The Penang Pirate

"And you think, Bill, the skipper's goin' to bring off some more hands like us?"

"I don't think nothin' about it, Jem Backstay. When the cap'en tells me it's all right, I knows it's all right; and that's enough for me! Heave an eye out to starboard, mate; ain't that a light on shore, like a signal or something?"

"Ay, ay!" replied the other, drawing himself up to all the height of his six feet, and stretching out his brawny arms lazily as he peered over the bows through the hazy light, for the sun had just set, and the shore could only be faintly distinguished in the distance. "Aye, aye, my hearty! A light it is for certain."

"Then it's the cap'en, sure!" said Bill; "he's late to-night. I hope we'll start our anchor at last; I'm tired o' this Canton River."

"Foc's'le, ahoy!" at the same moment shouted out Mr Scuppers, the first mate, from the poop, where h