'They would be cleaner than coal, and could walk ashore instead of being winched into barges,' Jack replied.
'Well, of course, that's true,' the quarter-master returned. 'But I've seen more of them than, perhaps, anyone on board, and I know that with half a chance they will steal the eyes from your head, and you'd never know till you missed them. We've seen something of the Malay pirates——'
'Which do you mean, Readyman?' Jack naively inquired.
'Oh, that last lot didn't count,' the quarter-master laughingly replied. 'Jokes aside, my son, the Malay lot put together wouldn't match one gang out of Canton River. I've seen seven of them strung up together for the seizure of a brig and the murder of her entire crew. You couldn't guess what they did. No, lad, not in a month of Sundays—they lashed the poor fellows to the chain cable, and then let it all run out, so that no one should discover what had been done. Anyhow, our people found it out and choked the rascals.'
'Where is the Canton River, Readyman?'
'Why, quite close to us, sonny. Do you see that white-painted Yankee-built steamboat moored alongside the wharf yonder? she makes the return trip a couple of times a week. Every man of the white crew is always armed. They know what to expect, yet some of them get killed.
'If the rascally cut-throats would come out fair and square in the daylight it wouldn't so much matter. A lot of them often ship as passengers, with the leader doing the swell as a first cabin fare, and before anyone can cry "Jack Robinson!" the ship has been seized and her crew killed.'
'But all Chinamen are not pirates, Readyman.'
'Oh no, my son. All the same, I wouldn't trust one of them with a chew of tobacco.'
One morning, shortly after that conversation, several English and Chinese gentlemen came on board, and accompanied by Captain Thorne they made a close examination of the barque.