THE MUD FORT MANDARIN.
It was now a most trying moment for me. The mandarin was already within nine or ten feet, and another second would bring him to striking distance. His life was entirely in my power; I could have shot him; but the first blow was only wanted to break the treacherous calm, and cause the immediate slaughter of myself. I felt that my last chance of life depended upon delay; two more seconds would decide it one way or the other. The suspense of that smallest passage of time was indescribable; many days of intense excitement and danger seemed crowded into one moment. The short though terrible hesitation in my mind, whether to shoot the mandarin, fire the remaining barrels of the revolver at his followers, and then jump into the river and swim off, or to delay another second, so as to lose not the merest chance of saving my life, seemed to occupy an age of anxious and momentous thought. At this crisis P—— spoke to me again:
London Published March 15th 1866 by Day & Son, Limited,
Lithogrs Gate Str. Lincoln's Inn Fields
Day & Son, Limited, Lith.
BROUGHT TO BAY AT THE MUD FORT.
"Shoot the mandarin," he shouted. "I will cut the vessel adrift, sheer her in, and try to pick you up. If I cannot quite reach you, take to the water; you can easily get on board, and I'll protect you by opening fire on the imps."
Rapidly glancing, as I fully expected for the last time, upon the clear blue sky above, the bright sun shining upon and making the earth so beautiful and attractive, and vividly recalling a far distant home and a loved mother for my latest earthly thought, I took steady aim at the mandarin's heart and pulled the trigger, shouting to P——, "Cut her adrift, and be sharp about it!"
I naturally expected to hear the report of my pistol, and to see the mandarin fall, while the soldiers would rush forward to avenge his death. Although I am certain I gave the trigger a sufficient pull, the hammer never fell and the mandarin at the moment, when another step towards me would have brought his uplifted sword upon my head, suddenly lost his balance and fell from the narrow gunnel of the boat to the beach. I instantly hailed P—— to "hold on," and he returned to his former position to watch the progress of events.
When the mandarin rolled on the beach, several of his officers seized him and dragged him up the bank, regardless of the struggles he made to return and attack me. Fortunately A-ling arrived upon the scene at this moment, and going to the mandarin, told him that he would go on board and bring the money required. While the leader of the robbers was being brought to his fort, A-ling was taken on board our vessel, after receiving my assent to procure the dollars from P——. Meanwhile the soldiers remained in the same position around myself, while I endeavoured to show them my indifference by producing a cigar and lighting it.
After A-ling had paid the money into the coffers of the banditti, he came to me with two inferior officers, and getting the soldiers to fall back, induced me to descend from my position of vantage, believing all danger was over. Although at first they seemed quiet enough and retired from the boat, I had no sooner reached some little distance from it than they crowded round me. Suddenly, and before I could use my revolver, I was seized from behind by many hands, and while every incident of my life rushed with supernatural rapidity and minuteness of detail through my mind, I was forced upon my knees, when one of the soldiers raised a long and heavy sword to behead me.