'But velly likely also he velly glad. Jong stay here unless he happen to see de Excellency; den p'laps he go towards him.'
The words had hardly left his lips, and his padded soles scarcely gained the deck when a figure was seen coming swiftly towards him. It was David. No, it was a Chinaman, a burly, thick-shouldered individual; then close on his heels another figure followed.
'David,' whispered Dick, scarcely able to breathe. 'George! that other chap is coming aboard.'
Certainly that was the man's intention. He was returning to his own ship to fetch a mighty muzzle-loader which he had previously forgotten. He reached the rail, placed a hand upon it, and was about to spring on to the plank bridge when Jong was upon him. And if any one had ever doubted the grinning Chinaman's courage before, his doubts would have been for ever silenced if he could have witnessed what followed. For this was not one of those sudden conquests, when an unsuspecting man is struck down without time for self-protection. The stranger saw Jong as the latter moved towards him, and faced round with the swiftness of a panther. Then his head went back, and such a shout went up that none could have failed to hear it. A moment later the two were locked in one another's arms, rolling this way and that on the deck, tearing madly at one another. And over them David stepped, with an axe across his shoulders.
'Grandly done! Bravely done!' cried the Professor, showing not a little excitement. 'David, stand by to cut that chain. Hung.'
But Ho Hung was not there to acknowledge the summons. He had flown across the bridge of planks the instant David gave room for passage, while Lo Fing chased close on his heels. How exactly they ended the contest between the two rolling figures none of their own party ever knew; but end it they did.
Meanwhile a lamp flared suddenly in the cabin which David and his friends had so recently vacated, while shouts resounded from various parts. Then the half shattered door of the cabin was burst open with a bang, and a crowd of men swarmed on to the deck. They were met by another group ascending from the hatch by which the Professor had brought his party, and then by a solitary man, who shouted and bellowed at them.
'They have fooled us; they have slipped across into the other vessel. While we have been cutting holes through the roof of the cabin they have been transferring themselves and their possessions.'
The greeting which the news received was such that Dick winced, and felt almost unnerved for the moment. But the Professor reassured him; a glance at the leader showed that he was still drawing heavily at his weed, while his features and his general pose were almost jaunty.
'Shout yourselves hoarse, my beauties,' Dick heard him say. 'I fancy we've fooled you finely. Now, lad, you can strike your hardest.'
And strike David did, careless of the shots which two of the enemy aimed at him. He brought the edge of his axe down with a thud on the chain, and severed it easily. Then he leaped from the plank bridge and helped to throw the boards over.
'Moving asunder already, sir,' he said. 'Might just as well get under cover.'
'Quite so; it will want an active man to leap that breach. Get beneath the rail all of you,' commanded the Professor. 'Don't trouble to return their fire, for they cannot damage us easily, while we have already read them a handsome lesson. Ah, they are more than vexed, I fear.'
Through the rising gloom it was seen that the rail of the ship which had so lately borne David and his friends, and which had proved well nigh a death-trap, was lined with men. Some had clambered on to it, and held their places there with the aid of the rigging. All were shouting and gesticulating, all save the few possessed of fire-arms, and these rammed charges home with frantic haste, and poured their shot into the vessel slowly and steadily drifting away. If their defeat so far had enraged the piratical crews, their anger now was almost stifling. At the very beginning the feat of murdering the foreign devils, and of purloining all their possessions, was one not to be considered twice. Had the Professor been gifted with second sight, or had he had the help of some clever native detective, he would have learned that the rascally captain who had been so eager to charter his boat was already gloating over his gains when the ship set sail from Shanghai, while the leader of the pirates treated the whole affair as if already accomplished. There was to be a secret meeting, a sudden attack, and then cold-blooded murder. And see the result! Men here and there stark and dead on the deck or in the alley-way, others grovelling in the scuppers useless to their comrades, stricken hard by the knives of Hung and his fellows, or by the bullets of the foreign devils. Worse than all, the men whose death had been aimed at were drifting quietly away, not showing so much as a head, bearing with them all their possessions – yes, all their possessions. The pirate leader had already assured himself of that fact, exclaiming bitterly at it. David and his friends caught a glimpse of the man, a bull-necked, almost bald-headed Chinaman, with long, swinging pigtail, and possessed of most powerful arms and legs. They saw him standing on the rail, clinging to the rigging, brandishing a huge sword which, could it have come into close contact with them, would have done grave injury to more than one. The rascal seemed to be almost mad. The failure of a well-laid scheme, the loss of his own vessel on top of that, seemed to have combined to rob him of his wits. His eyes were staring. He frothed at the mouth, while the cruel lips curled back from a row of fangs as yellow as his own skin. And how he shrieked! Then he suddenly dropped back on to the deck, and they saw him beckoning to his comrades, rushing at those nearest him and dragging them along with him by main force. He drove them with threats from his weapon to the halyards, and shouted at them as they hauled at the rigging.
