At the Point of the Bayonet

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"Now, Abdool, there is not a moment to be lost; it will be our
turn, next."

Their guards had all risen to their feet, watching what was going
on. Three of the bamboos were plucked up in a moment. This afforded
an opening sufficiently large for them to pass through and, keeping
the hut between them and the guard, they made their way through the
plantation, and dashed into the forest. They heard yells of
satisfaction in the village, and Harry had no doubt that the four
troopers had been murdered.

They ran at full speed through the forest and, ten minutes later,
heard loud shouts of dismay; and had no doubt that a party had been
sent to take them out to execution, and had discovered their
escape. It was already almost dark, under the thick shade of the
trees; but for half an hour they ran on, the Malay in advance, for
he could see any obstacles better than they could, the habits and
training of his youth having given him experience in such work.

For a time they had heard loud shouts behind them. These had been
useful, in enabling them to keep a straight course. The Malay now
turned, and struck off at right angles to the line that they had
been pursuing.

"We must keep on, for a time," he said. "When they do not overtake
us, they will scatter through the forest in all directions."

For hours they toiled on, sometimes at an easy walk, sometimes
breaking into a run. At last the Malay admitted that, for the time,
they were safe; and they threw themselves down upon the ground.

"Tomorrow," he said, "they will take up the search in earnest, and
will track our footsteps. We had better take to a tree, now. It
will not be safe to stay here."

The others cordially agreed as, for some time, they had heard the
roars of wild beasts, which abounded in these forests; and Harry
and Abdool had run with their open knives in their hands, prepared
for a sudden attack.

"The others will have gone back to the village, long ago," the
Malay said, when they had made themselves as comfortable as they
could, in the forks of the tree, "except the men who were guarding
us. They will not dare venture into the village, for they would
fear the rajah's anger, even more than death from a tiger. They
will be first in the search, tomorrow morning.

"Which way do you wish to go, my lord?"

"I have been thinking it over, as we came. I think that our best
plan will be to go on to Johore. Doubtless the road down the coast
will be watched. How far from Johore do you think we are?"

"Not very far," the Malay said. "We have been going in that
direction, ever since we first turned--not very straight, perhaps,
but certainly in that direction. I think that we cannot be more
than five or six miles from the town. It lies between the hills we
crossed, and the higher ones beyond. We have been descending a
little, all the time."

"I am afraid that Johore will not be very pleased to see us
arriving empty handed, and to learn that the escort he sent us have
all been killed. Still, the news that we bring him, that his
enemies are not far off, will be useful to him; and we will offer
to aid him in the defence of his town, if he is attacked. At any
rate, it is a satisfaction to know that we have not very far to go,
and have got so good a start of the fellows behind us that they are
not likely to overtake us, before we get there."

More than once, during the night, they heard angry growling at the
foot of the tree. Towards morning there was a scraping sound.

"That is a leopard, sahib," the Malay said, in alarm; "he is
climbing the tree to get at us."

Abdool was sitting immediately below Harry, and the latter called
to him to come up beside him.

"Mount as high as you can, my lord," the Malay said. "The trunk is
not so rough, when you get higher; and the beast will find it
harder to climb."

"We shall do better, here," Harry said. "These two arms, nearly
opposite to each other, are just the thing for us.

"You go out to the end of one, Abdool, and I will go out to the end
of the other. We will climb out as far as we can, and then he will
have to follow us very slowly, whichever way he chooses. If he goes
for you, I will follow him. If he comes my way, you follow him.
When the bough gets thin he won't be able to turn round, and the
one behind can give him a sudden stab, which will make him leave go
his hold."

By the time he had finished speaking, they were each far out on
their respective branches, and the leopard was close to the fork.
It paused a moment, looked at the two men and, after a moment's
hesitation, began to crawl out towards Abdool. Harry at once made
his way back to the trunk, and then followed the animal.

Abdool had gone out as far as he dared and, holding on tightly,
swayed the end of the branch up and down. The leopard, as it
approached him, was evidently disconcerted; and clung to the bough,
which was scarcely six inches in diameter at the point it had
reached. It snarled angrily, as it became conscious that it was
being followed.

