en killed by balls that had passed through the
embrasures, or by kris or lance wounds, and twenty-eight others had been
more or less severely wounded. A quarter of an hour after the firing
ceased, Captain Forrest himself, with the mate, rowed into the pool
in one of the cutters, and landed at the end of the path close to the
battery.

"I congratulate you on your success, Mr. Ferguson," he said, shaking
hands with the first lieutenant; "it has been a very hot affair, and by
Mr. Morrison's report it was just as well that I decided to change
my plan and come up to your aid, though it has resulted in two of the
prahus getting away."

"Then you sank two of them, sir?"

"No, indeed, we only sank one; the third went down just after we saw her
come out from the pool. Certainly we had not hit her, so that the honor
of accounting for three out of six of the craft falls to you and your
party. Well, Doctor, what is your report? I am afraid it is a bad one."

"Serious, indeed," he went on, after he had received the figures. "Still
it is much less than might have been expected from attacking such a host
of pirates. I am glad to hear that none of the officers are dangerously
wounded."

"Parkhurst had his forearm laid open with a cut from a kris, and
Balderson had one of their spears through his ear. Dr. Horsley said if
it had been half an inch more to the left, it would probably have killed
him. Lieutenant Somers of the marines is more badly hurt, a spear having
gone through the thigh. It cut an artery. Luckily the doctor was close
to him at the moment, and clapped on a tourniquet, and then cut down
to the artery and tied it. As he says, 'A delay of two minutes, and it
would have been all up with the young fellow.' Are the boats safe, sir?"

"Yes, the boat keepers pushed off a little way when the firing began in
the forest, and when they heard the shouts of a large party of the
enemy coming along the path, they went out almost into the middle of
the creek; and it was well they did, for many of the Malays came down
through the path you cut, and would have riddled them with their spears
had they been within reach. The boat keepers acted very wisely; all of
them got into the gig and towed the other boats astern, so that if the
Malays came along, either in their prahus or in their boats, they could
have cut them adrift and made a race of it down to the ship.

"Well, I think that there is nothing more to be done here. The men may
a