Page 292 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

and in of our shouts desisted when almost
spite only
within touch of us. It is true, of course, that the
cover was so dense they could not see us until the
last moment. They were so dispirited by this waste
of effort, that they incontinently left the place and
went straight home in spite of all Plunket's attempts
to stop them. That was in no sense his fault, for
they were not his men, and he had never seen them
before the The
previous evening. Penang police
had retired en masse at an even earlier hour, and
explained afterwards, with much force, that it was
had
not for this kind of work that they engaged.
The enemy's stockade was a long rampart im-
penetrable to bullets ; it was faced by a deep and
wide ditch cut at right angles to the river, with one
end on the bank and the other in high jungle. The
work was backed by a thick plantation of bananas,
affording perfect cover, and those defending it were
commanded by the Maharaja Lela in person, and his
father-in-law Pandak Indut, foremost of Mr. Birch's
murderers.
I am not now concerned with the details of the
attack, it is sufficient to say that it did not take long
to prove how serious a mistake had been made in leav-
ing the howitzers behind. The rockets, an old pattern,
were ineffective, and as they all went over the top of
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