CRUISING AFTEK PIKATES. 295 



picking up odds and ends of spoil from the junks, 

 which I now felt sure we should very soon find. My 

 boat had got a couple of hundred yards ahead of the 

 other, fortunately, and had just opened out the mast- 

 heads of a fine large junk hidden behind a low point 

 covered with thick bushes and trees. " I have you, my 

 friend," I inwardly said. At that moment, a flash, a 

 report, and a shower of grape passed over our heads, 

 ploughing up the water like hail on the other side of 

 the boat. It passed through my mind instantly that I 

 had been caught napping in a cleverly devised trap. 

 PulUng short round, three strokes landed the boat in 

 front of the battery, not five yards from their guns; 

 another discharge, which certainly ought to have sent 

 us all into the middle of next week, and the next 

 moment we were amongst the pirates. Every bush 

 and tree appeared to have a rascal behind it blazing 

 away with a jingall; one fellow's eye I caught sight 

 of along his barrel, and feeling at the moment rather 

 vicious, pulled the trigger of my short rifle at him, 

 but a wretched snap was the only result. However, 

 he missed his object as well. The scuffle was soon over, 

 the pirates being driven from their battery and junk 

 into the thick surrounding woods and cover, where I did 

 not care to follow them. The battery and junk now took 



