Page 143 - Malay sketches

THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN

separated from the main building, was connected
with it by a platform.
It was here that Penglima Prang Semaun, Haji
and the rest of their crew arrived one
Ali, morning
before daylight and quickly landed under the cover
of darkness.
The enterprise they had undertaken was a
one. Their force numbered about
perilous thirty
men all told, they had come about ninety miles
into the heart of the if
right enemy's country, and,
there were any failure, retreat was a choice between
a return against the current with a hostile people
on either bank, or a long pull to the river's mouth
under the same conditions and then the sea.
Penglima Prang Semaun had, however, cal-
culated the chances, and he counted on a suc-
cessful surprise and, if need be, the pursuit of
those tactics which he had already, at Bandar,
found so useful.
Once on shore the palisade of Haji Musah's house
was cautiously approached, and, the gate being
it was and the whole
locked, scaled, party noise-
established themselves beneath the house and
lessly
waited for daylight.
It so happened that the house contained only two
men and two women Haji Musah and his wife,
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