He turned.
"Now, John, move! Get that canvas up, anyway at all so it'll draw—come on! Use that long piece of the sprit for a gaff; lash the canvas to it and then lash it as high on the oar as you can. Look alive! That's your junk, yonder."
The two men fell furiously to work, while the women bailed and Li Fu tugged at the long oar to keep the whaleboat from broaching. And the brownish yellow matting sail crept down on them like an ungainly water-spider.
V
Under the rapid directions of Barnes, the whaleboat was presently surging through the water again, while he took the tiller and the quartermasters finished the bailing. Both women sat a bit aft to trim the boat anew; and, as they had worked diligently at Cantonese while fitting themselves for mission duties, they understood the tongue more or less. Neither of the quartermasters was aware of the fact. Barnes spoke it not at all.
"Our master is in love with this drooping girl," said Li Fu chantingly, as he bailed. "Lim Tock desired her also. She must have a devil that charms some men, for she is of no beauty in my eyes."
Hi John laughed harshly. "If those aboard the junk see the women, they will try hard for us! Lim Tock was a Straits man; to him white women are beautiful. These others are Straits men, too, I think. Women are more desirable than gold, and white women than pearls; for white women are hard to come by in Singapore, unless one——"
He went on to speak learnedly of matters which, by good fortune, came in words that the two women had not learned. As it was, they gave each other a startled glance. Then Ellen Maggs motioned to the spare sail.
"Get it, Nora. Lie down and pull it over us."