Among Malay Pirates : a Tale of Adventure and Peril — John Shaqi
Among Malay Pirates : a Tale of Adventure and PerilHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
General
Among Malay Pirates : a Tale of Adventure and Peril
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Pirates -- Juvenile fiction
Again and again the interpreter called out; but it was some time before
he could make the chief pay attention to him. As the latter caught the
purport of his words his face changed at once, and, after calling to his
men to desist from their search, his head sank on to the shoulder of one
of the men supporting him, and he evidently lost consciousness.
“He is badly hurt, Dick; we had better get him on board, too. Old
Horsley was wishing this morning that he had something to do beyond
administering doses of quinine to the men.”
Taking the tiller, he brought the boat alongside the chief, and four of
the sailors, directed by Dick, gently raised him from the water and laid
him on the bottom of the boat. Blood was flowing freely from an ugly
gash in his face, and it was evident from the manner in which his left
arm hung limp, as they lifted him up, that either the shoulder or the
arm itself was broken.
“Get him alongside at once, lads,” Dick said. “I expect he is more
injured than we see. The other fellows will be all right; they can all
swim like fish.”
In two or three minutes the injured man was laid down under an awning
over the fore deck of the cruiser, and the surgeon at once came up.
“How is the child, Doctor?”
“She is still insensible,” he said, “but she will soon be all right. I
can't discover any injury, and I think it likely that it was the sudden
shock, and perhaps a knock against the side of the boat, that stunned
her; for I have no doubt she could swim, small as she is. This is a much
more serious affair; he has an ugly gash in his temple, his collarbone
is broken, and,” he went on, as he passed his hands down the patient's
side, “he has two, if not more ribs broken.”
“Well, we will leave him to you, Doctor; there are a lot of these
fellows in the water, and I suppose they must be brought on board until
we can get a boat to take them ashore.”
In a few minutes eighteen Malays were brought to the side, and the two
canoes, which were floating level with the water, were towed up and
fastened by a rope to the stern of the gunboat. Even when safely on
deck, the two parties were still so infuriated that they had to be
separated and placed under guards apart from each other. Three or four
had been killed by the stabs of the deadly krises, and their bodies
could be seen floating astern. Several of those rescued had wounds more
or less severe.
“We should not have much chance with those fellows in the water, Mr.
Parkhurst,” an old sailor said to Harry.
“No, indeed, Davis; they could swim round and round us, and our
cutlasses would be very little good against those ugly looking krises.
If we were to leave them to themselves, they would fight to the death;
and, after all, it was no one's fault in particular. Mr. Balderson and
I were watching them; one was crossing the ship's bow just as the other
came out from her side, and they were into each other before either had
time to hold their boat up.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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