Blue Jackets Part 82

"Takee plisoner to mandalin. Mandalin man put on heavy chain, kick flow in boat, put in plison, no give to eat, and then choppee off allee head.

Makee hurt gleat deal mo'. Velly solly for plisoner. Bette' make big fi' and bu'n allee now."

Mr Brooke smiled and looked at me, and I laughed.

"We'd better change the subject, Herrick," he said. "I'm afraid there is not much difference in the cruelty of the act."

"No, sir," I said, giving one of my ears a rub. "But it is puzzling."

"Yes, my lad; and I suppose we should have no hesitation in sh.e.l.ling and burning a pirates' nest."

"But we couldn't steal up and set fire to their junks in the dark, sir?"

"No, my lad, that wouldn't be ordinary warfare. Well, we had better run into one of these little creeks, and land," he continued, as he turned to inspect the low, swampy sh.o.r.e. "Plenty of hiding-places there, where we can lie and watch the junks, and wait for the _Teaser_ to show."

"Velly good place," said Ching, pointing to where there was a patch of low, scrubby woodland, on either side of which stretched out what seemed to be rice fields, extending to the hills which backed the plain.

"Plenty wood makee fire--loast goose."

I saw a knowing look run round from man to man.

"But the pirates would see our fire," I said.

"Yes, see fi'; tink allee fish man catch cookee fish."

"Yes, you're right, Ching. It will help to disarm any doubts. They will never think the _Teaser's_ men are ash.o.r.e lighting a fire;" and, altering our course a little, he ran the boat in sh.o.r.e and up a creek, where we landed, made fast the boat under some low scrubby trees, and in a very short time after a couple of men were placed where they could watch the junks and give notice of any movement. The others quickly collected a quant.i.ty of drift-wood, and made a good fire, Ching tucking up his sleeves and superintending, while Mr Brooke and I went out on the other side of the little wood, and satisfied ourselves that there was no sign of human habitation on this side of the river, the city lying far away on the other.

When we came back, Ching was up to the elbows in sh.o.r.e mud, and we found by him a couple of our geese and a couple of ducks turned into dirt-puddings. In other words, he had cut off their heads, necks, and feet, and then cased them thickly with the soft, unctuous clay from the foot of the bank; and directly we came he raked away some of the burning embers, placed the clay lumps on the earth, and raked back all the glowing ashes before piling more wood over the hissing ma.s.ses.

"Velly soon cook nicee," he said, smiling; and then he went to the waterside to get rid of the clay with which he was besmirched.

Mr Brooke walked to the sentinels, and for want of something else to do I stood pitching pieces of drift-wood on to the fire, for the most part shattered fragments of bamboo, many of extraordinary thickness, and all of which blazed readily and sent out a great heat.

"Makes a bit of a change, Mr Herrick, sir," said Jecks, as the men off duty lay about smoking their pipes, and watching the fire with eyes full of expectation.

"Yes; rather different to being on shipboard, Jecks," I said.

"Ay, 'tis, sir. More room to stretch your legs, and no fear o' hitting your head agin a beam or your elber agin a bulkhead. Puts me in mind o'

going a-gipsying a long time ago."

"'In the days when we went gipsying, a long time ago,'" chorussed the others musically.

"Steady there," I said. "Silence."

"Beg pardon, sir," said one of the men; and Tom Jecks chuckled. "But it do, sir," he said. "I once had a night on one o' the Suffolk heaths with the gipsies; I was a boy then, and we had hare for supper--two hares, and they was cooked just like that, made into clay b.a.l.l.s without skinning on 'em first."

"But I thought they always skinned hares," I said, "because the fur was useful."

"So it is, sir; but there was gamekeepers in that neighbourhood, and if they'd found the gipsies with those skins, they'd have asked 'em where the hares come from, and that might have been unpleasant."

"Poached, eh?"

"I didn't ask no questions, sir. And when the hares was done, they rolled the red-hot clay out, gave it a tap, and it cracked from end to end, an' come off like a sh.e.l.l with the skin on it, and leaving the hares all smoking hot. I never ate anything so good before in my life."

"Yah! These here geese 'll be a sight better, Tommy," said one of the men. "I want to see 'em done."

"And all I'm skeart about," said another, "is that the _Teaser_ 'll come back 'fore we've picked the bones."

I walked slowly away to join Mr Brooke, for the men's words set me thinking about the gunboat, and the way in which she had sailed and left us among these people. But I felt that there must have been good cause for it, or Captain Thwaites would never have gone off so suddenly.

"Gone in chase of some of the scoundrels," I thought; and then I began to think about Mr Reardon and Barkins and Smith. "Poor old Tanner," I said to myself, "he wouldn't have been so disagreeable if it had not been for old Smith. Tanner felt ashamed of it all the time. But what a game for them to be plotting to get me into difficulties, and then find that I was picked out for this expedition! I wish they were both here."

For I felt no animosity about Smith, and as for Tanner I should have felt delighted to have him there to join our picnic dinner.

I suppose I had a bad temper, but it never lasted long, and after a quarrel at school it was all over in five minutes, and almost forgotten.

I was so deep in thought that I came suddenly upon Mr Brooke, seated near where the men were keeping their look-out. He was carefully scanning the horizon, but looked up at me as I stopped short after nearly kicking against him.

"Any sign of the _Teaser_ sir?" I said.

"No, Herrick. I've been trying very hard to make her out, but there is no smoke anywhere."

"Oh, she'll come, sir, if we wait. What about the junks?"

"I haven't seen a man stirring oh board either of them, and they are so quiet that I can't quite make them out."

"Couldn't we steal off after dark, sir, and board one of them? If we took them quite by surprise we might do it."

"I am going to try, Herrick," he said quietly, "some time after dark.

But that only means taking one, the other would escape in the alarm."

"Or attack us, sir."

"Very possibly; but we should have to chance that." He did not say any more, but sat there scanning the far-spreading sea, dotted with the sails of fishing-boats and small junks. But he had given me plenty to think about, for I was growing learned now in the risks of the warfare we were carrying on, and I could not help wondering what effect it would have upon the men's appet.i.tes if they were told of the perilous enterprise in which they would probably be called upon to engage that night.

My musings were interrupted by a rustling sound behind me, and, turning sharply, it was to encounter the smooth, smiling countenance of Ching, who came up looking from one to the other as if asking permission to join us.

"Well," said Mr Brooke quietly, "is dinner ready?"

Ching shook his head, and then said sharply--

"Been thinking 'bout junks, they stop there long time."

"Yes; what for? Are they waiting for men?"

"P'laps; but Ching think they know 'bout other big junk. Some fliends tell them in the big city. Say to them, big junk load with silk, tea, dollar. Go sail soon. You go wait for junk till she come out. Then you go 'longside, killee evelybody, and take silk, tea, dollar; give me lit' big bit for tellee."

"Yes, that's very likely to be the reason they are waiting."

"Soon know; see big junk come down liver, and pilates go after long way, then go killee evelybody. Muchee better go set fire both junk to-night."