The Rajah's Fortress — page 67: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

58 THE RAJAH'S FORTRESS. nearly severed the fellow’sarm. The native coolly clutched his captive with the other hand and drag- ged him down still another step, when a bullet from Carew’s revolver toppled him over stone dead; but the poor soldier was snatched by a dozen fiends, and with one despairing cry was swallowed up in the howling mass beneath. Three or four steps down, visible at intervals as the dacoits surged to and fro, was the shaven head of the phonge or priest, the fanatic leader of the attack. The dacoits were guarding his person sacredly, as could be plainly seen, and it suddenly occurred to Melton that if the priest were out of the way the foe would become utterly disheartened and fall back. It was worth trying, at all events, so watching his chance, when the shaven head bobbed up, he took as careful an aim as possible and fired. The result was not just what he had anticipated. The bullet clipped off about an inch of the sacred man’s ear, and buried itself in the head of the man behind. The phonge gave a most terrific yell, and danced about with both hands to his head, while his follow- ers, beside themselves with rage at this fearful outrage, redoubled their cries, and then, as Melton had hoped, drew off from the attack until they could see what damage was done to their sacred leader, for his actions indicated that his last hour had come. COLUM 1OOO SS co