Middy and Ensign Part 57

"Give me arms," he said; "I have lost my kris."

"And a good thing, too," said Bob sharply; "a murderous skewer! May I give him a sword, sir?"

"Yes, and a revolver, if he means to fight on our side," said Lieutenant Johnson sharply; and Bob hurriedly ordered the armourer to take the young Malay and supply what was needed. "They are making no signals at the island, Roberts," continued the lieutenant, "and I don't know what to do. I would man a boat and send on--"

"Under me, sir?" said Bob slowly.

"Of course, Mr Roberts; but we are so short-handed, I don't know what to do for the best. Ah! here is your friend. Now, sir; tell us in a few words what this all means."

Ali rapidly told him of his belief, and the lieutenant frowned.

"Certainly there is confirmation of what you say, sir," he said sternly, "but the story sounds wild and strange."

He gazed suspiciously at the young chief; but Ali did not blench in the slightest degree.

Just then the firing seemed to become furious on the island, and the lieutenant stamped his foot impatiently.

"How long is this steam going to be?" he cried. "How I hate being tied by the leg like this, Roberts."

"It's horrible, sir!" cried Roberts, who was stamping up and down the deck, when he was not trying to make out what was going on upon the island, by means of a small gla.s.s. "Let's do something, sir, or the people there will think we are not going to help them."

"What can we do, lieutenant," said the other, "except send a boat?"

"Let's fire a big gun, captain," said Bob; "that'll let 'em know we are all alive; and then send the boat. I'll be very careful, sir."

The lieutenant hesitated as he watched the island through his gla.s.s, and could see the flashes of the pieces as they were fired. In a short time steam would be up, and the vessel could pa.s.s right round the island and engage the prahus, if there were any attacking. Besides, he was very loth to reduce his already short s.h.i.+p's company.

"If it were not already so confoundedly dark," he exclaimed, "we could see what to do. Ah! at last, there goes the signal."

For just then there was a rus.h.i.+ng noise, and a rocket went up from the island, far into the blackness of the night, burst, and the bright blue stars fell slowly, lighting up the palms and fruit-trees upon the island.

"Ready there with a rocket," exclaimed the lieutenant. "Be smart, Mr Roberts."

"Ay, ay, sir," was the reply; and, with a mighty rush, away on high sped the answering signal, to burst and fill the air above them with lambent light.

"That is better than your big gun, Roberts," said the lieutenant.

"No, sir, I don't think it is," said Bob, "for it won't frighten the n.i.g.g.e.rs, and my gun would."

The night seemed to have come on darker than ever, and the rocket stars shone with wonderful brilliancy as they descended lower, and lower, and lower, some even to reach the water before they went out, and just as the last was floating down, Ali, who was close to the two officers, suddenly started, grasped Bob's arm, and exclaimed sharply,--

"Prahus!"

He was pointing with one hand down the stream, but on the middy gazing in the required direction it was too dark to see anything.

"I can see none," he said. "Where?"

"Two prahus coming up rapidly," said Ali; "be ready to fire."

"Not so fast, young sir," said the lieutenant. "Will that steam never be up? Roberts," he cried, "touch the trigger of that life-buoy."

The middy obeyed, and a life-buoy dropped over the side with a splash, a port-fire at the same moment bursting out into a brilliant blue glare, which, as the buoy floated down rapidly with the stream, lit-up the trees on either sh.o.r.e, made the water flash, but above all showed out plainly to all on board a couple of large prahus coming rapidly up the stream, the many sweeps out on either side making the water foam and flash in the blue light shed by the buoy.

"There!" said Ali excitedly, "they are Rajah Gantang's prahus. Fire at them."

"Not so fast, sir," said the lieutenant. "I must first be sure that they are enemies."

He was soon a.s.sured of that fact, for as the steamer was lit-up by the port-fire as well as the prahus, _bang, bang, bang, bang_, one after the other, came the reports of the bra.s.s guns the two long boats had on board, and a hail of small iron b.a.l.l.s came whistling through the rigging.

"There's no doubt about it now," said the lieutenant grimly; and giving the orders as the prahus rapidly advanced, evidently with the intention of boarding, the two big guns on the port-side thundered out a reply, splas.h.i.+ng the water all over one prahu, and going through the matting boarding-screen of the other; but otherwise doing no harm.

