“So it does, my lad, so you shall stop with me, and load for me while I’m firing. Come along. Now, my lads, steady, and not a Malay pirate shall get through that bush.”
Every man uttered a low cheer, and settled in his place, well hidden from the occupants of the coming prau, and ready to deliver his fire when the enemy came near.
It was coming steadily in, the sweeps being worked by the motley crew of scoundrels on board with a regularity which drew rough compliments from the men, and made Mr Gregory utter a remark.
“Oh, yes,” said the major, “they row well enough, but so did the old galley-slaves in the convict boats. Now, I won’t use my revolver yet, but I’ve got four cartridges of BB shot that were meant for cassowaries or wild swans. Now, Mark, I think I’ll give our friends their first peppering with them.”
“They will not kill, will they, sir?” said Mark anxiously.
“No, not at the distance I shall fire from. Ah, that was better aimed,” he said, as the brass lelah on board the prau was fired, to strike the sand in front of the natural stockade, and then fly right over the sailors’ heads. “I’ll lay a wager, Gregory, that our friends don’t make such another shot as that to-day.”
Then followed a few minutes of painful inaction, which seemed drawn out to hours. While the prau swept slowly in, the sun beat down with terrible force, and there was not a breath of wind to cool the burning air. Fortunately, though, the little stream gurgled among the stones, and was so handy that the men had but to scoop out holes in the sand, or to form them by turning over some huge stone, to have in a few minutes tiny pools of clear cool water with which to slake their thirst.
On came the prau, with her swarthy crew crowding her bamboo decks, and their dark skins shining in the sun. Their spears bristled, and as they leaned over the side and peered eagerly among the bushes, the party ashore felt to a man that once they were in the power of so savage-looking a crew no mercy must be expected.
The men lay close, and to the enemy there was nothing to indicate that there would be any defence.
This seemed to make the Malays more careless, for they came on excitedly, and, as it was about low water, made no difficulty in that calm sea of running their vessel’s prow right ashore.