Two Siamese carefully lashed me so that I could not move, then carried me, not at all roughly, aft to the cabin door, and sat me on the grating, where they left me and returned to the fight, which seemed to be a life and death struggle between two parties into which the crew were divided. I have no taste for horrors, and do not propose serving up a dish of them here, although the temptation to describe the wild beast fury of those yellow and black men is very great. But it must suffice to say that those who were apparently friendly to me were the victors, and having disposed of the dead by summarily flinging them overboard, they busied themselves of their own accord in trimming sail so as to run the vessel in towards the coast.
Meanwhile, the gigantic Chinaman, whose advent had so strangely disturbed the business of our skipper, quietly lifted that unhappy German as if he had been a child, and carried him into the cabin. Ah Toy, doubtless ordered by some one in authority, came and set me free, his face fairly beaming upon me as he told me that it was entirely owing to my humane treatment of the fellows that my life had been spared. To my eager questionings as to what was going to be done with the skipper and the ship, he returned me but the Shibboleth of the East, “No shabee him; no b’long my pidgin.”
I went on with the work of the ship as usual, finding the survivors quite as amenable to my orders as they had ever been, and contenting myself with keeping her on the course she was then making until some way of taking the initiative should present itself. I had given up studying the various problems that had so recently made me feel as if I had gone suddenly mad, and went about in a dull, animalized state, too bewildered to think, and prepared for any further freak of Fate. While thus moodily slouching about, Ah Toy came on deck and informed me that the huge Chinaman was anxious to see me in the cabin. Instinctively I felt that whatever, whoever he was, I could not afford to offend him, so I went on the instant, finding him sitting in the main cabin contemplating the lifeless body of Captain Klenck, which lay on the deck by his side. Although prepared for anything, as I thought, I could not repress a shudder of horror at this spectacle, which did not pass unnoticed by the giant. Turning a grave look upon me, he said, in easy, polished diction--