first that those in the fort
had succumbed to the attack, and that the eight absentees were remaining
behind in charge of the prisoners. But a little reflection led him to
believe that, had such been the case, the prisoners would have been
brought in triumph to the Malay camp. Could it be possible, then, he
asked himself, that the missing eight had fallen in the attack? It
might be so. The bearing of the four who had returned was anything but
triumphant; and then there was a great deal of excited talk and
gesticulation on their part, seemingly in the nature of an explanation,
and more excited talk among the others, followed, after a long and
stormy debate, by the preparation and despatch of the letter, the
delivery of which we witnessed in the preceding chapter. This last act
of the Malays completely reassured Gaunt as to the safety of the fort
and its inmates, but it also confirmed him in his belief that his own
fate and that of his child was sealed.

The messenger soon returned, a few questions were put to them and
answered; a couple of sentries were posted with loaded muskets at the
entrance to the bush-path leading to the fort; a man was detailed to
keep watch upon the two prisoners; the watch-fire was bountifully
replenished with brushwood; and then the camp sank gradually into a
state of repose.

Then again the question arose in Gaunt's mind. In what manner could he
best set about the task of preparing his child to meet death
unflinchingly? Whilst he was painfully grappling with the problem Percy
himself afforded his father an opening of which the latter at once
gladly availed himself. Stirring uneasily, and with a sobbing sigh
seeming to recover his recollection of where he was and what had
happened to him, the little fellow looked up and asked shudderingly:

"What will the Malays do to us, father?--will they kill us?"

"That is as God wills, dear boy," answered Gaunt with an affected
cheerfulness which he was very far from feeling.

"They may or they may not, I cannot tell. But if they do you will not
be sorry to die with father, will you?"

"I--I--don't know," answered the little fellow, looking terrified.
"Will it hurt us?"

"Oh, no," answered Gaunt, "not at all--nothing, that is, worth thinking
or troubling about. It will _very_ soon be over; and then--_then_, dear
boy, when we come to ourselves again, we shall find that, hand in hand,
you know, we are going up, and up, and up, higher and hi