“Ching know,” he said to me one evening mysteriously.
“Know what?” I said.
“Plenty pilate boat hide away in island. No come while big ship Teasler here.”
“Oh, wait a bit,” I said; “we shall catch them yet.”
“No, catchee,” he said despondently. “Pilate velly cunning. See Queen Victolia ship say big gun go bang. ’Top away.”
“But where do you think they hide?”
“Evelywhere,” he said. “Plentee liver, plenty cleek, plenty hide away.”
“Then we shall never catch them?” I said.
“Ching wantee catchee, wantee plenty money; but pilate won’t come. Pilate ’flaid.”
“And I suppose, as soon as we go away, they’ll come out and attack the first merchantman that comes along the coast.”