Page 291 - Malay sketches

NAKODAH ORLONG

and we stepped back under cover, and then moved
to the sheltering trunk of the fig-tree. Arrived
there we found that besides Nakodah Orlong (about
whose fate there was no doubt, for he fell within a
yard of me), Alang was the only one missing. He
was the last man on the right, and, as no one had
seen him, we concluded that he also had been killed.
It was at once proposed that we should go back and
secure the bodies, but our own people keeping up a
merciless discharge in rear, and the enemy doing
their best in front, we were between two fires, and
thought it best to try and stop our friends at any
rate from shooting us.
We shouted, but that, of course, was no use, no
one could either see or hear us, and it was some
minutes before we were able to let Captain Innes
know of our position. In that time we realised
that even a large tree offers poor shelter from a cross
fire. It did not, however, take us long to decide
that the side towards the enemy was the safest.
That was only the beginning of misunderstanding ;
twice again during the day we were placed in the
same uncomfortable position, and a man kneeling
behind me was shot in the back of his thigh. Once
also the Sikhs made a determined attack on the men
with me as we were trying to outflank the Malays,
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