Mr. Ching was very pleased with these, because we now had altogether eleven Mauser rifles and seven or eight hundred cartridges.
It was grand, and I forgot all about the mistakes I had made, and my arm, and only longed for the fog to clear away and to see the Captain stalking through the gateway, and Blucher—I knew that Blucher would be there—smelling the bodies and wagging his tail and looking up at him, thinking he had shot them. It was splendid to know that it was partly due to me that we had driven them off, this last time, and that I had found all that ammunition.
"What were you firing at?" I asked Miller; and he told me that a lot of Chinamen had tried to rush through the gate—not the men with the straw bundles, but others from outside.
"We gave ’em ’gip’, sir." He was very happy.
Mr. Ching told me afterwards that they had some tins of paraffin to throw over the straw. Wasn’t it lucky that I had spotted them?
Sally was awfully sweet to Mr. Ching, said that he had saved her life twice, and was so nice that he ferreted round and got her something hot—tea, I think.
The old American was still sticking to his corner; I don’t think that he had moved all the night.
After we had spoiled their little game they let us alone, and all we had to do was to take it in turns to lie down and sleep, and when we were on watch, to listen for any sign of Captain Lester.
The ships hadn’t fired since the fog had come on. We had wondered what they had been firing at all the time.
You can just imagine how we did long for daybreak, and for that beastly fog to clear away.
A long time afterwards Miller came up to me; he was very excited.
"Listen, sir! Listen! The Cap’en’s a-comin’."
I jumped up; it was still pitch dark, and the fog just as thick as ever, and then I heard far away the noise of Maxims—tut-tut-tut-tut, tut-tut-tut-tut.
"Them’s Mary and Jane, sir, right enough." Those were the names the men had given the two Maxims which we used to drill on field-gun carriages.
"They’ve been firin’ for the last twenty minutes, sir."
The Captain’s coming at last. Hurrah! I couldn’t help giving a shout of joy, and ran off to tell Sally, but Mr. Ching had told her a quarter of an hour ago.
"Guess I’m right tired," was all she said to me, and began crying again. I know she had something she wanted to ask me, but didn’t like to.