The Morning Star had taken three days to load before she left Sumatra. She was heavily laden with exotic lumber and had set a course that would take her to her homeport of Hong Kong. The pirate ship that overtook her was not a Chinese junk, but a clipper. Unlike The Morning Star, the pirate"s clipper was rigged for speed, her decks modified so she could house two hundred men topside. Her crew was a mixture of hard cases, mostly Chinese. Na stood next to Calvin Reese. Each had a glass and was observing their prey. Reese spoke to Na in Na"s dialect.
“She"s heavily laden and can"t outrun us. We"ll be alongside her in an hour.”
Na lowered his glass and called out to his number two, “Get ready, it will be soon.”
The pirates crowded the deck, each making ready his personal weapons. There were
