One day the junk was caught in a calm, and as a sail appeared in sight in the distance which the Chinamen thought might be an enemy, they were very anxious for a breeze to make their escape. The midshipmen saw that they were very busy about something, and soon every man appeared with a model junk, which he had constructed of gilt paper. A boat was lowered and these frail barques were carefully placed on the surface of the deep, the men endeavouring to blow them away, so that they might be clear of the ship.
Jack was much amused, and asked Jos the meaning of the ceremony. Jos answered—
“For why you don’t know? Dere is one great lady, queen, they call her, lives up in de sky, and she like to see dese paper junks; and so when she see dem, den she send breeze to blow junk along.”
Jack was highly amused at this account.
“Well, I never thought much of a Chinaman’s wit,” he observed; “but I did not think he was such a goose as to fancy that a breeze would be sent merely because he put some twisted-up bits of paper on the water.”
Jos, who understood some of these remarks, looked at him, and remarked—
“When I ’board English ship I hear sailors whistle, whistle, whistle when dere is calm. I ask why dey do dat? Dey say, ‘Whistle for a wind.’ Now, I tink Chinaman just as wise as English sailor. Anybody whistle, cost nothing. Chinaman spend money, buy gold paper, make junk, much trouble. Dat please Chinaman’s lady-god more dan empty whistle can Englishman’s fetish, or whatever he whistle to.”
“Excellent,” exclaimed Murray. “The Malay has hit us very hard. That whistling for a breeze is, in most cases, merely a foolish trick, but it is too indicative of unsound principles to be witnessed without pain. If we really considered the matter rightly, we should feel that every time we whistle for a breeze, we are offering a senseless insult to the Great Ruler of the universe. It is a remnant, I suppose, of some superstition of our Scandinavian ancestors, who thought by whistling they were addressing some demon or spirit of the elements.”
“That is taking the matter seriously, Alick; but I suppose you are right,” said Jack.
“Nothing that leads to error, or that encourages superstition, or that leads a person to rely on any other power or influence than that of God’s merciful providence, can be treated too seriously, my dear Jack,” answered Murray. “Here have we, worthless fellows, had our lives providentially preserved; and we ought to do our utmost in every way to employ them in His service, and to do His will, and to make known His truth. Depend on it that it is a very useless sort of religion, or seriousness, which a man adopts only when he is on the point of death or feels himself too ill to enjoy life.”
“Well, well, Alick, I will do my best to log that down in my memory and stick to it,” answered Jack, who always felt the force of Murray’s remarks, which had already had a very considerable influence on him for good; more, probably, than Murray himself was aware of. However, he went on in faith, speaking faithfully to his friend, assured that he was doing his duty.
Jack and Murray did their best to make out in what direction they were going, and from the very rough calculation they were able to form, they conjectured that they had arrived at a group of islands within some hundred and fifty miles of the latitude of Canton. They were not allowed to go on shore, but were permitted occasionally to quit their little cabin in the stern and to walk about the deck; but the crew had communication with the land and brought off all sorts of provisions, by which they benefited.
Once more the fleet, consisting of about a dozen junks, put to sea. The next morning it was almost a calm; and as daylight came on, a brig was seen, apparently a merchantman, with her fore-mast gone and otherwise much disabled. There could be little doubt that she had got into her present condition from having encountered one of those partial squalls which occasionally occur in those seas. A long consultation was held among the captains of the pirate fleet, in which the crews as well as the officers took considerable part. There was an immense amount of talking and gesticulation, and flourishing of creeses, and daggers, and swords, and various other weapons; and at last the sweeps were got out, and the junks began to move in a body towards the devoted brig. Jack asked Jos, the Malay, what the Chinamen were about to do.
“Cut de troat of ebery moder’s son of dem, take de cargo, and burn de brig, den no one get away to tell news,” was the answer.
“Kind and pleasant intentions; but what do they think we shall do?” observed Jack. “I don’t like the look of affairs. They will be for cutting our throats, to prevent our giving an account of their doings.”
“Perhaps the Malay is mistaken,” answered Murray. “They may not intend to murder the people; or if they do, they will keep us shut up in the cabin while the operation is going forward, or they will make us swear before they set us at liberty not to give information. I have no fears about our safety.”
