He could picture well enough what had happened. Lim Tock, unable to repair the smashed engines of the Sulu Queen, had sunk her. Into the boats had piled the lascars and the yellow men, with their loot and opium, and started for the coast. They must have met the junk during the day, put the loot aboard her, heard of the whaleboat, and had come to seek her. Lim Tock would not dare to let her escape to carry tales.
"And now they've found us right enough!" he thought. "Caught us, confound it! If they didn't have rifles, I'd run out to sea and fight 'em with seamanship. Those lascars can't begin to handle whaleboats. If we only had a good mile between us! But the wind's falling. It'll die out, and won't come up again until after sunset. And by that time they'll crawl up on us with the oars. Damn it!"
The bullets droned overhead. One man at a time seemed to be firing until his magazine emptied. There were good shots among the pursuers, too; several holes were visible in the mainsail, and twice Barnes had felt hot lead come close. It dawned upon him that they were firing at his figure.
"Are we beating them?" called Nora Sayers.
"No," said Barnes grimly. In his appraisal he found the case hopeless, desperate; and he put it bluntly enough, explaining that the oarsmen aboard the pursuing boats, and the calm that was certain to fall, insured their being overtaken. The Chinese listened calmly, with clear understanding; the two women comprehending well enough, but urging him desperately with their eyes.
The whaleboat was reaching out on the starboard tack, as she had left the lagoon opening. The land fell away to the southwest, so that she was standing practically out to sea while running almost before the wind.
"We'll have to run for the land, and do it quick," said Barnes. "We don't dare to tack; we'll have to wear. The breeze is still pretty fresh, and they're apparently badly out of trim; good! Now you'll see some fun, girls. I'll bet a trade dollar that one of 'em gets spilled. Nora, come a bit aft and sit on the lee thwart—that's right. Revolvers loaded, men?"
The quartermasters answered with a nod. Barnes commanded Li Fu to stand by the fore sheet and, when the helm was put up, to empty his weapon at the nearest of the three boats.
"You take charge of the main sheet, John. Those lascars will imitate us, and we'll give 'em something to imitate, or I'm a Dutchman! All right, John—slack away, roundly! Haul in—haul in! Let her gybe, now—smart does it! Ease away, now——"
The staccato reports of Li Fu's revolver cracked emptily down the wind. The boat went off before the wind, and the mainsail was hauled in and gybed dangerously, then was eased away as she paid off on the new tack. Li Fu, dropping his weapon, handled the fore sheet smartly to meet her by the wind.