“No, no, sir; this will be best,” said one of the warehousemen, and he dragged one of the silk-bales away from the nearest window.
“But that will catch fire,” said Stan.
“Too closely pressed together, sir,” was the reply.—“Here, you two, draw that backwards and forwards over the fire to smother it out.”
The two coolies caught at the suggestion, and seizing the bale together, they began to push it here and there over the burning place, with the effect of rapidly smothering out the flaming pitch, dense black smoke alone rising wherever the bale was passed; but unfortunately a heated gas kept on ascending from the blackened boards, and that caught fire again with a little explosion as the bale glided away.
Perseverance won, however, but none too soon, for all danger had hardly been swept away before another of the pots came hissing and fuming in, but without breaking; and this was jerked out, sending the attacking party flying from the place where it was expected to fall, the painful examples they had seen making the assailants pretty careful now.
This one was followed by several more, and then, to the great relief of the defenders, there was a cessation, and the assailants could be seen gathering together as if to listen to a mandarin-like officer who was risking his life while talking vehemently to his followers, who had now drawn away from the walls and were collected close to the edge of the wharf, many glancing at the junks as if disposed to rush on board.
“They’re beginning to turn tail now,” said Stan to the warehouseman who had spoken out so firmly. “I think we had better give them a volley and start them off with a run.”
“I’m afraid that it would be just as likely to enrage them all the more.”
“Yes, sir,” said Lawrence, Stan’s lieutenant; “perhaps we had better wait; but my fingers are itching to bring down that captain, or chief, or whatever he is.”
“He seems to be urging them on,” said Stan thoughtfully—very thoughtfully, for he had an idea in his head, one that would give the man a chance for his life, which might not be the case if he told his lieutenant to fire.