Tales of the Fish Patrol | Page 2

the shrimp fleet, spread out in a great
half-moon, the tips of the crescent fully three miles apart, and each junk
moored fast to the buoy of a shrimp-net. But there was no stir, no sign
of life.

The situation dawned upon us. While waiting for slack water, in which
to lift their heavy nets from the bed of the bay, the Chinese had all gone
to sleep below. We were elated, and our plan of battle was swiftly
formed.
"Throw each of your two men on to a junk," whispered Le Grant to me
from the salmon boat. "And you make fast to a third yourself. We'll do
the same, and there's no reason in the world why we shouldn't capture
six junks at the least."
Then we separated. I put the Reindeer about on the other tack, ran up
under the lee of a junk, shivered the mainsail into the wind and lost
headway, and forged past the stern of the junk so slowly and so near
that one of the patrolmen stepped lightly aboard. Then I kept off, filled
the mainsail, and bore away for a second junk.
Up to this time there had been no noise, but from the first junk captured
by the salmon boat an uproar now broke forth. There was shrill Oriental
yelling, a pistol shot, and more yelling.
"It's all up. They're warning the others," said George, the remaining
patrolman, as he stood beside me in the cockpit.
By this time we were in the thick of the fleet, and the alarm was
spreading with incredible swiftness. The decks were beginning to
swarm with half-awakened and half-naked Chinese. Cries and yells of
warning and anger were flying over the quiet water, and somewhere a
conch shell was being blown with great success. To the right of us I
saw the captain of a junk chop away his mooring line with an axe and
spring to help his crew at the hoisting of the huge, outlandish lug-sail.
But to the left the first heads were popping up from below on another
junk, and I rounded up the Reindeer alongside long enough for George
to spring aboard.
The whole fleet was now under way. In addition to the sails they had
gotten out long sweeps, and the bay was being ploughed in every
direction by the fleeing junks. I was now alone in the Reindeer, seeking
feverishly to capture a third prize. The first junk I took after was a clean

miss, for it trimmed its sheets and shot away surprisingly into the wind.
By fully half a point it outpointed the Reindeer, and I began to feel
respect for the clumsy craft. Realizing the hopelessness of the pursuit, I
filled away, threw out the main-sheet, and drove down before the wind
upon the junks to leeward, where I had them at a disadvantage.
The one I had selected wavered indecisively before me, and, as I swung
wide to make the boarding gentle, filled suddenly and darted away, the
smart Mongols shouting a wild rhythm as they bent to the sweeps. But I
had been ready for this. I luffed suddenly. Putting the tiller hard down,
and holding it down with my body, I brought the main-sheet in, hand
over hand, on the run, so as to retain all possible striking force. The two
starboard sweeps of the junk were crumpled up, and then the two boats
came together with a crash. The Reindeer's bowsprit, like a monstrous
hand, reached over and ripped out the junk's chunky mast and towering
sail.
This was met by a curdling yell of rage. A big Chinaman, remarkably
evil-looking, with his head swathed in a yellow silk handkerchief and
face badly pock-marked, planted a pike-pole on the Reindeer's bow and
began to shove the entangled boats apart. Pausing long enough to let go
the jib halyards, and just as the Reindeer cleared and began to drift
astern, I leaped aboard the junk with a line and made fast. He of the
yellow handkerchief and pock-marked face came toward me
threateningly, but I put my hand into my hip pocket, and he hesitated. I
was unarmed, but the Chinese have learned to be fastidiously careful of
American hip pockets, and it was upon this that I depended to keep him
and his savage crew at a distance.
I ordered him to drop the anchor at the junk's bow, to which he replied,
"No sabbe." The crew responded in like fashion, and though I made my
meaning plain by signs, they refused to understand. Realizing the
inexpediency of discussing the matter, I went forward myself, overran
the line, and let the anchor go.
"Now get aboard, four of you," I said in a loud voice, indicating with
my fingers that four of