In addition, two or three corvettes belonging formerly to the Yangtze squadron had disappeared. These, however, could never be made serviceable against modern ships. "That little lot ought not to give us much trouble," said Hunter rather sadly; "they dare not come out and fight us in the open." "They have ten or twelve torpedo-boats," interposed Cummins, who was a devoted believer in the possibilities of the torpedo, "and if those three destroyers, which must have been handed over by the Patagonian Government since we left them at Colombo, reach this precious island of theirs, they will give us no end of trouble." "Yes, perhaps they will," said Hunter cheerfully. "It will add to the excitement, won’t it? Make a more level game, eh? ’No. 2’ and ’No. 3’ ought to be pretty busy with that little lot. Almost wish I was in command of one myself." "I should think it would make a more level game," came from behind Dr. Fox’s newspaper satirically—"much more level." "Well, what shall we do?" asked Helston. "Those three destroyers have at least twelve hours’ start of us, and I don’t suppose it will be possible to catch them, for, of course, we cannot leave until after the funeral of your men, Hunter. Directly the funeral parties have returned we will weigh and proceed north." "Certainly, sir, we shall be ready," replied Bannerman and Hunter, the latter, adding, "Of course, sir, I could not leave till I had buried my men." "Excuse me, sir," interposed Cummins, chuckling in his nervous manner; "those destroyers could not take all the crew of the _Hai Yen_ and her stores without being unseaworthy. They must have had some other ship there, and if she had been a man-of-war we should have seen something of her. Don’t you think that must have been so, sir?" "Certainly; I half suspected it myself." "Well then, sir, they must have had a merchant steamer, and a pretty small one at that, otherwise they could not have got her in close enough to transfer all those stores in one night, the water is so shallow." "Certainly, certainly," nodded the others. "Therefore, if she was small, there are but few such steamers that can steam more than ten knots, and this, or more probably less, will be her speed to Hong Lu, and the destroyers would be pretty certain to convoy her, and so we might catch them as well." "You want us to start immediately?" asked Helston. "Certainly, sir, and at your highest speed, sending ’No. 2’ and ’No. 3’ ahead, if possible, and with luck we might bag them and Hopkins, and the lame Englishman in addition." "But," interposed Bannerman, "your whole plan is based on mere conjecture, Cummins, and you must remember that my ship cannot steam faster than ten knots herself." "You can come on afterwards," replied Cummins, adding maliciously, for he loved to goad Bannerman, "You won’t want an escort, I suppose. Haugh! haugh! haugh!"