After that easily won victory we trapped and sank half a dozen proas and feluccas in the same way, though with more spirited resistance in some cases, for we were so anxious to get things to going that we threw off our mask before we had them at such close quarters as we got the junk. We had two men killed in these engagements and a dozen more or less seriously injured. Norton sustained an ugly cut on the leg that sent him to the hospital and I got a slash on the arm that gave me considerable trouble for a few days. In only one instance did a ship get away from us and that was when two proas attacked us on either side in a dead calm that settled before we could get steam up. We could not change our position, while they manœuvred with their long oars and one of them escaped, though she took a lot of dead with her. We got nothing from them to speak of but there was excitement in extenso and we gloried in it. Norton had not overdrawn the picture of the adventurous China Sea.
We had turned our cargo over to the “Florence,” along with a number of wounded men, and were back among the islands, though outside of the regular course of sailing ships, when early one evening a full-rigged ship hove in sight. She passed us but was not more than six miles away when we saw flashes that told us she had been attacked. We had our fires banked, for it was just at the break of the monsoon when the weather is variable and the winds uncertain, so we lost no time in going to her assistance. As we closed in we saw a Malay felucca on each side of her and the pirates swarming on her decks, with the crew putting up a brave fight. Running the “Leckwith” up on her starboard quarter, we threw our men aboard of her and they went at the pirates savagely from the rear. I led the boarding party for it looked as though it would be one of the kind of fights that I never would miss. In those days I was young, athletic, and vigorous and I had rather have a fight with death at one end of it than anything else. No matter where I went, or what the odds against us, I knew the men of the “Leckwith” would be at my heels, for a braver set of dare-devils never lived.
The Malays outnumbered us more than two to one, but we went at them with a fury that was new to them, and were slowly forcing them back toward their one good boat—we had smashed the other one to bits when we slammed alongside—when a beautiful white yacht came tearing up on the port quarter and sent three boatloads of men to our assistance in such smart style that I took her to be a gunboat, though the quick glance I took at her showed her lines to be unusually fine for a warship. Her party clambered over the bows under command of a stockily built young officer wearing what looked like the uniform of a naval captain, and we had the pirates between us. I understood later, when I learned who and what they were, why these reinforcements, instead of discouraging the Malays, caused them to fight with renewed desperation. But they could not withstand our combined rush and the last of them soon went over the side into their proa, which drifted away into the darkness when they cut her loose. However, in the last few minutes of fighting the young British officer, as I took him to be, sustained a savage cut in his right shoulder, and after we had laid aside our dead and given our wounded rough attention I was surprised to receive an inquiry from him as to whether we had a surgeon on board. I replied that I was a surgeon and, taking him aboard the “Leckwith,” dressed his wound on the cabin table. I then saw that his uniform was that of a captain, but not of a naval officer. He told me his name was Deverell but when I asked him the name of his ship he answered evasively, and I had learned the ways of the China Sea too well to press the question.
“Your wound is rather a bad one,” I told him, “and is likely to require further attention. I am simply loafing and expect to be cruising in this neighborhood for some time, even though it does seem to be pretty thick with pirates. I will be glad to have you call on me if I can be of any service to you.”
He mystified me still more when he replied: “We know you, Doctor, and will know where to find you if it becomes necessary to take further advantage of your kindness.”
I had not time just then to think much about the strange incident, for the fight had been a bloody one and there were many men who needed attention. We had six men killed and there were fully twenty-five more with injuries of some sort. When I came to look myself over I found that one bullet had grazed the top of my head and another my chest, while the right shoulder of my jacket had been sliced off by a cut that, had it been properly placed, would have taken my arm with it. My only injury was a trifling flesh wound on my leg. Had I been less of a fatalist narrow escapes of that kind, to which I grew accustomed, might have affected my nerves, but instead they were only entertaining. It interested me, in every fight, to see just how close I had come to being killed, knowing full well that death could not add my name to the list until my time came, and that then there would be no way of avoiding it.
When we got to clearing up the decks nearly sixty dead Malays were thrown overboard. The merchantman, which was an English bark, had twelve of her crew killed and so many of the survivors were badly cut up that only six men were fit for duty. We left enough of our men on board to work the ship and convoyed her to within two hundred miles of Singapore, where, with a fair wind and a smooth sea, she was able to proceed without danger. That episode netted us not only a glorious fight but a great reputation as the friend and protector of honest shipping. In fact, it brought us too much fame, for when we put into Labuan, a British island off the north coast of Borneo, for coal, after seeing the merchantman safely on her way, and reported the incident, we had to get out in a hurry to avoid a lot of innocent questions as to who Dr. Burnet was and where he came from.
On our way back to the islands from Labuan we sighted the mysterious yacht whose commander I had attended. Evidently she was looking for us for she changed her course as soon as she made us out, and sent a boat alongside with a request that I come aboard, as the captain was very ill. I found him suffering with surgical fever, as I had predicted, and in rather a bad way. I dressed his wound and treated him and stood by for three or four days, visiting him twice a day and returning immediately to the “Leckwith,” for while my services were plainly appreciated it seemed that I was not wanted on the strange ship any longer than was necessary. There was an air of mystery about her that puzzled and fascinated me. As I entered Deverell’s cabin on my first visit I thought I heard the rustle of a skirt in the passageway behind me. Before I could make any inquiry Deverell, as though reading my mind, requested me to ask him no questions about anything relating to the ship. On my last visit, when I told him he needed no further attention, he said, after thanking me, “I am master here and I am not. No doubt things seem strange to you, and they really are stranger than you think, but I cannot tell you more now. Fate seems to have thrown us together, however, and I believe we shall see more of each other and get better acquainted. I hope so. Good-bye.”
Cruising westward after parting company with the ship of mystery we ran right into a series of profitable engagements. Four ships had left Hong Kong together but only one got through. The booty which the pirates took from the others we captured from them, in two small junks and three large proas, which we destroyed. We transferred our cargo to the “Florence,” near South Natuna Island, and stood off to the north while she headed for Singapore. We were three or four hours away from her when I had a strange presentiment that I should have stayed with her. The feeling was so strong that I put the “Leckwith” about, caught up with her, and went on board, with my traps. Expecting to have a lot of idle time I took along my torpedo, with which I was still experimenting.
A week later we were in a particularly dangerous place, near where the Brazilian barkentine had been scuttled. Late in the afternoon as we entered a narrow passage, we sighted a big proa close to an island on the port bow, and less than half a mile farther on we came on another one partly hidden in the mouth of a creek in a larger island on the starboard hand. There was not a sign of life on either one of them but I knew their crews were close by and felt that we were in for it. I was fussing with the torpedo when we came upon them and it struck me that this would be a good chance to put it to the test, if both of them attacked us at once, which I supposed they would do. We had neither fulminate of mercury nor gun-cotton aboard but I had been working to overcome that very difficulty and had arranged the firing pin so that it would discharge a cartridge into an explosive charge of black powder. We packed the chamber with powder, and filled enough air cylinders to keep the torpedo afloat, bent on a towing line of new manila rope, one hundred fathoms long, and had everything in readiness by the time it was dark.