Just as we got out of the creek we caught sight of a large junk stealing round a point at no great distance from us. Although Mr Hanson and one of the men were wounded, he instantly ordered us to give chase, and away we pulled after the junk, which as we rounded the point we saw was making for one of the innumerable canals which intersect the country in all directions. If she once got into it she might escape us. The men therefore bent to their oars with a right good will, apparently just as fresh, as when they left the schooner in the morning. As we approached the junk, the Chinese began firing at us with their gingals and swivels, and for a couple of minutes or more we were exposed to a pretty heavy shower of bullets. I got the rim of my hat taken off.

“No odds,” I cried out; “it’s better than the tip of my nose.”

A man near me had a shot through the fleshy part of his shoulder, and a dozen bullets or more stuck in the sides of our boat. On we dashed, however, right under the oars of the Chinaman.

“Come on, my lads?” shouted Dicky Plumb, whose blood was up to boiling pitch; and catching hold of a pike which was thrust at him, he hauled himself up on to the junk’s deck, four of our men climbing up at the same moment. Fortunately for Master Dicky, Ned Rawlings was by his side, and saved his head from a blow aimed at him by a Chinaman. Mr Hanson, in spite of his wound, got the men to haul him up. I followed close behind Mr Plumb, and in a few seconds we were all upon the deck of the Chinaman, slashing and cutting away. So frightened had the Chinese become at our proceedings in the morning, that very few stopped to oppose us, and scarcely had we gained the deck, than the crew began to jump overboard on the opposite side. In another minute not a Chinaman was left alive on the upper deck.

“Now, lads, let us look after them below!” shouted Mr Plumb, leading the way to the main deck. A considerable number of the crew had remained there, intent upon mischief. As they saw us, however, they made a bolt right forward and leaped through a large port, striking out for the shore, which was not more than thirty yards off.

“They have been after something or other,” cried Mr Plumb.

As he spoke, I sprang down to the deck below, and there I saw what looked like a thin snake of fire crawling along the deck. I rushed at it, and found the end of a slow match which had not long been lighted. To snatch it up and throw it overboard was the work of a moment. I was only just in time, however, and did not feel very comfortable even then, for it was leading down, through an opening in the deck, to what I had little doubt was the magazine. Ned Rawlings, who had followed me, sprang to where several buckets were hung up, and seizing one of them to which a rope was attached, in a moment he had it full of water, which he dashed down the opening into the magazine. Mr Hanson now ordered the cable of the junk to be cut, and sent the boat ahead to tow her out of the creek. There was no time to be lost, for a number of Chinese were collecting on the shore, some of them already beginning to take long shots at us. Four hands jumped into the boat with Mr Plumb, while two others, with Ned Rawlings and I, remained to assist Mr Hanson. As there were a number of small boats along the shore, the Chinese might easily have come back again; but they expected to see us blown up into the air, and the fear of the consequence kept them at a distance, and proved our safety.

At length, just as it was growing dusk, we got clear out into the harbour, when the wind proving fair, we hoisted the junk’s sails, and stood away towards where we expected to find the schooner. Several times we were chased by English boats, and were twice fired at by some of our friends, who supposed that our junk was still in the hands of the Chinese, who were endeavouring to escape. Our prize was indeed a curious craft; a capital place for playing hide-and-seek in—full of all sorts of odd little cabins and cupboards and recesses in which people could stow themselves away. Having found several lanterns, we lighted them, and Mr Dicky and I hunted throughout the vessel, in case any Chinese were still on board, who might steal out and perhaps after all blow up the vessel. We thought that we had looked into all the cabins and cupboards, and nooks and corners, and came and reported the same to Mr Hanson.

“Go and look again, Dicky,” he answered. “Take Rawlings with you, and let him run the point of his cutlass gently through all the crevices.”

Off we started again, Rawlings carrying a huge paper lantern, covered with dragons and other monsters, and having his cutlass ready to stick into any crevice we might discover. We began forward, examining all sorts of curious places, but no one was to be found there. At length we got aft, where we thought we had searched thoroughly, and came to a little cupboard in one of the quarters, into which Ned gently inserted the point of his weapon. A shrill cry, which made us start, was the result, and putting in his hand he hauled out a young Chinese boy, who had managed to coil himself away in a very small space. He seemed by his gestures to be entreating us not to kill him, and then gave us to understand that he was anxious to be our friend, and to serve us. Of course, not a word he said could we understand.