Harry, feeling convinced that it could not turn, came fearlessly up
to it, and then struck his knife into its loin. As the blade was
but some four inches long, he had no hope of striking a vital
point.

The leopard uttered a roar, and tried to turn and strike at him
with one of its forepaws; but the blade again penetrated to its
full depth, this time on the other side and, with a start, it lost
its footing, clung for a moment to the branch with its forepaws,
and strove to regain its hold; but Harry brought his knife down,
again and again, on one of its paws.

Abdool, crawling in, quickly struck it under the shoulder and, a
moment later, it released its hold and fell heavily through the
foliage to the ground. For a time it was heard roaring, and then
the sound came only at intervals, and at an increasing distance.

"That was a good business, Abdool," Harry said, as they returned to
their former post, where the Malay rejoined them.

"It was well done, indeed, sahib. When I heard the beast climbing
the tree, it seemed to me that, as we had no weapons except these
little knives, he would surely make an end of one of us."

The interpreter did not understand Mahratti, in which Abdool and
Harry always conversed; but he said in Hindustani:

"I have seen fights with leopards, my lord, but even with krises,
two of my people would hesitate to attack one--they fear them more
than tigers--but little did I think that two men, with small
knives, could save their lives from one. My blood turned to water,
as I saw the beast climbing out on that bough, and you going out
after it."

"I have done a good deal of tiger and leopard hunting, in my time,"
Harry said, "and know that a leopard cannot spring from a bough,
unless it is a fairly stout one--stout enough for it to stand with
all its paws upon it.

"Well, the day is beginning to break. In half an hour's time the
sun will be up, and the wild beasts will have all retired to their
lairs. I hope we shall see no more of them. It is all very well to
fight under such advantages; but on foot, were a tiger hiding near
a path, he would be sure to have one of us as we went along. Our
knives would not do more than tickle him."

Chapter 12: The Defence Of Johore.

Half an hour later, the little party were on their way. They were
stiff, at first, from passing the night in a sitting attitude; but
it was not long before they were able to break into a trot. This
they kept up for an hour then, to their great satisfaction, the
forest abruptly ceased, and they saw, at a distance of about a mile
and a half, the little town of Johore, lying in cultivated fields
that extended to the edge of the forest.

They broke into a walk, for a short distance; and then continued at
their former pace, for they could not tell how close their pursuers
might be behind them. It was not long before they saw men at work
in the fields. The interpreter shouted to them that a party of the
enemy were not far behind and, throwing down their tools, they also
made for the town, spreading the alarm as they went. Fresh and
fleet footed, they arrived some minutes before Harry's party and,
as these entered the place, they found the whole population in the
street, the men armed with spears and krises.

Asking the way, they soon reached the rajah's palace, which
consisted of a central house, round which a number of huts were
built; the whole surrounded by a stone wall, some eight feet high.
The rajah, when they arrived, was questioning some of his people as
to the cause of this sudden alarm. He was greatly surprised at the
sight of Harry, in his full uniform, attended only by one soldier
and a native.

"How comes it that you arrive like this?" he asked, angrily.

"Explain what has happened," Harry said, to the interpreter.

The rajah's brow darkened, as he heard how the escort he had sent
down had been slain, to a man, on the previous day. But his
excitement increased, when told that a strong force of his enemy
was gathered within a few miles of the town; and that an assault
might be immediately expected.

"Will you tell the rajah that I am used to warfare, and shall be
glad to assist him, to the best of my power, in the defence of his
town?"

"How many men were there?" the rajah asked.

"I should think there were a couple of thousand," Harry replied.
"Some of them had matchlocks, but the greater part of them only
spear and kris."

"And we have not more than five hundred," the rajah said. "We
cannot hope to resist them. What think you?"

"I will at once go round the town, and see," Harry said. "It may be
that, being accustomed to war, I can suggest some means of so
strengthening the defences that we may hold them against the
enemy."

The rajah, having heard many tales of the fighting powers of the
whites, said:

"I will go with you. I would defend the place if I could for, if
Johore were lost, I should be but a fugitive. All within it would
be killed, and I should have to beg an asylum from those over whom
I was once master."