'Going to set sail on her,' said the Professor, raising his head now that a greater distance separated the two vessels, and the shot had ceased to hail upon the one on which he and his party had taken refuge. 'Well, two can play at that game. I'm not much of a sailor myself, but Alphonse knows something about other things besides cooking and valeting. Eh, mon ami?'
'Parfaitement; the Professor has a memory. Alphonse can certainly sail a boat, though he has never attempted much with one of these native craft. But the thing shall be done. Will monsieur be good enough to order the hands to come to the rigging?'
It was remarkable how swiftly the gloom lifted, now that the dawn was actually at hand. A second or so before it had seemed certain that the two vessels drifting slowly apart would soon be out of sight of one another. But though the distance sensibly increased David could still see men lining the rail of the enemy. He could still hear frantic shouts, while now and again a muzzle-loader belched forth its contents, the flame of the discharge showing less redly than on former occasions. Then the dawn arrived. The expanse of oily, yellow sea, hitherto invisible, widened on every hand, while a pinky redness towards the east told of an approaching sunrise. The Professor sucked with satisfaction at his weed and glanced aloft. Alphonse was swarming into the rigging, no doubt to inform himself of its arrangement. Then he came scuttling down, his frightful check shirt fluttering in the fresh morning breeze.
'It is easy, monsieur,' he said, with a bow, dropping on the deck at the Professor's feet. 'All is plain and straightforward. I shall set the sails with the help of our friends, and then I shall go below and see what can be done in the way of coffee and something to eat. Parbleu! but the inside needs attention after such a night There are things a man loves more even than fighting.'
He called loudly to the Chinese, and then, with David and Dick and the Professor to help him, soon got sail on the ship. A vast expanse of coarse canvas was soon stretched from the rigging, and catching the breeze caused the vessel to careen nicely. She gathered way, and was soon tearing away with white foam washing about her stern post. Meanwhile the pirates had crowded every stitch of canvas they could find on to their own ship, and came heading up a little in rear and on a parallel course with the one the Professor had so cleverly taken from them. As for the latter, his jovial, fleshy face shone with good humour and bonhomie as he stood at the tiller. Now and again he took his cheroot from his lips and regarded it affectionately, then he put it back between his fine, white teeth with such relish that one could see that he was decidedly enjoying it. In fact, Professor Padmore was proving himself a leader in more than one respect. For after all, beyond the power to command, such an one has need to show other virtues. Of what use even the most astute leader, if he be not confident even in the midst of acute danger? For confidence is as catching as is a display of fear. Men will run from a fight with little reason if there be one suddenly to set the base example and arouse needless alarm. And on the other hand even those possessed of no extravagant share of courage will stand firm if they have a leader who laughs at danger, who scoffs at the enemy, who openly exposes himself to bullet and shot. But here there were no cravens. David and Dick had proved their fortitude, while the four Chinamen were to be trusted entirely. But the odds were vastly against them, so great indeed that even bold men might have been intimidated. However, the Professor smoked as if he had forgotten the existence of the enemy, though now and again he cast his eye over his shoulder.