The prahus replied, and for a few minutes there was a sharp duel kept up, at the end of which time the oars were seen being swiftly plied, and the two boats went on up stream at a rapid rate, the steamer firing at them as long as they were visible by the lights they had on board.

"Was anything ever so vexatious?" cried the lieutenant. "Here we lie like a log upon the water. Will that steam never be up?"

Just then the welcome news was given, and the order was pa.s.sed down to the engine-room; the screw began to revolve, and the men cheered as the vessel's head was freed from the buoy, to which she had been moored, and they began to steam rapidly in the wake of the two prahus, whose lights had evidently pa.s.sed to the left of the island.

Meanwhile a sharp engagement had evidently been going on in the neighbourhood of the little fort. Once or twice the nine-pounder they had there spoke out, but the princ.i.p.al part of the firing was that of rifles. Lights were seen from the deck, here and there amidst the trees, and were moving upon the sh.o.r.e, where the people were evidently in a state of alarm. Still the occupants of the island seemed to be making a good fight, and the lieutenant felt that he could not be doing them better service than by disposing of the two prahus, and to this end the steamer went on, its commander having a sharp look-out kept, and a man busy with the lead in the forepart of the vessel.

At the end of a few minutes the lights on the prahus were seen; the order, "Full speed ahead!" given, for they were now in the middle of the open reach of the river, and Lieutenant Johnson hoped to sink one or the other of his adversaries by using a little energy.

The shadowy shapes of the two boats were made out at the end of a minute, and a couple of guns were brought to bear upon them, the firing being replied to for a time, the flashes from the guns serving to light up the darkness of the night for a moment, while the roar of the big guns went rolling along the surface of the water, and was echoed from the trees upon the bank.

"Keep that lead going more quickly," shouted the lieutenant, as the last of the prahus, apparently unharmed, pa.s.sed round the head of the island, placing the wooded land between her and the steamer, which followed rapidly in their wake.

The lieutenant's orders were obeyed, and the sounding shouted by the man who handled the lead line.

The river was very deep, but as no good chart existed, and it was dark, extra caution was being used, and all was going on well. In another minute she would have rounded the bend of the island and been in full chase of the fleet enemy, when just as the man had shouted out the depth, there was a sudden shock, which threw several men off their legs, and to the dismay of all, the steamer was tightly fixed upon a mudbank, every effort to release her only seeming to make her settle more firmly down. And this at a moment when her presence might serve to change the fortunes of the attack being made upon the residency.

CHAPTER FORTY.

HOW PRIVATE GRAY WENT A-FIs.h.i.+NG.

Private Gray had hard work to seem composed as he went away to execute his orders. The remarks of Captain Smithers had come like an endors.e.m.e.nt of his own suspicions, and in imagination he saw the island given over to violence and rapine, as a large force of savage Malays, who resented the coming of the English, took advantage of the present state of weakness and carried all before them.

He felt as if a strange pallor was taking the place of the ruddy, sunburnt hue of his face, and he turned sick as he thought of Miss Linton and her cousin; of the major's wife, and those of several of the soldiers.

It would be horrible, he thought; but the next moment his strength of nerve returned, and feeling that the safety of all might depend upon the energy he displayed in his mission, he hurried on towards the fort.

As he went along under the shade of the trees, he recalled that which he had seen when on duty a night or two back, and wondered whether there was any cause for suspicion in the boat that he believed he had seen gliding over the dark river in so shadowy a way. Then he remembered the sounds he had heard; and lastly, he recalled various little things in Abdullah's behaviour, that, trifles in themselves, now seemed to be strangely significant.

By this time he reached the fort, on entering which he found Sergeant Lund perspiring profusely, as with big clumsy unsuited hands he fingered a pen, and wrote laboriously his report, while Private Sim, who had not declared himself ill for a week, lay back under a tree fast asleep.

He was a very unlovely man was Private Sim, especially when asleep, for at this time he opened his mouth very wide, and around it the busy flies were flitting, evidently taking it for the flower of some new kind of orchis or carnivorous plant, and they buzzed about and around it as if enjoying the fun of going as near as they could without quite getting into danger. That it was a fly-trap one big sage-looking insect seemed certain, for he settled on the tip of Private Sim's nose, and seemed to be engaged in making sudden flights and buzzings at young unwary flies as they came near and into danger, driving them away from the yawning cavern just below.

Gray smiled to himself as these ideas flashed across his brain, and then he walked up to the sergeant.