In the black darkness at the end of the alley-way a faint sound was heard, as if some one had sharply closed the lid of a metal match-box, though as a matter of fact it was the cocking of a pistol held in Dick's hands. Then the light from a lantern was thrown for one brief instant in David's direction, showing the walls of the alley-way, Hung's hurrying figure, and ahead of him a huge square mass, covered in sacking. Dick's cheery voice broke the silence immediately.

'Cheer oh! David!' he cried. 'What news? We were beginning to get the fidgets about you. Thought those fellows might have bagged you altogether. What's happened?'

'Heaps,' came the laconic answer. 'Just let me get past this bale and take a breather. I've never been so scared in all my life.'

There was a savage note in his voice, a note altogether foreign to David, and hearing it Dick realised that something altogether out of the common had happened.

'Come and sit down on the deck beside me,' he said. 'You can go up into the cabin later. I've sent word to say you were arriving. What's upset you?'

'Look here,' David blurted, turning upon him, 'would you feel yourself if you had been within an inch of proving a funk, of running away with your tail between your legs? Would you? Eh? That's the question.'

'Depends,' came the cautious answer. 'Perhaps there was reason for getting funked. I tell you I was at first when you woke me. Well? What's all the bother?'

'I'll tell you,' said our hero, feeling somewhat relieved and in better favour with himself, now that he heard Dick admit to the fact that he himself had been scared. 'I met our men at the bottom of the hatchway, and sent them on various errands. Then, as I watched from the top of the ladder a beggar threw himself on me, and we both went crash to the bottom. A second fellow followed, and then a third, whom Hung tackled. Well, I stunned my first man, and knocked the breath out of the second. I could feel Hung scuffling with his man in the darkness, and I tell you I nearly bolted. I got into a panic, and might very well have fired in all directions. Gurr! It makes a fellow ashamed of himself.'

Dick roared with laughter, till a sharp command from the cabin above stopped him. 'You do amuse me, David,' he said, dropping his voice to a whisper. 'Stun one man, knock the wind out of another, and then get scared. As if a fellow hadn't a right to be, after such an experience; but what happened then?'

'Pulled myself together, I suppose; did the only sensible thing under the circumstances. I struck a match, and only just in time. There was another beggar at the foot of the ladder, with a whole heap staring through the hatchway. I bet I shook that last rascal. I heaved him across the alley-way as if he were a box, and I should say that he's hardly fit to move yet awhile. Talk about collaring a chap out of the scrum, or getting a quick man extra well when coming all out down the field—that Chinaman don't need to fear a game of footer in the future. He'll never be collared or slung harder. Well, there you are: Hung had finished his man with the most murderous knife you ever saw, while I ended the matter for the moment by tearing the ladder away; but they won't be long in coming after us. What have you done?'