“I thought all this was over and done for,” said Shaw, busying himself with the cover, “since Sir Thomas Cochrane swept along the Borneo coast with his squadron some years ago.  He did a rare lot of fighting—­didn’t he?  We heard about it from the chaps of the sloop Diana that was refitting in Calcutta when I was there in the Warwick Castle.  They took some king’s town up a river hereabouts.  The chaps were full of it.”

“Sir Thomas did good work,” answered Lingard, “but it will be a long time before these seas are as safe as the English Channel is in peace time.  I spoke about that light more to get you in the way of things to be attended to in these seas than for anything else.  Did you notice how few native craft we’ve sighted for all these days we have been drifting about—­one may say—­in this sea?”

“I can’t say I have attached any significance to the fact, sir.”

“It’s a sign that something is up.  Once set a rumour afloat in these waters, and it will make its way from island to island, without any breeze to drive it along.”

“Being myself a deep-water man sailing steadily out of home ports nearly all my life,” said Shaw with great deliberation, “I cannot pretend to see through the peculiarities of them out-of-the-way parts.  But I can keep a lookout in an ordinary way, and I have noticed that craft of any kind seemed scarce, for the last few days:  considering that we had land aboard of us—­one side or another—­nearly every day.”

“You will get to know the peculiarities, as you call them, if you remain any time with me,” remarked Lingard, negligently.

“I hope I shall give satisfaction, whether the time be long or short!” said Shaw, accentuating the meaning of his words by the distinctness of his utterance.  “A man who has spent thirty-two years of his life on saltwater can say no more.  If being an officer of home ships for the last fifteen years I don’t understand the heathen ways of them there savages, in matters of seamanship and duty, you will find me all there, Captain Lingard.”

“Except, judging from what you said a little while ago—­except in the matter of fighting,” said Lingard, with a short laugh.

“Fighting!  I am not aware that anybody wants to fight me.  I am a peaceable man, Captain Lingard, but when put to it, I could fight as well as any of them flat-nosed chaps we have to make shift with, instead of a proper crew of decent Christians.  Fighting!” he went on with unexpected pugnacity of tone, “Fighting!  If anybody comes to fight me, he will find me all there, I swear!”

“That’s all right.  That’s all right,” said Lingard, stretching his arms above his head and wriggling his shoulders.  “My word!  I do wish a breeze would come to let us get away from here.  I am rather in a hurry, Shaw.”

“Indeed, sir!  Well, I never yet met a thorough seafaring man who was not in a hurry when a con-demned spell of calm had him by the heels.  When a breeze comes . . . just listen to this, sir!”