'Holding them nicely, I think, David. They're not likely to come alongside before breakfast's ready, and that'll be a comfort, for I confess to being ravenous. Just fancy a professor being anything so vulgar. But there you are, I admit to the vulgarity; this morning breeze spurs a man's appetite.'
He felt in his waistcoat pocket, and drew out a metal case, somewhat bigger than a watch. With a movement of the finger he sprang the lid open, and exposed the face of a compass.
'H-hm! North-north-east,' he said. 'That's our course. Not for a moment will I allow those ruffians to set me off it.'
Perhaps a quarter of an hour elapsed from the time when sail had been set before Alphonse put in an appearance. He came clambering to the deck, his enormous hat set far back on his head, and showing the stubbly growth beneath it. In one hand he bore a smoking coffee pot, and with it beckoned to the Professor.
'I have the honour to announce breakfast!' he exclaimed, in his most pompous manner, and with his most portly bow. 'There is a cabin below decks, not big, monsieur, not very clean either; but serviceable, and possessed of a table. There I have laid the things.'
The whole thing seemed so impossible, that as they squatted before a table not more than a foot high, and ate rashers of bacon which were steaming hot, David could hardly believe that but an hour ago they had been fighting desperately. The change in their circumstances was so extraordinary. It was so entirely unexpected, and withal, so fortunate. And here they were, satisfying the inner man, for Alphonse was an excellent caterer. The boxes which the Professor had brought with him contained a multiplicity of things, including cameras and other instruments necessary for exploration. And amongst them was one fitted with all the implements to make a field kitchen. There was a charcoal stove, as well as one designed for the use of kerosene under air pressure, an instrument with which a good-sized kettle of water could be made to boil within a few minutes. Then there were pots and pans innumerable, while other boxes contained stores of groceries and tinned goods sufficient to keep every member of the expedition satisfied for a considerable period.
'Now to discuss the position,' said the Professor, when he had swallowed a third cup of coffee and had begun to smoke again. 'Hung has just sent a report to inform me that we still hold our place ahead of those men who so dearly long to draw level with us. We sail, as I have said already, on a course which suits us exactly. That being so, we shall continue till we reach some port, where we will run in and demand protection, or until we meet with some other vessel. There are gun-boats in these waters at times, and we might have the fortune to hit upon one belonging to Great Britain, or to France or Germany. I fancy those rascals would quickly beat a retreat if that were to happen.'
'Meanwhile, perhaps, sir,' began David, 'we might as well see if, supposing the worst were to happen, there are means aboard to make those fellows keep their distance.'
'Cannon?' asked the Professor.
David nodded. 'That was my idea, sir,' he said. 'This vessel belongs to pirates; the chances are that they have some sort of weapons.'
'And we might make good use of them. Good! we'll make a search. Alphonse, we leave you here for the moment.'
They clambered to the deck hurriedly, to find the ship careening well to a freshening breeze, and bowling along merrily through a sea that was sunlit in all directions. Some distance astern, and now on a dead line with them was the other craft, white foam at her fore foot. Even her white decks could be seen as she canted over, while with the naked eye one could distinguish figures moving about on it. Suddenly Dick gave a shout of satisfaction, and pointed to a canvas cover at the back of the steersman.
'A long tom, or I'm much mistaken!' he cried. 'Covered up to keep the weather from it, and used only to bring some stubborn captain to his senses. Couldn't we manage – '
'I rather think so,' agreed the Professor, smiling gleefully. 'I rather fancy we might make use of that weapon, Dick. Strip the covering, and let us obtain a glimpse of it.'
It took but little effort to lift the cover which had attracted Dick's attention, and then, as they had suspected, there was a long, swivel gun cast in brass, and no doubt capable of throwing a shot some considerable distance.
'Then we'll put it in action,' decided the Professor. 'Not that I want to damage any more of those rascals; but there might be some accident to our rigging. Or, in a fresher breeze, which I fancy is coming, this vessel might prove slower than the other. We'll make the most of fairly smooth water and of our new possession; perhaps it will scare them.'
