“Then they can’t see them,” cried Mr Reardon, “and Mr Brooke will take them by surprise.”
He did not shout this, but said it to the captain. Still the words rose to where I sat watching, till the Chinamen ran out from among the bushes at the foot of the trees, and I saw them making for the junks again.
I could not see them climb on board, but I felt that they must have jumped into a boat and rowed off to their friends, and, fixing my glass upon the deck of first one and then the other, I began to make out more and more clearly the actions of the crews, and, judging from the glittering, I saw some kind of arms were being distributed.
I announced this at first as a supposition, telling Mr Reardon what I thought it was.
“Yes, very likely,” he replied; and a few minutes after I saw something else, and hailed.
“Yes,” he said, “what now?” and I saw that, though he did not speak, the captain was listening attentively.
“They’re burning something, sir.”
“Confound them! Not setting fire to the junks?”
“I don’t know, sir; I think so,” I replied, still watching intently; and, as I gazed through my glass, I saw black smoke rising in little coils from both junks, at first very thick and spreading, then growing smaller.
“I think, sir, they’ve set fire to the junks in several places,” I said.