I rose from my chair and joined him, so that our voices might not disturb the sleepers below in the saloon, near the open skylight of which I had been seated. "You mean the proas, I suppose," said I. "Yes, I saw them. But there are only four of them, thank goodness. And we are not sure that they are not heading _up_ the straits, instead of toward us. If so, it was no doubt from one of them that the sound emanated that startled you a little while ago, as they must have passed us at no great distance." "_Four_ of them?" exclaimed Roberts; "I only saw _three_; and two of them were heading the same way as ourselves. They were all close together; not more than--" At this moment the tremulous greenish glare of the sheet lightning once more lit up the scene, this time much more strongly than on the first occasion, and in the midst of the quivering radiance there was a single sudden, vivid gleam, like the instantaneous flash of a gigantic lantern behind the dense masses of cloud lying piled along the western horizon, the light being so brilliant as to be quite dazzling after the Cimmerian darkness to which our eyes had become accustomed. But, despite the dazzling brilliancy of the sudden illumination, the retina of my eyes caught and retained the vision of three large proas broad on our _starboard quarter_, about two miles distant, situated precisely as Roberts had described them; and that this vision was no illusion of my senses was instantly demonstrated by the mate, who interrupted himself to quickly exclaim-- "There they are again, sir." "Yes, I saw them," said I. "And there are four more about three miles up the straits, on our port beam. That makes seven craft in our neighbourhood that were certainly not there when the darkness closed down upon us. Now, in order to get where they are they must have been using their sweeps; which, I must confess, has, to my mind, rather a bad look; as, from what I have heard of the Malays, they are not so fond of hard work as to resort to it for mere pastime. However, we shall soon know what they are after; if they are looking for us, that last flash has most probably enabled them to discover our whereabouts; and if they mean mischief they will all be heading for us when next we see them. Meanwhile, Mr Roberts, it is evident that we are about to be treated to a heavy thunderstorm; and as it may bring a violent wind-squall with it, we will make provision for the possibility by stowing all our light canvas. Ah!"--as another and still brighter flash burst forth, followed this time by the low muttering of distant thunder--"there they come; the rascals are certainly after us! Call all hands at once, if you please, Mr Roberts; there will be time to shorten sail, and to prepare a reception for the Malays before they can get alongside."