Once more the handy and invaluable Alphonse was in request. The natty little Frenchman seemed to have had a hand in almost everything. He could cook, as all knew, particularly his employer, while he was the tidiest of valets. Moreover, Alphonse could fight, and with a spirit that matched the Professor's. Now he showed his capacity as a gunner. He led the search for shot and powder, and then ranged himself behind the gun.
'Once I was a soldier, monsieur,' he said, 'and though I did not belong to the artillery, still I had to do with a gun; for I was in garrison where a mid-day gun was fired, and to me that duty fell. Oui, vraiment, we shall be able to manage. We must guess the charge of powder. Not too much at first, monsieur David; else there will perhaps be only pieces of us left for the pirates. We will watch where the ball strikes the water, and add more if necessary. You shall see; Alphonse will send those men a pill which will make them ill at ease and cause them to go elsewhere in search of a doctor. Ah, there is the powder; we have rammed it home. Now a piece of the sacking as a wad. Now the ball. Push with me on the rod and we will soon send it home.'
The practical little fellow slewed the muzzle of the gun round, and used the screw as he squinted along the sights. Already he had sprinkled powder on the touch hole, and presently announced that all was in readiness.
'I have laid it to be fired as we rise to the top of the swell,' he said. 'Now for a match with which to fire it.'
David had thoughtfully prepared a match, consisting of a candle end tied to a stick, and shaded by a paper hood which kept the wind from it. It was a makeshift affair, and the flame blew out twice in succession. Then the gun splashed out a stream of flame, followed by a dense volume of smoke, which, however, blew away instantly. Their ears were still tingling after the loud report when a jet of water was seen to rise a hundred yards in front of the pursuer. Instantly Alphonse tossed his hat into the air and shouted.
'Bon! Bon! The next time we will do it, yes,' he said. 'Now to sponge the gun clean, and then for a fresh charge.'
That second shot proved far more encouraging. The ball struck the surface just to one side of the vessel that was following them, and ricochetted some three or four times before it finally sank to the bottom. But the third shot plumped clear on to the deck of the enemy, causing considerable commotion.
'Bien, we have the charge at last, and with this long swivel the aim is easy,' cried the Frenchman. 'Let us try again.'
A roar of applause greeted the fifth shot, for though fired by amateurs it struck the mast of the pursuer, and as they watched, the Professor and his friends saw the rigging sway and come tottering over.
'Thus ends all our trouble,' he cried. 'We can shorten sail, and go on slowly.'
Late that evening Hung announced a ship in the offing, and before darkness had fallen a gun-boat ranged up beside them. In fact, she fired a shot across the bows of this suspicious-looking vessel, and then sent a boat's crew aboard her. A dapper little Chinese officer swarmed up on her deck, and even he, with all his native impassiveness, showed unusual surprise as his eyes fell upon the Professor and his party.
'English?' he asked pleasantly, bowing courteously, and then, when he had received an assuring answer, 'Then there is something to explain. We are in search of a notorious pirate.'
He spoke English with hardly an accent, and his face lit up wonderfully as the Professor answered. Then, as he listened to the tale the latter told him, a flush rose to his sallow cheeks.
'You will please to come aboard at once,' he commanded. 'This news is very important. My commander will require the fullest information.'
It appeared, in fact, that news of the pirate's presence in those waters had come to the Chinese navy officials, who had despatched a gun-boat.
'Some one gave information in Shanghai,' explained the dapper little officer. 'No doubt he did so for a reward. But we learned that some Europeans had set off in a native boat, and that there was a plot to seize them. We made sure when we sighted you that you were the pirate. Now, of course, we shall take them easily.'
Which actually happened, for four hours' steaming brought the gun-boat within easy range of the vessel that had so lately accommodated the Professor and his party. Then, such is the summary justice handed out by the celestial race, the ship was callously bombarded, and sent with all the villains aboard her to the bottom.
'For which one cannot really grieve, though it does seem a barbarous way of executing them,' said the Professor. 'And now to get ashore and pursue our search for ruins.'
Two days later saw them landed, and within a little while the expedition had left for the interior.