Calling a party of his men to follow him, the rajah accompanied
Harry to the edge of the town. It was already surrounded by a
palisade; but this was of no great strength, and its circumference
was fully a mile and a half.

"Tell the rajah that we could make a first defence, here, but his
fighting men are not numerous enough to hold so large a circuit
against four times their number. I should suggest that the whole
population should be set to work to build another palisade, much
nearer to the palace. All the women and children should be sent
inside this, all the provisions in the town be taken into the
palace enclosure, and a large supply of water stored there.

"As soon as the new palisade is finished, all who can be spared
from its defence should set to work to throw up a bank of earth
against the wall; and upon this the fighting men can take their
places, and should be able to defend the palace against any
assault."

The rajah listened attentively to the interpreter.

"The English officer's words are good," he said, "but we have no
timber for the palisades that he speaks of."

"Tell the rajah," Harry said, when this was interpreted to him,
"that there is plenty of wood and bamboos in the huts that stand
outside the line of the new palisade; and that if we pull these
down, we can use the materials. Moreover, in any case it would be
well to level these houses for, if the enemy fired them, it would
be almost certain to fire the houses inside the palisade."

The rajah's face brightened. The tone of assurance in which Harry
spoke reassured him, and he said to the interpreter:

"Tell the officer that my people shall do just as he tells them, if
he will point out where the defence must be erected."

Harry was not long in fixing upon the line for the entrenchments.
It was some two hundred yards in diameter and, at the rajah's
orders, the whole of the men and women of the town set to work, to
pull down the huts standing within fifty or sixty yards of this.
This was the work of a couple of hours, and the materials were
carried up to the line. The stronger timbers were first planted, in
holes dug for them; and the intervals between these were filled
with bamboo poles. On the inside face other bamboos were lashed,
with rattans across them. As fast as these were used, more houses
were pulled down, until the defence was completed, the crossbars
being some nine inches apart.

This work performed, the men, women and children brought up what
provisions they had, and their most precious belongings. These were
carried inside the wall of the palace. It was two o'clock before
the work was finished, and there was then a rest for half an hour.

Then all were set to work to dig a trench, three feet deep with
perpendicular sides, at a distance of two feet from the palisade. A
large store of bamboos that had been too slender for use in the
palisade were sharpened, and cut into lengths of two feet; and
these were planted, thickly, in the bottom of the trench. Others,
five feet long, were sharpened and then thrust through the
interstices between the upright bamboos; the ends being fixed
firmly in the ground inside, while the sharpened points projected
like a row of bayonets, at a height of some two feet above the edge
of the ditch.

It was nightfall before the work was finished. The rajah had,
himself, been all the time upon the spot; and was delighted when he
saw how formidable was the obstacle that had been raised. One small
entrance, alone, had been left; and through this all the women and
children now passed, and lay down in the space between the new
palisade and the wall of the palace.

The men were ordered to take post behind the stockade, and a number
of boys were sent out, to act as scouts and give notice if an enemy
approached. The rajah, however, was of opinion that, as the enemy
would know that the alarm would have been given by the fugitives,
on their arrival, and that the inhabitants would be on their guard,
they would not attack till daylight.

Harry had, at his invitation, gone up at midnight to his house, and
partaken of food; which was also sent out to Abdool and the
interpreter. The rajah would have continued the work all through
the night, had not Harry dissuaded him; saying that, after six
hours' sleep, everyone would work better.

At one o'clock a horn was sounded and, with the exception of a few
men left at the outer palisade, all set to work again. The men were
employed in digging a trench, a foot in depth, inside the inner
palisade; throwing up the earth in front of them, so as to lie
protected from arrows and spears, until it was time for them to
rise to their feet to repel an actual assault. The women and
children filled baskets with the earth thrown from the outer
trench, on the previous day, and carried it inside the wall where,
by five o'clock, a bank two feet high had been raised; and on this
a platform of bamboos, three feet high and eighteen inches wide was
erected.

