CHAPTER XIX.
FIDETTE BECOMES MINE.
Exactly six of the boarding party escaped. Trembling with fear inspired by the sudden and terrible death that had overtaken their companions on the deck of the Happy Shark, they sprang into the water and hid themselves under their floating spar.
“Out with the boats and follow them!” cried Fidette, her voice no longer gentle and sweet.
Unfortunately, all our boats had been destroyed, and no possible means of pursuit remained. I was just as glad, because our experience in the boats earlier in the day had not been calculated to inspire confidence in such an attack. What was left of the attacking party was sure to escape. In numbers they were few, but in resources and artifices they were strong. They deserved no mercy. They had made a wanton and heartless attack upon us, and had robbed us of our good commander. They had made Fidette an orphan.
When pursuit was seen to be impossible, I watched the infernal spar slowly moving out into the centre of the Grand Canal. Then I turned my attention to the dead and dying that strewed our decks. Many of the killed were frightfully mangled. The explosion of the shell having torn up the deck, the flying splinters killed as many men as did the concussion.
I gave immediate orders to have all the bodies of the invaders thrown over the side of the ship. This was done without any feeling of remorse.
We gathered our own dead, and I gave orders to have them prepared for burial.
Poor Fidette was inconsolable. I found her bending over the body of her father, wailing piteously!
Examining the old man’s body, I found that he had died from a knife thrust in the heart. The scoundrel who had dealt the blow was a swarthy Lascar, and he had, fortunately for himself, died from the wound inflicted by the Kantoon. Had he still been alive, I am sure I could not have restrained our men from inflicting upon him the most horrible tortures. Remember, they would have felt little resentment toward him for the murder of the good Kantoon; what incensed them specially was the mutilation prior to the final extinction of the old man’s life.