Blue Jackets: The Log of the Teaser

Ching flourished his arms to right and left, forming a lane for us to pass along, and we followed him for the few dozen yards between the landing-place and his place of business...

The threatening of a storm had passed away, and the sun rose upon us, showing distant mountains of a delicious blue, and the river winding inland broader than at its mouth, and,...

"Oh, if I only dared hooray!" I said to myself; and then a flush of pride rose to my cheeks, for the captain gave me a smart clap on the shoulder.

I felt as it were a sudden jar run through me when I heard Ching's words. It was as if I had been awakened by a sudden revelation. This, then, was the grand show he had contrive...

"At last!" he cried. "I began to think your eyelids were sewed up. Dress yourself, sir; do you hear? Do you suppose that the junior officers of the _Teaser_ are kept here on pur...

He came hurrying aft, nearly tumbling once; while, left to his own power alone, the coxswain redoubled his efforts to keep down the water, and the tin baler went _scoop scroop,...

It was a great relief to us all to find that our visit to the Chinese prison had not been noticed. We of course kept silence about it, not even telling Mr Brooke, who was the mo...

"Oh yes, it's a long way; but with the state of dishipline to which I have brought the _Teaser_ they ought to have been here by now. Suppose we were surrounded by the enemy, and...

For as I looked towards the horizon away to the east, a curious lurid glow spread upward half-way to the zenith, and for the moment I thought that in a short time we should see...

Without a word, I crept cautiously up to my look-out place, listening to the loud shouting and gabbling of the Chinamen as I got nearer to the tuft of greeny growth, which I par...

They were singularly quiet, these people on board the junks, I suppose from old experience teaching them that noise made might mean at one time discovery and death, at another t...

"We're not going to fight, Herrick. I shall go on and find the junks so as to know them again--take their portraits in our minds--and then go back for help. They can't escape ou...

I don't know how it was that I said those words. They came to my lips and I uttered them, making Mr Brooke turn round upon me sharply, in the grey light of dawn.

"Bravo, Gnat! Well done, little 'un!" whispered Barkins the next minute, as I walked aft, feeling quite confused, while my headache and sensation of misery passed off as if by m...

"I sent a message to you, Mr Herrick," he cried angrily, and I could then guess that he had been coming to see why I had delayed. "I have something to say to you, sir, respectin...

"Ever feel at all uncomfortable about--that--Chinaman, Morris?" I said one day, after we had been coasting along the shore southward for about a week. I had not encountered that...

The men were in high glee, and, had they not been checked, would have sent the boat spinning up the river, in their delight to escape from the monotony of harbour-life, and the...

I don't think the Chinese authorities were very grateful to us of the _Teaser_,--there, you see, I say _us_, for I did do something to help in routing out and destroying two nes...

It was all clear enough: the great junk which had so deceived Mr Brooke and Ching had been cast ashore and shattered, these men having escaped and been exploring the island, or...

I was in a great state of excitement, and stood watching the vessel through my spyglass, longing for the distance to be got over and what promised to be a mystery examined. For...

"Very jolly for you," said Barkins, as we cast anchor off Tsin-Tsin a couple of mornings later. "You'll be going ashore and enjoying yourself, while I'm condemned to hobble on d...

"No; allee velly wicked--velly bad men. Feel 'flaid stop all alone. 'Flaid see men again headee chop off. Pilate allee keep together. No come long time; Ching go find something...

All was quiet on the junks, not a man being visible as we sailed out of the river and along the south shore of the estuary; and now, after a long examination, Mr Brooke declared...

There was a consultation in the cabin that evening, as we lay there about four miles from the stranded barque. It had fallen calm, and, as there was no urgency, the captain pref...

That night had set in very dark. The clouds were heavy overhead, and the river now looked intensely black, but toward the shore there were the dull lights of the Chinese town gl...

Ching's announcement cleared up what had been somewhat of a mystery. It had appeared strange to everybody that the junks had been up this river apparently for no purpose, and mo...

"Here he is," cried Barkins, who was resting his leg; while Smith was sitting by the open window so as to catch all the air he could. "Got your promotion?"

The repugnance and horror gave way to a sensation of joy. Here was another companion in misfortune, alive and ready to share the terrible trouble with us, but who was it?

My messmate uttered these words close to my ears in a despairing tone as we dashed on, and now I saw Ching strike to his right, while I made a cut or two at my left, as men star...

For some moments I could not believe it true, and I stood on the thwart and gazed carefully round, scanning every fragment of the wreck in the expectation of seeing some trick t...

Our men laid down the oars with a great deal of care and precision, as if it was important that they should not be a quarter of an inch wrong, and our coxswain doubled himself u...

"Come close up to the table, my lad, and I'll hear what you have to say, for I should be sorry to discourage a young officer who was in earnest about his profession, as I have n...

We three lads, midshipmen on board HM clipper gunboat the _Teaser_, did "tumble over"--in other words, made our way down into the boat alongside--but not so quickly that the fir...

All doubts as to our next destination were set at rest the next morning, for it was generally known that we were making for Tsin-Tsin, at the mouth of the Great Fo river, where...

"I did not see either of those craft with sails," I said to Tom Jecks, as we stood watching the following boat, which was evidently making every possible effort to come up with us.

I hurriedly dressed and went on deck, to find the preparations complete, and I could not help thinking that, if the pirates mistook the _Teaser_ for a man-of-war now, they must...

"Perfect silence, my lads," he said. "Perhaps the lives of all here depend upon it. Now, the sail half up; Jecks, hold the sheet; the others sit in the bottom of the boat. Every...

I suppose that Mr Reardon thought better of his threat, or probably he came to the conclusion that the expectation of punishment would prove as effective as the punishment itsel...

No time was lost in getting out of the mouth of the river, and as soon as the bustle and excitement of the start was over, we three were sent for to the cabin to relate our adve...

"Mr Herrick," said the captain, as I saluted, "I have decided that, as you know so much about this business, you shall go with Mr Brooke in one of the boats; but I wish you to o...

Week had passed, during which we had cruised here and there, in the hope of falling in with the pirates. Once in the right waters, it did not much signify which course we took,...

If ever I was active it was at that moment. I struck out with my clenched fists, throwing all the power I possessed into my blows, and fortunately for me--a mere boy in the gras...

I gave him a comical look, and followed the captain; but I was kept waiting for a few moments at the door while the servant was summoned, and when I did go in my officer was lyi...

"Right, my lad. Get your men together in the stern of your boat, and keep up the fire, while we make fast and try and tow you off. Hi! quick there!" he roared; and a cheer told...

By the time the _Teaser's_ boats had picked up those of the wretches who wished to be saved, I had learned from Mr Brooke how, when the boat struck, he and the others had clung...