The work had scarcely been finished when a horn was sounded,
outside the town; and the boys came running in, while the men ran
down to the outer palisade. As day broke, great numbers of dark
figures were seen, making their way through the fields on three
sides of the town.

"The band we saw must have been joined by another. There are
certainly more than two thousand men there. They will undoubtedly
carry the outer palisade. Many of our men will be killed, and many
others will be unable to join us here. I think that it will be much
better to rely on this defence, alone."

Having now great confidence in Harry's judgment, the rajah at once
ordered a horn to be sounded and, in a short time, the whole of the
men were assembled in their stronghold; and the entrance closed by
bamboos, for which holes had been already dug, close together. Then
short lengths were lashed across them, and they were further
strengthened by a bank of earth piled against them.

Before this was quite finished, yells of triumph were heard as the
enemy, finding the palisade unguarded, poured in; expecting to find
that the inhabitants had fled at the news of their approach. They
paused, however, in surprise, at seeing another line of defence
outside the palace. Quickly the numbers increased, until a thick
line of dark figures was gathered at the edge of the cleared space.

Inside the defence, all was quiet. Not a man showed himself.
Doubtful whether the town had not been entirely evacuated, the
Malays paused for some little time, while some of the chiefs
gathered together in consultation. Then a few of the men advanced,
with the evident intention of examining the defences.

They were allowed to approach within ten yards of the ditch, when a
shower of arrows flew from the openings in the palisade; and two,
only, of the Malays fled back to their companions. The fall of the
others provoked wild yells of anger. A horn sounded, and the
assailants rushed upon them from all sides. When within a few yards
of the ditch they hurled their spears, and shot a cloud of arrows.
A large proportion were stopped by the bamboos, but such as passed
through flew harmlessly over the heads of the defenders; who
replied with a far more deadly shower of arrows.

Leaping over those who had fallen, the enemy dashed forward. Those
in front endeavoured to check their course, on arriving at the edge
of the ditch; but they were forced in by the pressure of those
behind, and the long spears of the defenders gleamed out through
the openings of the bamboos, inflicting terrible damage.

In vain the assailants endeavoured to climb out of the ditch. The
bayonet-like line of bamboos checked them; and the arrows of the
concealed defenders told, with terrible effect, on the struggling
mass. At last, at many points, the ditch was literally filled with
dead; and the assailants were enabled to leap upon the line of
bamboos which had so long checked their passage.

The advantage was but slight. The slippery poles were some six
inches apart and, slanting as they did, afforded so poor a foothold
that the Malays were forced to stand between them, on the narrow
ledge between the palisading and the ditch. Here they thrust their
spears between the palisade; but these were wrenched from their
hands, and scores fell from the blows of kris, spear, and arrow;
until at last their leaders and chiefs, seeing how terrible was the
slaughter, and how impossible it was to climb the bamboo fence,
called their men off; and they fell back, pursued by exulting cries
from the women, who were standing on the platform behind the wall
of the palace, watching the conflict, and by the yells of the
defenders of the stockade.

Of these but few had fallen, while some five hundred of the
assailants had perished. The rajah was almost beside himself with
joy, at this crushing defeat of his enemy.

"I do not suppose it is over yet, Rajah," Harry said, through his
interpreter. "There are still some five times our number, and they
will surely not retire without endeavouring to avenge their defeat.
But I hardly think they will attack the stockade again. Possibly
they will try fire, next time; and it will be harder to fight that
than to keep men at bay."

The rajah looked serious.

"Yes," he said, "they cannot return to their homes, and say that
they have left five hundred dead behind them. What do you advise?"

"They will hardly attack again today, Rajah; therefore I shall have
time to think it over. But at present, it seems to me that our only
course is to shoot down as many of those who bring up firebrands as
possible. We have still a number of long bamboos left, and with
these we might thrust away any burning faggots that might be cast
against the palisade."

The rajah nodded.

"That might be done," he said, "and with success, no doubt."

