Page:The land of enchantment (1907, Cassell).djvu/90

 like a full moon, or a grinning demon, or, maybe, an ass’s head with enormous ears, or a tremendous nose and eyes as big as saucers. I give you my word, Master Charles, we were almost afraid of each other, and that’s a fact. Then we fell a-groaning, and yelled and screeched, and jumped about.”

“Oh, what fun!’ said Charlie. ‘But what about the pirates?”

“Well, Master Charles, I should think they must have been scared out of their wits. We could hear their cries of horror and the splashing of their oars in their frantic efforts to escape. Then we sent up a few rockets—whisht—and that finished them, for when they saw the long trails of fire, and the stars, as they thought, a-falling down out of the sky, they just skedaddled like mad.”

“But did they come back, Ben?”

“No, Master Charles ; and before morning the blessed breeze began to blow, and the Saucy Susan was soon a-skimming along under sky-scrapers and stun-sails alow and aloft. We saw no more of the cannibal pirates, and had no particular want to. The breeze held, and a few days after we dropped anchor in Singapore Harbour, and jolly glad we were to get there, and so I won’t deceive you.”