Abdullah, or rather Rajah Gantang, saw the fresh forces arriving, and he shouted to them to come on, stepping back half-a-dozen yards, and then leaping on to one of the wired skylights kris in hand.
Close beside him he saw a rough old wounded sailor screwing on something bright that looked like a copper pipe, and then seize hold of an iron spanner; and out of sheer thirst for blood the rajah, after waving to the new comers to come on, made a leap down at the old sailor, who faced him with what seemed to the rajah like a copper gun, presented, and fired—
No, that’s wrong, he watered; for Bob Roberts’ commands were at last executed, and a shower of scalding water from the boilers was sent by means of the hose and branch full in the rajah’s face, driving him away yelling with agony, as Dick made a dash along the deck, the hose trailing after him, took the Malays in flank just as they were making their final dash at the hemmed-in defenders of the vessel, and the fortunes of the day were changed.
Whizz, squish, out flew the steaming water in a scalding shower, and in an instant the fierce crowd of Malays were turned into a set of agonised, dancing, maniacs, a dozen of them turning furiously on Dick, and rushing at him, kris and spear in hand; but with a grim smile on his rough visage, old Dick gave the copper branch a waving motion, and the scalding shower stopped the fiercest of them, drove them back, and as they fled the fresh party summoned by the rajah came running along the deck.
Dick did not flinch, but mentally praying that the supply might hold out, delivered the stream full in their faces as they came yelling up, and after a brave effort to withstand it for a few moments, sending them back, crushed and beaten, stamping, shrieking, leaping overboard, making frantic efforts to escape the pain, while Dick steadily followed them up, playing the boiling water amongst them, and literally cleaning the decks, amidst the cheering of the men.
“Quick there,” cried Lieutenant Johnson, “A man there at the wheel—two! quick! two! She’s afloat. Down there in the engine-room,” he shouted, as he mounted the bridge, for a breeze had sprung up, and the mud that clung round the steamer’s keel having been loosened by the firing, the motion of the vessel, and the pressure on the sails, the corvette had, unperceived, been afloat some minutes, and slowly floating down stream.
In another few seconds she was under full command; and as the men flew to the guns, the lieutenant took deadly revenge upon his fierce enemies by manoeuvring the steamer so that, in spite of the efforts of her crew with their sweeps; he literally sent her over the biggest of the three prahus, the stem of the steamer cutting it in two as if it had been made of paper, and then sinking the naga by a well-directed shot, the crews of both swimming easily towards the shore.
By this time the other two prahus were in full retreat up stream, evidently from a belief that the steamer would not follow; but in spite of his mishap in running aground, Lieutenant Johnson could not resist the temptation to administer the sternest punishment he could contrive; and with full steam on, he gave chase, firing at the two prahus as he went.
At the end of ten minutes one had been struck several times, and her captain ran her close in shore, he and his crew deserting her; while after avoiding only by a miracle at least a dozen shots, the last prahu suddenly turned in by a branch of the river and seemed to go right amongst the palm-trees, when, after a parting shot or two, the steamer proving quite unsuited for chase in such narrow, shallow waters, the lieutenant gave it up, his crew being too weak to continue the chase with the boats.