"With success at many points, Rajah; but if they succeed, at only
one point, in establishing a big fire against the stockade; we must
retire within the wall. They cannot burn us out there, except at
the gate; and against that we must pile up earth and stones. But I
should certainly recommend that the roofs of all the buildings
inside should be taken off unless, indeed, you have sufficient
hides to cover them. Still, we need not do that until we are driven
inside the wall. It takes but a short time to take off the broad
leaves with which the roofs are covered."

During the fight, Harry had taken no active part in the conflict.
He had divided the circle into three, and had taken charge of one
division, Abdool taking another, and the rajah a third. They had
each encouraged the men under them, and had gone where the pressure
of the attack was most severe.

On leaving the rajah, Harry joined Abdool.

"They will try again, Abdool; but I don't think they will try to
carry the stockade by assault again."

"They will try fire, sahib."

"That is just what I am afraid of. The archers will shoot down a
good many of them, but in such numbers as they are, this will make
little difference; and we must calculate that, at at least a dozen
spots, they will place blazing faggots against the palisade."

Abdool nodded.

"I have been telling the rajah," Harry went on, "that the men must
provide themselves with long bamboos, which they can thrust through
the openings in the stockade, and push the faggots away. But even
if we do so, we must calculate upon the enemy succeeding, in some
places, in setting the palisades on fire."

"That would be very serious; but of course we should go in behind
the wall."

"I do not want to do that, as long as we can possibly stay here. I
think that, when night comes, we ought to make a sortie."

"But are we not too few, sahib?"

"Too few to defeat them, Abdool, but not too few to beat them up.
You see, the wind always blows, in the evening, up from the sea. I
noticed it last night. It was quite strong. What I should propose
would be to pull up enough bamboos for four men to go out,
together, on the side facing the wind. Two hundred men should first
sally out; remaining, as they do so, close to the ditch. When all
are ready, they should crawl across the cleared ground and then, at
a signal, attack the enemy who, taken by surprise, would be sure to
give way, at first.

"As they attack, fifty men with torches should rush out and follow
them, and set fire to as many huts as they can. As soon as they had
done their work, all should run back, when the signal is given.

"There will be two advantages: in the first place, the sudden
attack will disconcert the enemy, and render them less willing to
expose their lives, by storming a place so desperately held; in the
second place, the wind will carry the flame over the whole town,
and I hope the burning fragrants will carry the flames over all the
fields where the crops are dry; thus causing them much more
difficulty in obtaining dry wood for faggots, and they will be
exposed to our arrows, much longer, before they throw them against
the stockade."

"It would be excellent, sahib; but do you think the men would go?"

"Just at the present moment, they would do anything; they are half
wild with excitement and triumph."

Harry presently went with the interpreter to the rajah's house.

"I have a plan to propose to you," he said, "that will render it
much more difficult for the enemy to set fire to the stockade;" and
he then explained his scheme.

The rajah's eyes glistened with excitement.

"Nothing could be better," he said; "and there is but one fear, and
that is, that the enemy will follow us so hotly, that they will
enter through the breach before we can close it."

"I have thought of that," Harry said, "and the order must be that,
when the signal is given, the men must throw down their torches;
and then each man must run, not for the hole in the stockade, but
to the nearest point, and keep along outside the ditch, and enter
by it. In that way the point at which they entered would not be
known and, moreover, they would be able to enter more rapidly, and
with much less confusion, than if they all arrived together in a
crowd. A party would, of course, be left at the breach when they
sally out and, the moment the last man entered, would replace and
lash the bamboos in their position.

"If, however, we are hotly pursued, you and I, with your own
guards, should remain outside, and keep them at bay until all the
bamboos but one are replaced. This will leave an opening sufficient
for one man, and we must fall back fighting. They certainly would
not venture to follow us through so narrow a passage."

Two hundred and fifty of the men were brought inside the wall, and
the rajah explained to them the duty upon which they would be
employed. He told off fifty of them as torch bearers; explained to
all, carefully, the plan Harry had devised; gave strict orders that
no sound, whatever, must be made until they reached the houses and,
at Harry's request, impressed upon them the absolute necessity for
not allowing their ardour to carry them too far; but that torches
must be thrown down, and everyone run back, as soon as the horn
sounded.

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