“Nor have I in reality,” said Jack; “but I wish that we could render some assistance to the poor people on board the brig. We might warn them of the fate intended for them; but even if we got Jos and Hoddidoddi to stand by us, I am afraid we could not do much in the way of fighting.”
“I am afraid not, indeed,” said Murray; “we must be prepared for any emergency. It is impossible to say what will occur.”
“I like the feeling,” said Jack. “I wish that we were on board the brig though, we would have a fight for it. But we are drawing near. Had the pirates intended much mischief they would have sent us into our cabin, I suspect.”
The pirate junks had now completely hemmed in the helpless brig. She was American, for just then the stars and stripes of the United States flew out from her peak. Two men, apparently the captain and his mate, were seen to come on deck with revolvers in their hands. They turned round, and shouted in English, and Spanish, and Malay down the hatchway, to the crew to come up on deck, and defend themselves and the ship and passengers like men. No one appeared.
“Cowards, wretches, brutes, will you have your throats cut like sheep without an attempt to defend yourselves? Take that, then!” cried the captain, and in his rage he hove his pistol at their heads and stood prepared for his fate. The mate threw his overboard, which was a wiser proceeding, and then, folding his arms, stood ready to bear whatever might occur.
“Those are brave fellows,” cried Jack; “we must try and save their lives at all events.”
The pirate crews now burst forth into the most terrific and unearthly shouts, and, urging on their junks, dashed up to the brig, and simultaneously threw their grappling-irons on board her. At the same time those nearest to her hove fire-balls, and stink-pots, and stones, and bits of iron, and missiles of all sorts on board, and then reiterating their shrieks, sprang on to her deck. The captain and his mate, who had hitherto undauntedly stood at their post, were borne down; and the pirates, throwing themselves on them, seized their arms and bound them to the mainmast. There seemed to be a hundred or more pirates from the different junks: their persons garnished with pistols and daggers of all sorts stuck in leathern belts, and their heads surmounted with red turbans, which increased the natural hideousness of their countenances. Some of the savage crew joined hands and leaped and danced round and round the deck, with the most violent contortions of the body, shrieking all the time at the top of their voices, while others, flourishing their daggers and shrieking louder than ever, rushed below. At that instant a cry very different from that of the pirates ascended from the cabin. Jack and Alick heard it.
“It is the voice of a lady, or a female at all events,” cried Jack. “Alick, we must go and assist her. Jos, my boy, come along. Tell Hoddidoddi he is wanted. The Chinamen won’t stop us, they are all too busy.”
“I am with you,” answered Murray, as they picked up two Chinese swords, several of which lay about, and, followed by the Malay, leaped unopposed on the deck of the brig.
* * *
* * *
Chapter Twenty Nine.
Jack and Alick gallantly rescue two ladies.—They bear them off to their own junk.—They then save the American captain and mate.—The ladies are converted into gentlemen.—Jack’s politeness to Miss Cecile, and guarantees the gallantry of his brother midshipmen.—The Yankees and midshipmen fraternise.—The pirates attacked by greater rogues than themselves.—They request their prisoners to fight for them.—The night battle between the pirate fleets.
The Chinese pirates were so busily employed in the agreeable occupation of plundering the American brig, that they did not observe the two midshipmen leaping in among them. Jack and Alick had on, it must be remembered, turbans and Chinese jackets and trousers like the rest, so, in the confusion, they easily passed unnoticed.
“I really think that we might drive the scoundrels out of the brig and retake her,” observed Jack as he sprang on.
“No, no, sare, one ting at a time, if oo please,” answered Jos the Malay, who heard his remark.
Jos was right, as Jack afterwards confessed, for though they might have swept off the heads of a good many pirates engaged in collecting booty, the rest would soon have come to their senses and cut off theirs.
Again the female cry was heard. Jack and Murray sprang into the main cabin. It was full of Chinese rifling the lockers and searching in bed-places or wherever anything could be stowed away. No females were there, but there was a hatchway and a ladder leading to the deck below. The cries proceeded from thence, so they jumped down, leaving Jos and Hoddidoddi, who had joined them, to guard the entrance. There, in dim, uncertain light, they distinguished two ladies struggling in the hands of half a dozen or more pirates, who were endeavouring to draw the rings from their fingers, and their earrings from their ears. One lady was somewhat stout and oldish, the other was young and slight, and Jack thought very pretty. Whether ugly or pretty would not have mattered just then. She and the old lady were in distress, and that was enough to make the midshipmen eager to fight for them, whoever they were. They were very much terrified, but not so much so as to prevent them from endeavouring to repel the indignities offered them.
