Tommy went off to the gun-room, and the mess-man sent us in any amount of food. What a time we did have! And all the midshipmen crowded in and talked thirteen to the dozen, and wanted to hear all about our adventures, and to see the scratch in my leg. You can imagine how important I felt, especially when Captain Helston, with his arm still bandaged to his side, came to see me, and said some awfully jolly things. What I wanted, though, and what we both wanted, was to know whether we could go back to "No. 3", and I managed awkwardly, and getting very red in the face, to ask him. He smiled grimly, and said, "I’ll see what I can do when you come off the sick-list," and left us happy again. It turned out that Mr. Parker himself had fallen asleep in Captain Helston’s cabin after he had reported to him, and that, as everybody in both destroyers had been practically forty-eight hours without rest, people had been sent to them from the _Laird_ just to keep up steam and keep a look-out during the day. This news made Tommy and myself quite contented, for, at any rate, we were not the only ones who couldn’t keep awake. Mellins and Dumpling had, however, both been sent to "No. 3" to take our place—temporarily we hoped. "You haven’t missed much," added Ogston, the Assistant Engineer, who had been so plucky in the sinking steamer, "for the _Strong Arm_ has not joined us, and we’ve been doing nothing all day." They had buried both Rogers and Stevens. Poor fellows! they lay in a hundred fathoms, and brought our list of killed up to fourteen already. Dr. Fox came in then, cleared everybody out of the cabin, gave orders to the sentry that no one was to be allowed in, turned out the light, and left me. Just like him, was it not? But I had a pencil and paper, turned up the light again, and wrote a tremendous letter home, just to spite him. *CHAPTER XVI* *Captain Helston’s Indecision* A Weary Blockade—Getting Impatient—The Prisoner’s Story—A Willing Prisoner—The Pirates’ Cunning—Ping Sang Excited—News from Home—Helston’s Ill Health—Cummins Indispensable—A Gun-room Scrap—Now to Business The few days which followed after the events narrated in the last chapter were days of peace and devoid of excitement. Well, they were needed, too, to allow the crews of the destroyers to recuperate after their exertions and want of sleep, and to repair the minor damages incurred by the fast steaming of the squadron from Hong-Kong. The two poor fellows who had been killed were buried at sea with all the solemnity possible under the circumstances, all the ships stopping their engines and lowering their ensigns to half-mast, the crews standing bareheaded whilst the service was being read, and remaining "at attention" till, sewn up each in his hammock, the two bodies plunged overboard and sank out of sight.