His one idea was promotion, and he would stick at nothing to obtain it, caring not at all who suffered in the process. Dr. Fox was there too, reading the _Hong-Kong Evening Mail_ in an easy-chair by the side of the fire, and making some caustic remark from time to time. A strange little group of fighting men it was: Helston, broken in health, and only eager for promotion because promotion meant his marriage to little Miss Milly; Bannerman craving for it for the power in its train; big-hearted Hunter caring not a jot, so long as he got plenty of fighting; and little Cummins, caring little for anything, so long as he could work out practically his scientific theories of modern warfare. The island occupied by the pirates was called Hong Lu—merely a small dot on the Admiralty chart, lying in the middle of the Straits of Formosa, half-way between the Pescadores and Amoy. Ping Sang had had copies made of the rough map, drawn by the English merchant captain a year ago, and passed them round. From these it appeared that Hong Lu was about five miles long, shaped somewhat like a horse-shoe, and that the harbour, inside the loop, was connected with the sea by a narrow passage between high cliffs, formed by the curved-in ends of the island. At the loop end there was also another outlet to the sea even more narrow than the first. The English captain had roughly marked the places, on each side of the entrance, where he had seen them mounting guns, and Ping Sang knew that, among the cargoes of the three steamers captured outside Nagasaki eighteen months ago, there were six 6-inch modern guns and many smaller quick-firers. As these had been intended for a new Chinese fort on the Min river, and as all their mountings and ammunition had also been on board, it would be an easy matter to mount them efficiently. "They’ll give us some trouble," smiled Hunter, gleefully rubbing his big red hands together; "take any amount of hammering if the beggars only fight ’em properly." "I only hope they won’t," muttered Dr. Fox from his easy-chair. "We’ve had quite enough poor fellows killed already, and I don’t want any more work patching up the wounded." "And here is the list of ships," continued Ping Sang. This was the list of Chinese men-of-war which had been run ashore after the battle of the Yalu, and had apparently been salved by some Europeans—the "Mysterious Three". It included the _Yao Yuen_ and the _Mao Yuen_, sister ships, ten years old, and of about three thousand tons. Each carried two Krupp 8-inch and six 4.7-inch guns. Then there was the _Tu Ping_, somewhat larger and still older, carrying a 10-inch Krupp in the bows and nine 6-inch besides—all of them old-fashioned guns. These were probably the three sighted by the English gun-boat whilst cruising in the Chusan Archipelago a few months previously.