Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/122

110 far as I could make out what he said; then he begged me to help him set free his companions. In less than ten minutes the whole ship's company was at large. The instant a man found himself at liberty, he dashed down into the hold, where he disappeared from sight. I was curious to see what made them rush so hurriedly below, and I found the poor wretches had broached a water cask and were drinking greedily. They had not eaten or drunk for three days; but as they had suffered from the torments of thirst even more than from those of hunger, their first business was to assuage the former. Two drank to such excess that they died of the effects; a third ate so much that he burst.

"The explanation of the disaster, which had at first seemed so incomprehensible to us, was really quite simple. The ship had been boarded in the night by Malabar pirates and the crew mastered after a brief struggle, the marks of which we had seen on the decks. Then, to be free from interruption in ransacking the cargo, the pirates had bound, gagged, and deposited all hands, captain included, in the 'tween decks; after which they had appropriated whatever they pleased of the ship's lading, damaging or throwing overboard part of what they could not carry off. Then, hoping no doubt to pay a second visit to the junk, they had clewed up all the sails and left her to drift. In this helpless condition she had come near running into us.

"The delight of captain and crew can be imagined when they found themselves delivered by us, or rather by me, after three days of anguish, from their very unpleasant predicament. They threw a rope to my men, four of whom climbed up to the deck, while the two others made fast the lugger astern of the junk, where she looked no bigger than a boat towed in the wake of a brig of the ordinary size. The tow-rope made fast, the two remaining members of my crew joined us on the Chinese vessel. Our next business was to bring the latter and her crew into a condition to continue her voyage. The subjects of the Sublime Emperor are poor sailors and arrant cowards; they shouted and gesticulated with the best, but would never have got things ship-shape if we had not done it for them.

"This accomplished, after seeing to the wounded, heaving the dead overboard, and getting the junk under sail, we decided that as the cargo had been taken out of her by the pirates, it was useless to pursue the voyage to Madras. Moreover, the captain was resolved to turn back. The fact is, he had hoped to get a cargo caradmum at Madras, and there I was with a cargo of that very commodity on board. Only, as you will understand, the first thing the pirates had explored was Tsing-Fong's cash-box, which therefore was now in no condition to supply the eight thousand rupees at which my cargo was valued. Accordingly it was agreed that we should sail in company as far as Manilla, where the captain had a correspondent, and where consequently, thanks to the credit he enjoyed from the Straits of Malacca to the Straits of Corea, we could fix up our bargain. Having no particular preference for one port over another, and no special objection to the Philippines, I accepted the proposal, only making one condition, that I should be responsible for the navigation, for I had no sort of wish to make acquaintance with the pirates.

"Whether it was wounded vanity or suspicion as to my intentions. Captain Tsing-Fong raised sundry objections, but when he saw that, thanks to my handling, his clumsy vessel, which till then had been rolling like a barrel, began to cleave the waters like a fish, he folded his hands on his stomach, and nodded his head up and down, pronounced two or three times over the two syllables 'Hi-o, Hi-o,' which means ' wonderful,' and troubled his head no further.

"The result was we cleared the Straits of Malacca without accident, passed safely through the archipelago of the Arambas, and rounding the Islet of the Corregidor, which stands like a sentinel guarding the entrance of the Bay, we entered the mouths of the Passig River, and cast anchor safe and sound by nightfall in front of the Custom House buildings.