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The sampan was directed towards the lofty and splendidly-carved prow of the hnau and brought to rest. Now there looked over the side a dark-faced old Burman, whose face broke into smiles at sight of his old acquaintances. "Hello, Moung San," cried Dent. "We've come to pay you a visit." "Very glad, very glad," replied the Burman. "Come up, come up."
His sampan was his home and movable, therefore the morrow would see him turning its bow downstream to seek that strange city where he had heard, dwelt many Foreign Devils who now and then scattered wealth with a prodigal hand.
The sampan was reached and diverted just before she swung athwart our bows. But scarcely was this achieved, when an explosion took place. My friend was knocked over, and one or two of the men fell back into the cutter. This is what had happened: Johnson finding no one in the sampan, cautiously raised one of the deck hatches with a boat-hook before he left the cutter.
The covering over with boughs fell to the share of the two lads, the shelter of the attap mats and her Malay dress seeming likely to be sufficient for Minnie's protection if they neared any Malay boat, that most dreaded being the naga whose occupants had been put to flight though even if that were encountered, the sampan was now so transformed that it was not likely to be recognised; and once more the little party were in motion, floating down towards the station, the Malay poling the boat and keeping as near as possible to the farther shore.
"Yes, and with bigger shot too if I had a chance," said Bob excitedly, as he proceeded to wring all the water he could out of his clothes, for now the excitement was over he felt slightly chilly. Meanwhile the boatmen were rowing steadily up stream, it having been seen to be useless to attempt pursuit of the Malays in the sampan, and they were rapidly nearing the steamer.
"We understood," she said, "how impossible it was, in such dreadful weather, to undertake so lengthy a crossing in a sampan." She smiled like a pleased child, and I should be fastidious indeed if I did not admit that to-night she is charming.
Within an hour of the ship's sailing, word was brought to me that two women had given up their cabin and that I might have it; it was two miles out to the ship, with no sampan small boat of any kind to get my baggage out, so I tearfully saw this ship sail away. I then decided to return to Nagasaki to try again from that port.
To have acquiesced too readily would have been to have invited still further demands from them. "Only the rifles and ammunition," he said at last, "unless you succeed in keeping the knowledge of my presence from both Barunda's uncle and Muda Saffir. If you do that you shall have the bracelets also." The prow of the sampan touched the bank. "Come!" said one of the warriors.
It was, in fact, one of the Malays from the nearest sampan, who, while a companion had undertaken to stalk the Englishman from the shore, as he sat there asleep, had set off from the boat, meaning to get there at the same time as his friend, but had miscalculated the period it would take.
In this case Tom Long's folly worse, his insult to the master of the sampan roused the fiery Malay on the instant to fury, as he realised the fact that the youth he looked upon as an infidel and an intruder had dared to offer to him, a son of the faithful, such an offence; then with a cry of rage, he sprang at the ensign, bore him backwards to the bottom of the boat; and as the midshipman started up, it was to see the Malay's deadly, flame-shaped kris waving in the air.
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