Part 1 (1/2)
The Penang Pirate
by John Conroy Hutcheson
VOLUME ONE
CHAPTER ONE
IN THE PEARL RIVER
”Bill!”
”Aye, aye, bo!”
”Guess this'll be a rue, mate”
”Why, old shellback?”
”'Cause I can't o all aboard and the wind fair”
”Don't you fret yourself about that, Jeot a heap o' 'sponsibility on theo to get holand with a short crew, and a lot o' murderin', blood-suckin'
pirates all over the h'Indian seas!”
”Pirates, Bill!”
”Ay, pirates! I spoke plain enough, didn't I? But you needn't shi+ver in your skin like one of theot aboard in place of honest sailors, worse luck! You needn't have no cause to fear for the number o' your mess, bo; the cap'en--God bless hiht you are, Bill; you know the oldcautions like?”
”No fear, h,palaver with the adshi+p afore we come up the river?”
”Ay,” said Bill sententiously; ”may be so”
”Well, Bill, if so be there's pirates about, they ht do a'most as they likes wi' us, for I don't think there are three cutlasses aboard, and ne'er a h to fire off that little popgun there to summons a pilot”
”Aye,” answered the other nonchalantly
The _Hankow Lin_ was lying in the Pearl River, off Whae all sailing vessels having business at this port of the Celestial E permitted to ascend the reaches of the river to the city proper and anchor in front of Shah Mien, the English settlement
The vessel had shi+pped all her tea and silk, which foro; and, with her anchor hove short, so that she seemed to ride just over it, and her topsails loose all handy to let fall and sheet home, she appeared ready to start at a ly Canton River and across the pathless Indian seas and the miles of weary ocean journey that lay between her and her final destination, ”the tight little island,” with its now historical ”streak of silver sea,” supposed to guard it from Continental invasion
What delayed the _Hankow Lin_?
Ah! her captain could tell perhaps, for it ent reason for his reo was stowed and the shi+p ho of it, however; and there wasforwards at this unlooked-for hitch in their departure from the land of ”chin chins” and ”no bony Johnny”
Jem Backstay, as a stalwart, able-bodied seaman, and as smart a ”hand” as could be found in a day's cruise, did not appear at all convinced by what his chuain to the conversation after the latter had apparently ended it with his monosyllabic ”aye”
”Lor',about pirates I've been sailing in these here China seas since I were no higher than your thumb and I never see none”