"Yes, we'll try our best," said the officer sternly; "but it's their turn now. Many a poor wretch have they seen drown, I know, and laughed at when he cried for help." I knew it was true; but all the same there was only one thought besides in my breast, and that was to save all the poor wretches who were clinging to the pieces of wreck. As we drew nearer, we came upon the first of quite thirty, clinging to a sweep which was under his left arm; while, to my horror, I had seen three more swimming without support go down without a cry, and not one rise again. "Easy there," said the officer; "ready there, coxswain; can you reach him with the hook?" The man who was standing in the bows reached out to hook the pirate, but just then the end of the floating sweep touched our boat, and turned right off, so that the coxswain missed his stroke, and the result was that the pirate glided aft. The officer by my side leaned over, reached out, and, to my intense satisfaction, caught the Chinaman by his left sleeve to draw him to the boat; but in an instant the wretch threw his right arm out of the water, and I saw the flash of a long knife in his fingers, as, with his teeth grinning, he struck at my companion with all his might. I was so taken by surprise that I sat as if paralysed; but I was conscious of a quick movement from behind, something red passed over me, and, all instantaneously, there was the flash of another blade, a horrible thud--the pirate was driven under water; and I wrenched, as it were, my eyes round from him to look up over my shoulder at the marine, who with a dexterous twist of his rifle withdrew his bayonet from the savage's chest. "Hurt, sir?" he said. "No thankye, marine. Very quick and well done of you. There, Mr Herrick; now you see why I told you to look out." "The brutes!" I cried excitedly; "they're not worth trying to save." "No," he said; "but we must do it. I suppose they don't believe much in the mercy they'll get from us; so there's no wonder. Look at that!" I turned my head in the direction in which he pointed, and saw what he meant. Five men were clinging to a piece of floating wreck about fifty yards away, and three more left the plank to which they had been clinging as we approached, and swam to join them. I looked at the first group, fully expecting to see them hold out their hands to help their comrades; but in place thereof, I saw one wretch, who occupied the best position on the floating mass of wreck, raise a heavy piece of bamboo with both hands, and bring it down with a crash upon the head of the first man who swam up. "Yah, you cowardly beggar!" roared one of the boat's crew. "I've marked you." "Nice wild-beasts to save, Mr Herrick," said the warrant officer. "I feel as if I should like to open fire on them with my revolver." "It's too horrible," I panted. "Look, look, Mr Grey!" "I'm looking, my lad," said my companion. "Give way, my boys; let's stop it somehow."