The Beautiful White Devil

my bag put it down, and having received his gratuity left me. The soft moonlight flooded everything, threw quaint shadows upon the wharf planks, shone upon the sleeping sam

in such a place at such a time. But doubtless he had had experience of the curious ways of Sahibdom,

I had seen before who stepped out of it, but a portly Chinaman of considerable rank and dignity. He was gorgeously clad in figured silk; his pigtail reached halfway to his heels and was adorned with much ornamentation; and I noticed that he wore large tortoiseshell spectacles which, while they completely hid his ey

ome here one pi

at pigeon English

I don't unde

ou come her

ing for a

allee same

eve he's an

y look see

but that's my own

smallee po

hink what

ee poxee, allee same one

continue this conver

t to leave him, when he stopped m

e Normanville. I'

ous, what's

orgive the deception, but the importance of our mission m

out from among its companions a

ly pigeon English. The second-if you are armed, be careful of your revolver. The men

im. Next moment I was aboard and stuffed away in the little pokey rat-hole of a cabin amidships. My friend took his place beside me, a small boy took the helm, and we pushed off. Not a word was spoken, and in this fashion for nearly a

s we could only see the mechanical rowing of the women in the well forrard, and hear the occasional commands of the t

ttle relieved in his mind, for he reseated himself with a muttered "Thank goodness," and gave himself up to a careful consideration of our position. Through a slit in the tarpaulin I could just se

in Chinese. A voice from the junk replied, and the answer being evidently satisfactory we hitched on and prepared to change vessels. A rope was thrown to us,

our crew fell to work-the great sails were hoisted, a hand went aft to the tiller, and within five minutes we were waddling down the straits at a pace that might possibly have been four knots an hour. All this time my companion had not addres

panion, and the company in which I now found myself, were calculated to have this effect. But as we left the land behind us and waddled out to sea,

to set eyes on; the face of one little pock-marked fellow being particularly distasteful to me. That this individual, for some reason, bore me no good will I was pretty positive, and on one occasion, in passing wher

asion to thank my stars that I was a good sailor. Sharp dashes of spray broke over her decks at every plunge, soaking us to the skin, and adding considerably to the u

d corner, I was in the act of indulging in a nap when I felt a body fall heavily against me. It was my companion who had dropped asleep sitting up, and h

as he lay; "there is treachery aboar

my hand into the pocket that had contained my revolver, only to find, to my horror and as

described, and as soon as I could find occa

be asleep and don't move, whatever happens, until you hear from me. That little pock-marked devil haranguing the others forrard is Kwong Fung, the mos

asleep. It was growing cold; the wind was rising and with it the sea. Already the star

thing, for three-quarters of an hour, watching his death preparing for him, and not show some sign of nervousness. Frankly, I will admit that I was afraid. To have to lie on that uncomfortable heaving deck, a big sea running, and more than a capful of wind blowing, watching, in the half dark, a gang of murderous ruffians plotting one's destruction, would tr

the rustling of a human body outside the bulwarks against which I had seated myself. In that case I should have detected the figure that had crawled quietly ov

long a time elapsed between the cord's touching my neck and my losing consciousness I could not say, but brief as was the interval, I ca

its again my companio

ute had done for you. Now pull yourself together as fa

rew of the junk were assembled, listening to the excited oratory of the little pock-marked devil against whom my companion had warned me. He held in his hand a revolver-mine, I had no difficulty in guessing-and, from the way in which he

aving you it has put one of our adversaries out of the way, and every one against odds like this counts. By

as a stout iron bar some two feet six in length. I managed to

d my ears, and at the same instant a bullet bedded it

ou ready? He's got the only weapon among them and five more cartridges left in it

bullet whizz

ave a low whistle an

h outspread arms fell on his face upon the deck. The next roll of the vessel carried him into the lee scuppers, where for some time he washed idly to and fro

es gone!" sai

the deck at my feet, while an

ut then, for they'll rush us to a certainty! I

evidence of his skill as a marksman, and being prudent, though precious, villains

rceptibly. But still no sign came from those in hiding forrard. To my mind this watching and waiting was the worst part of t

y with his coming, light and colour shot across the waters, the waves from being of a dull leaden hue became green and foam-crested, and the great fibre sails of

moment preventing our seeing anything that might be occurring forrard. I could tell that this was a matter

orward, and I fell with a cry to the deck. Next moment I had picked myself up again, and, feeling very

itself. Keep as close to me as you can, and above all thi

on her course showed us the ruffians climbing on to the raised poop upon which we stood. To my horror-for, strangely enough, in that moment of intense excitement, I was

oor wretch exactly on the bridge of the nose, making a clear round hole from which, an instant later, a jet of blood

piratical scoundrels had forgotten the man lying on the deck. In their haste to advance they omitted to step over his body, caught their feet and fell to the ground. At least, I am wrong in saying they fell to the ground, for only the pock-marked rascal fell; the other tripped, and would have recovered himself and been upon me had I not sprung upon him, thrown away my bar, caught up his companion's knife, which had fallen from his hand, and tried my level best

antage now lay with me, and you may be sure I was not slow to make the most of it. Throwing myself over and seating myself astride of him, I clutched my adversary by the throat, and, drawing back my arm, struck him with my clenched fist between his eyes. The blow was given with all my strength, and it certainly told. He lay beneath me a bleeding and insensible mass. Then staggering to my feet I looked about me. On the deck were four dead bodie

med to going through this sort of thing every day of his life. "Would you be so good as t

d, at the same time doing as he had asked me

uite righ

have him, what w

to do with the matter. There! That's right, I don't

t, rolled the man over on to

he cried, spinning me round to fin

fact. A ball had passed clean through the fleshy part of my left

ater with which to bathe the wound, he left me and went forrard. I did not, however, see him return, for now that the excitement had departed, a great faintness was stealing over

an improvised awning. My companion, whose name I discovered later was Walworth, was kn

he inquired, holding a

n replied that I felt be

t to be glad, considering the amount of blood you must have lost, th

thing ha

are me I'm going forrard to rouse out the rest of the gang, and get the

ve me something to protect my

nd yonder. I've refilled it, so, if you want to, you can do damage

s three men crawled out and stood in a row. After he had harangued them, I noticed that he questioned them eagerly in turn, and was evidently much perturbed at the answers he received. When he had said all that

inquired. "Are we in

to which the food and water supply-which, had this trouble not occurred, and we had got further upon our way, would have been ample for our requirements-will only last us, at most, two more meal

boat may

ake us to the island, to be s

that we were in

ll be in search of her for some time to

ssel's head was brought round to her course, and presently

face of the deep then became like burnished silver-almost impossible to look upon. But no sign of the craft we were in search

he awning my friend had constructed for me, yet I began to suffer agonies of thirst. The afternoon wore on-the sun declined upon the western horizon, and still no wind came. It looked as if we were destined to spend yet another night upon this horrible junk, the very sight o

ness stole down upon us, a few stars came into the sky, followed soon after by multitudes of others. But there was no wind at all, and by this time my thirst was excruci

he said solemnly when I had finished

n immediately. I suppose I must have been in a high state of fever; at any rate I

ill at the tiller, and from where I lay I could see that we were still sailing in the same direction. He called to me to know h

f, except a confused remembrance of craving for water-water! water! water! B

lested. Unable to bear his agony one of the men jumped overboard, and so ended his sufferings. Others would have followed his

Within an hour this had freshened into a moderate gale. Then, just before darkness obscured everything, a cry f

De Normanville-we're saved. As

during that eventful voya