Such a procedure proved the accuracy of the rumour already rife. Several carpenters soon arrived, and speedily began to knock up tiers of bunks along both sides of the 'tween deck. There was no longer any room for doubt respecting the conveyance of emigrants.
One afternoon several other Chinese workmen brought on board a quantity of iron-work, and within a week it was firmly set up abreast of the mainmast, right across the main deck, and even extended some feet beyond the bulwarks. It was twelve feet high, with sharp-pointed spikes on top, with a small gate on each side, through which the crew might pass at will.
'But what is it for?' Jack inquired.
'Why, to keep the Chinamen from getting aft, should they start any trouble,' Readyman replied. 'Every vessel in this trade is obliged to carry a stockade. Mind you, I'm not saying that this crowd is going to show fight; many ships make successful trips, but others have mysteriously disappeared, and were never again seen or heard of.'
'How could they be navigated, or, if captured, what could be done with such large craft?' Jack exclaimed, since this talk naturally aroused considerable interest in the subsequent career of the 'Alert,' and he had no mind to 'lose the number of his mess,' as sailors say it. Yet, from what he had seen of the Chinese, he could scarcely think them capable of such behaviour.
'That's more than I could tell,' the quarter-master returned. 'Perhaps they know enough to run them ashore at some quiet spot on their own coast, or somewhere in Japan. But I don't believe those folk would have anything to do with them. See here, what did that rascally Malay's grandfather do with the "Olive Branch" and the "Crusader"? At anyrate, all we've got to do is to keep a sharp lookout, and trust in God.'
'Will our men still live in the forecastle?'
'I suppose so; but directly there's any sign of a row they must scoot behind the stockade, and bar the gates.'
Next day a considerable quantity of rice and other food-stuffs was shipped as also extra tanks for holding fresh water. A secret supply of ammunition, with many rifles to replace the old muzzle-loading muskets till then in use, was taken on board.
That work being completed, the first batch of Chinese emigrants, eighty able-bodied men of quiet demeanour, arrived alongside, and with their scanty belongings they were immediately sent to their quarters in the 'tween deck. Some of them carried small brass-bound boxes, but the majority possessed only bundles wrapped in handkerchiefs, and scarcely a bed could be mustered by the crowd.