“Are there any more of you stowed away?” asked Ned; but if we did not understand the Chinese boy, neither did he understand us, and no answer could be got to this question.

Having looked about in the neighbourhood of the spot where we found the boy, we carried him on deck to Mr Hanson. He there went through the gestures he had made to us, and Mr Hanson signed to him to sit down on the deck, and let him know that he would receive no harm. We were then sent back to continue our search. No other person was, however, found, and at length we got alongside the schooner. We were received by a loud cheer from our shipmates, and Mr Ormsby ordered us to retain possession till he could inspect the junk in the morning, and settle what was to be done with her.

“But Mr Hanson is wounded, sir,” sung out Dicky Plumb; “and besides, sir, we are hard up for grub. The provisions the Chinese have left on board don’t look very tempting.”

Mr Hanson, with the other wounded man, was therefore ordered to go on board, that the assistant-surgeon might look to their hurts, while a supply of provisions was sent us from the schooner, Dicky Plumb thus remaining in command of the junk.

“Jack,” he said to me, “if I had my will, I should like to appoint you my first-lieutenant, for I think you know as much about seamanship as I do; but as that would not be quite correct, I am afraid I must have Ned Rawlings as my second in command. I only hope we may be ordered to take a cruise somewhere. It would be great fun going away by ourselves to look after prizes, would it not?”

I agreed with him, but observed that I did not think Mr Ormsby would dispatch us for that purpose. The next morning, when Mr Ormsby came on board, he declared that the junk we had taken was so fine a vessel that it would be a pity to destroy her, and therefore obtained leave to carry her off to Hong Kong.

“Can I remain in command of her, sir?” asked Dicky, touching his hat when Mr Ormsby had arrived at this decision.

The lieutenant looked at him with a smile.

“Why, Mr Plumb, what amount of navigation do you possess?”

“Why, sir,” said Dicky, promptly, “I know how to steer, and we can keep the Fawn in sight, so she will serve as our pole-star.”

“But suppose it came on thick weather, and you lost sight of us?” observed the lieutenant.

“We would not rest till we had found you again,” answered Dicky, promptly.

“I suspect the Fawn will outsail the junk, and then what will you do?”

“Ask every one we meet the whereabouts of Hong Kong,” answered Dicky.

“I have no doubt you would do your best,” said Mr Ormsby, “but still I cannot quite trust you. I must send Mr Hanson back, and I have no doubt that you will prove a very efficient first-lieutenant to him.”

With this Master Dicky was obliged to remain content, and, in a couple of days, Mr Hanson, having somewhat recovered his strength, came on board and took the command. Before many days were over the Chinese succeeded in bamboozling our plenipotentiaries; we gave up all we had won, and the fleet sailed away back to Hong Kong. We followed in the wake of the schooner, which had to shorten sail for us, when the wind was abeam; but at length it came aft, and we then kept very good way with her; indeed, she had to make all sail not to let us pass her. Our captive Chinese boy seemed very well reconciled to his fate. We could not make out what was his name, so we called him “Joss.” He was a merry, yellow-faced little chap, with the funniest pig-eyes imaginable. He seemed always ready to laugh, and sing, and dance about the deck. It was very evident that he would pick up English sooner than any of us were likely to learn a word of Chinese. In the course of a few days, indeed, he could ask for all sorts of things, and seemed to know a great deal that was said to him. I should say Mr Hanson spoke very handsomely of the way Dicky Plumb had behaved in boarding the Chinese, and told Mr Ormsby that he had been the first on deck, and how gallantly he had behaved also on shore, when attacking the fort. I found, also, that he made favourable mention of my conduct on both occasions.

“Indeed, had it not been for Junker,” I heard that he observed, “we might all of us have been blown into the other world.” Mr Ormsby had said that he should report my conduct to the captain, who would be sure not to let it pass unnoticed. Dicky told me all this.

“I was very glad of it, Jack,” he said. “To tell you the truth, I have an idea in my head. What it is, I am not going to tell you; only, Jack, if I am ever a captain, I should like to have you as my first-lieutenant.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said, “for your kind wishes, but I am afraid such good luck is not in store for me.”

At length, our junk, with several others that had been captured, reached Hong Kong in safety. The harbour was crowded with vessels. There must have been a hundred or more craft, of various sorts, from line-of-battle ships down to schooners and cutters, and a variety of Chinese and other foreign-rigged vessels.