Not a moment was to be lost. There was no room to use their swords without running a great risk of wounding the ladies, so Jack knocked one fellow down with his fist, and another with the butt-end of his pistol. Murray did the same. They then both planted such thorough, honest English blows under the ribs of the other two miscreants, that they sent them reeling backwards among the casks and packages which filled the after-hold, and there they lay sprawling, unable to get up again.
“It won’t do to stop here, Alick,” cried Jack. “Haul along the old lady, I’ll carry the young one; and well stow them away in our berth till we see what’s best to be done. Come along, miss. Beg pardon—hadn’t time to ask your leave; it’s all right, though.” Jack said this after he had lifted the young lady in his arms, and was carrying her up the ladder. As he remarked, there was no time for ceremony. Everything depended on the rapidity with which they could accomplish their enterprise.
“Thank you, thank you, sir; I trust you,” said the young lady in a foreign accent.
Murray, who always admired Jack’s plans when anything dashing was to be done, followed as fast as he could, helping the old lady along. He would have had great difficulty in making progress, had not Jos the Malay comprehended what was required. So he seized her under one arm, while Alick lifted her under the other, and thus, without molestation, they followed Jack on board the junk.
Jack rushed into their cabin, and placed his fair burden on a chair, when Alick and Jos bundled the old lady in after her, with a very scant ceremony; and then they closed the door and walked a little way off, and tried to look as unconcerned as if they had done nothing to merit the anger of the pirates.
“I begged the young lady not to be alarmed, and entreated her to try to keep the old one quiet, promising to defend them with our lives,” observed Jack.
“Of course we will do so, and Jos will stick by us—won’t you, Jos?” said Murray.
“Yes, sare,” answered the Malay; “but if Chinese come aboard, dey cut all our throats. Stay do—Jos know what he do.”
There was a peculiar, fierce, vindictive look on the countenance of the Malay as he spoke, which boded mischief. Without uttering another word he sprang on board the brig, and disappeared among the crowd who were hurrying to and fro below, removing the cargo.
Just then Murray pointed out to Jack the brave captain and mate of the brig sitting on deck, lashed with their hands behind them to the mainmast.
“When those wretches have glutted themselves with booty, they will indulge their evil tempers by tormenting those poor fellows. Could we not manage to release them while no one is watching us, and let them hide themselves on board their junk? We may, perhaps, by and by be able to form some plan to escape together.”
“With all my heart,” answered Jack. “No time like the present. Here goes.”
Saying this, he and Murray seized their swords, which they had stuck into the bulwarks, and a few springs brought them up to where the captain and mate were sitting. In an instant the knives were at work, and the ropes were cut.
“Leap on board the junk, my men; we’ll cover your retreat.”
The captain and mate did as they were directed, and had just reached the junk when several of the pirates saw what had happened, and sprang after them.
Had not the midshipmen undertaken to defend them, their heads would have been off that moment. Jack and Alick had fortunately gained the side of the vessel, and there stood at bay. They had cut down three of their assailants, but others were coming on, when the Malay rushed past them, crying out, “Leap, leap on board; cast off, or we shall all blow up.” A back-handed blow which he gave with his short sword cut down the nearest of their assailants, and enabled them to accomplish his advice. He and they, without questions asked, instantly cast off the grapnels, and shoved the junk away from the brig before the Chinese saw what they were about.
Scarcely were they free, when a rush of flame burst out of the hold of the merchantman, and up went her decks with a terrific explosion, carrying masts, and spars, and sails, and cargo, and the many hundred human beings, who, like ants in a granary, were swarming in every direction, rifling her of the treasures she contained. The numerous junks surrounding her did not escape; some were blown up, others had their sides blown in, and several caught fire or were more or less injured. For a moment there was perfect silence; every one stood aghast, and then down came clattering on them limbs, and trunks, and heads of human beings, and fragments of spars, and burning bales, and canvas, and packages burst open like shells, scattering their contents on every side. Next arose shrieks, and groans, and shouts, a hubbub most terrific, the cries of the wounded, and the imprecations of those who had escaped and been baulked of their prey.
