They wouldn't let us come back again, and I know that they didn't decide upon anything; but during the middle watch that night something happened which showed us the way.
It was Mr. Langham's "watch", and at about five bells there suddenly had been a lot of shouting under the bows, and he, the quartermaster, and the signalman had all run for'ard to see what was the matter, and found that a junk had fouled the buoy, drifted down against our bows, and carried away a mast.
They got her clear, but it took a quarter of an hour to do it, and, of course, during that time there had been no one aft at all, and anything might have happened there without anyone knowing of it.
Now, don't you see what the idea was?
Mr. Langham didn't tell us what he was going to do exactly, for fear that we should be asses enough to talk about it to everyone, and that the "Ringdoves" would hear about it as well; but he went aboard the Ringdove in the morning to see the navigator, who was a pal of his (except for the "gun question"), and came back again very excitedly.
"I had a good look at that gun, you chaps, without pretending to do so. The wheels are simply lashed down to some ring bolts, lashed down with rope, and we could cut them adrift as easy as winking."
He and Mr. Hamilton went ashore together and came off late at night, and we all waited for them, and knew that something was in the "wind", but they wouldn't say what, and only told us that they wanted twenty pounds. Mr. Langham said that he would give ten (he was very well off) if we would subscribe the rest, and you may bet your best waistcoat we got that other ten pounds pretty quickly.
We hadn't the faintest notion why he wanted it till two nights after, and then, just before "lights out" in the gunroom, he sent for us all and told us.
My aunt! it was jolly exciting.
He had bought a sampan—one of the Chinese sailing boats which used to bring us off from the shore if we missed the ordinary ship's boat—and had had two large holes made in the bottom, with plugs fitted in them and ropes made fast to each, so that a jolly good strong jerk would pull them out. He had had her loaded with stones, so that she would sink quickly after they'd been pulled out.