"You act quickly, Captain," murmured Edwards gratefully.
"Those men are marching to Bantoc to keep order in the town," replied Captain Cortland. "Tell me, as quickly as you can, what is wrong at Seaforth's."
"We were attacked just before daylight this morning," Edwards replied weakly.
"In force?" pressed the post commander.
"Just at a guess there must have been two or three hundred of the Malay fiends."
"Any of the defending party killed?"
"Not when I left, Captain. But four of our native Moro laborers were shot dead before they could reach the main house. The main house was being defended by Seaforth when I left."
"How many white men there?"
"Seaforth, his son, his superintendent and a blacksmith."
"They all escaped into the house at the attack?"