But a further examination of the bodies revealed the fact that the pirates, rather than stand their trial, had strangled themselves with strips of their clothing.
“Saved us a lot of trouble,” commented the police inspector. “There’ll be an inquest, of course, but you’ve nothing to fear, Mr. Raxworthy.”
Shortly afterwards, having handed over his prize, Raxworthy returned on board the light cruiser Kirkham and reported for duty.
“Back again, then, Mr. Raxworthy,” commented the commander, who was in high good humour, for had not the midshipman brought no small amount of honour to the ship by his bravery and resource.
“Yes, sir.”
“The admiral has sent a signal asking you to dinner with him to-night. By the bye, I didn’t know that you were promoted to sub-lieutenant.”
“I’m not, sir,” explained the midshipman. “This is a borrowed uniform—the only one available.”
“H’m! I suppose after this you’ll get your promotion. You deserve it. How about your temporary appointment to Sandgrub?”
“She’s well up the Yang-tse by this time, isn’t she, sir?”
The Bloke shook his head and smiled.
“She’s not, it happens. She’s detained at Shanghai through engine defects. Still keen?”
“Rather, sir.”
“Yes; but it was a midshipman they wanted, not a sub-lieutenant. The admiral emphasized that fact.”
Raxworthy thought for a while. There was something about that trip up the Yang-tse in Sandgrub that appealed to him. Another chance of gaining distinction, he felt sure. He was bound to be promoted to sub-lieutenant sooner or later, but there mightn’t be a second chance of serving in a river gunboat.
“Couldn’t I have my promotion deferred a bit, sir?” he asked earnestly.
The commander smiled again.
“Don’t see why not,” he replied. “I can appreciate your motives. Why not ask the admiral when you’re dining with him?”
And Raxworthy did. His luck was in. For a little while longer he would be Midshipman Kenneth Raxworthy, R.N.
PART IV
RAXWORTHY’S RUSE
“Sorry I was unable to report for duty earlier, sir,” said Midshipman Kenneth Raxworthy apologetically.
“Don’t worry about that,” rejoined Lieutenant-commander Wilverley of H.M. river gunboat Sandgrub. “The admiral wirelessed explaining the delay. No matter; you’re in time. Do you know what for?”
“No, sir.”
“A rough house, Raxworthy; a rough house. Do you tumble to it?”
“A scrap up the Yang-tse, sir?” asked the midshipman eagerly.
“Every jolly old indication of it, my lad! This old hooker has only six weeks to do before her two years’ commission is up. We’re due to pay off on the 25th of next month. During the whole time I’ve been in her we haven’t fired a single round except in the quarterly-gunnery exercises; and now, almost at the last lap comes the chance for Sandgrub to have a look in. You’ve heard nothing, I suppose?”
“Of what, sir?”
“Of the plan of operations.”
“No, sir.”
“Good! One doesn’t want them to be known until the show’s over. Now you’re one of us, it’s only right that you should know what you’ve been let in for when I requested the commander-in-chief for the loan of a midshipman. Sit you down. You’ll have an iced drink?”
The lieutenant-commander touched a bell and gave an order to a Chinese messman.
Raxworthy sat down in one of the cane lounge chairs in the captain’s cabin, which was in the superstructure amidships. Owing to her shallow draught—she drew only two feet six inches aft—Sandgrub’s internal arrangements were very differently planned from those of sea-going units of the navy. The cabin extended the whole width of the superstructure. The bulkheads, to a height of four feet, were of steel and thick enough to stop a rifle bullet. The windows were of plate glass—square and not of the scuttle type—and were fitted with jalousies, or sliding louvres, to admit air, but to exclude the glaring sunlight. At the present time they were lowered, giving Raxworthy a wide view of the animated river scene.
“It’s a complicated business,” continued Wilverley. “Six hundred miles up the Yang-tse a cheerful old gentleman, who is known to the Chinese as Fu-so-li, has been raising Cain. He’s not a pukka Chinaman—far from it. I understand that his father was a Russian who had married a Korean woman, and that he had been brought up in a Buddhist monastery until he kicked over the traces.
“At the present time Fu-so-li is at the head of a few thousand bandits. The Chinese Government either cannot flatten him out or doesn’t want to, and they’ve requested the British to do it for them. Strictly speaking the whole business is irregular. We have no right to interfere with the internal affairs of China, even at its government’s request.”
“The Japs would take the job on quick enough,” observed Raxworthy.
“Undoubtedly,” agreed the lieutenant-commander drily; “but, unfortunately, the Chinese—quite rightly in my opinion—have an idea that if the Japs get a hold in any Chinese territory it takes a deuce of a lot to shift ’em—if ever! Luckily for us there is an excuse. Fu-so-li has taken it into his head to loot and burn a trading station managed by an Englishman—a Mr. Blakeborough. Blakeborough is missing—probably he will be held to ransom—but Fu declares that he was carried off by a smaller and rival gang who, apparently, are in the peculiar position of being outlawed by the Chinese Government and at the same time in conflict with Fu-so-li’s crowd. That may be all eye-wash on Fu’s part; the fact remains we’re off up the Yang-tse to square things up, put Fu in irons and release Blakeborough. Now you’d better sling your hammock and make yourself acquainted with the internal arrangements of the ship.”
Raxworthy saluted and withdrew. “Slinging his hammock” he knew to be a mere term of formality. Actually his servant would make up his bed in a bunk. That left the midshipman free to go over the ship and make the acquaintance of his brother officers.
Lieutenant Poundall, the officer-of-the-watch, he had already seen officially. Viner, the other lieutenant, however, took him in hand and showed him round.
Sandgrub was by no means a modern vessel. She had been on the China Station for more than twenty years, and was likely to remain there until it became absolutely necessary to replace her. She was armed with two six-inch guns and recently—as a sign of the times—had been given a pair of three-inch anti-aircraft guns. She was driven by two propellers each working in a tunnel in order to protect the blades from hitting the bottom of the river, since her cruising radius was almost entirely in shallow waters where sandbanks and shoals are many. Most of these are uncharted—not that that made much difference, since the bed of the Yang-tse is constantly shifting both in height and direction.
Raxworthy had completed his tour of the river gunboat and was talking with Poundall on the quarter-deck when he broke off in the middle of a sentence and asked:
“When did you ship that Chink, sir?”
The lieutenant followed the direction of the midshipman’s gaze.