Page 290 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
the Manila boy, and the rest of the scouts. We
and of the rest of the force
had been walking fast,
we could see and hear nothing.
We were talking and laughing (being still a long-
way from Pasir Salak) when suddenly we came to
the end of the cover, for the last few feet of the
corn had been cut down. At this moment Nakodah
"
Orlong said, There they are," and the words were
out of his mouth when we were
hardly greeted by
a volley from the enemy concealed behind a stockade
not a dozen yards in front of us.
Nakodah Orlong fell without uttering another
our
sound, and, the enemy maintaining a brisk fire,
was so uncomfortable that own inclina-
position my
tion was unhesitatingly to get out of the way.
Probably my intention was apparent, for Raja
Mahmud said, " Stand fast and shoot." I was
to him and followed his but as the
obliged advice,
Manila boy and I were the only possessors of
shooting-weapons, and the enemy were hidden
behind a rampart of logs and banana-stems, while
we had no shelter whatever, our continued exis-
tence was due simply to their want of skill.
The absurdity of the situation was apparent, and
was the
its unpleasantness heightened by opening
of a brisk fusilade in our rear. That decided us
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