"They’re not going to turn in yet, sir," I told him; "they are going to have a sardine supper in the ward room."
"Umph! Good idea that! ’Willum’," he roared, "make me some sardine sandwiches, and put plenty of onions in ’em."
"How about sending the steam pinnace inshore with some hot soup for the people in the boats you left behind?" I asked him, after he’d devoured a plateful of sandwiches and had sent Willum for more.
"No good; couldn’t find ’em in the dark. I’ve stuck ’em right in under the guns, in the middle of the creek which runs up there. They’ve got to fire a Very’s[#] light, if the yacht tries to get away, so tell ’em to keep a good lookout on the bridge."
[#] A Very’s light is somewhat the same idea as a Roman candle firework. It throws out one very brilliant ball of coloured light.
"It was grand work in those boats," he continued; "they couldn’t see us, and went on firing and wasting ammunition. I kept on running away in the steamboat, easing off a few shells at them, and then going back again, and they’d fire off twenty or thirty rounds where she had been."
"I expect you had some pretty narrow shaves, for all that, sir?"
He growled out "Umph!" and winked at me very slowly.
Now that he and I were alone, I saw that he had something which he wanted to tell me, and when presently he had sent Willum to bed, he lighted a fresh cigar and began. "You know that man Hoffman? What d’you think of him, eh?"
"I can’t quite say, sir. Can’t quite ’place’ him."
"What would you say if I told you he _is_ the pirates—bosses the show, or did. What d’ye say to that?"
I supposed I looked surprised. I certainly felt so.
"He’s told me all about it. He is running this show, or was."
"What d’you mean, sir?" I could hardly understand him.
"It’s this way, Truscott," and, puffing his cigar, and grunting and growling, the Skipper told me the most extraordinary yarn I had ever heard.
Hoffman had for years owned quite a small fleet of merchant steamers, and had endeavoured to compete with the native junks for the coastal trade between Ningpo, Shanghai, and the Chusan Archipelago. Local prejudice and the hatred of the white foreigner had been too much for him, and he had failed. The idea then occurred to him that if he could make a clean sweep of the merchant junks throughout the islands, he would have the monopoly of the carrying trade.