“That—that—well, to speak plainly, I don’t know, except that it does not matter.”
“Oh, does it not, though, if we are run after and taken by that Dutchman you were telling me about! It is my opinion, Master Claud, that we who are sailing in the boat should know all that is going on in her.”
“Then look you, Martin, you must ask Prabu what he has in those casks and cases; for if there be any mischief brewing, the cause lies there.”
“Well,” said he, “who’s afraid? He can’t eat me, I suppose;” and the first time we caught Prabu alone, he put the question; but Prabu answered, as before, “China produce,” and walked surlily away.
“There, Martin,” said I, laughing, “people who don’t ask questions don’t hear stories.”
“You may laugh, Claud,” he replied, angrily; “but it is no laughing matter. Depend upon it, mischief of some kind is brewing.”
But, notwithstanding my brother’s fears, no harm threatened for some weeks. When, however, we were in the China Sea, we fell in with a typhoon, which so knocked us about, that we were compelled to put into a port of Sumatra, in the Straits of Bangka, for repairs; and this delay very nearly cost us dearly, for it was three weeks before we could get under weigh again.
Well, we had reached within a few days’ sail of the Straits of Sunda, when, one morning about day-dawn, as the heavy mists were just clearing away, we espied a ship in our wake; and about the same time she must have descried us, for she sent up a signal for us to stand to, as she was about to send an officer on board. The only answer made by Kati, who was the chief officer upon deck, was to order the crew to shot the guns and crowd sail; but Prabu, coming up, at once countermanded the order. At that moment, a heavy ball whistled through the air over our heads.
“By jingo! the Dutchman means business,” cried Martin, bobbing down his head after the ball had passed.
Kati looked ferocious, and laid his hand upon his creese; but Prabu, quite coolly, said, “Nay, Kati, as becomes a man of Bali, thou art brave; but it is useless now, for our heads are not of stone or rock, that they can resist such missiles; neither, thanks to the typhoon which crippled us, and to the mists which have kept us out of sight of each other, can we outrun her—so let us receive this officer on board as if we loved him. No, it will not do to fight—we must not show our teeth to our friends;” and then he gave the lieutenant some order in a whisper, and disappeared below.