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Updated: May 15, 2025
At length, however, the river was reached, and it was evident, to the great delight and relief of all, that the island was safe, and the steamer lay in its old position, unmolested by prahu or attack from the shore.
Rajah Muda Saffir had no stomach for a fight himself, but he was loathe to lose the prize he had but just won, and seeing that his men were panic-stricken he saw no alternative but to rally them for a brief stand that would give the little moment required to slip away in his own prahu with the girl.
At the end of ten minutes one had been struck several times, and her captain ran her close in shore, he and his crew deserting her; while after avoiding only by a miracle at least a dozen shots, the last prahu suddenly turned in by a branch of the river and seemed to go right amongst the palm-trees, when, after a parting shot or two, the steamer proving quite unsuited for chase in such narrow, shallow waters, the lieutenant gave it up, his crew being too weak to continue the chase with the boats.
"We did not expect you nearly so soon," said Nigel, as they heartily shook hands. "It vas because zee vind freshen soon after ve set sail ant, zen, ve made a straight line for zis port, w'ereas you possibly crossed over, ant zen push down zee coast." "Exactly so, and that accounts for your overtaking us," said the hermit. "Is that the lad Baso I see down there with the crew of the prahu?" "It is.
The panglima Ninaka of the Signana Dyaks who manned Muda Saffir's war prahu saw his chief disappear beneath the swift waters of the river, but the word of command that would have sent the boat hurriedly back to pick up the swimmer was not given.
For an instant he stood poised upon the bank as though to spring after the retreating prahu, but the knowledge that he could not swim held him back it was useless to throw away his life when the need of it was so great if Virginia Maxon was to be saved.
At the rate of fifty a minute, a stream of projectiles tore into the bow of the prahu when suddenly a richly garbed Malay in the stern rose to his feet waving a white cloth upon the point of his kris. It was the Rajah Muda Saffir he had seen the girl's face and at the sight of it the blood lust in his breast had been supplanted by another. At sight of the emblem of peace Virginia ceased firing.
By that time the captain of the prahu had arrived, ready to welcome us warmly, for he had been afraid that ill had befallen us. He could not stay long, so our chests were placed on board, and at last there was nothing to do but to take farewell of Ebo, the true-hearted fellow, whose dejected look went to my heart.
The captain, however, who was on the watch for this, caught sight of her, and calling to Blyth and me, we used our cutlasses and pikes with such good effect that the enemy was driven back and their prahu fell astern. I was springing off the poop when I caught sight of a man just creeping in through an after port. I was on the point of running at him with my pike, when he cried out
Several wounds had been received from the limbings, and the men believed that they had pretty well retaliated with the bayonet, but they could see nothing; and checked as they had been, again and again, they were growing disheartened, and thinking what else they could do, when a loud yelling from the prahu, and the reports of several muskets, told of something fresh.
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