The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 168: what you’re looking at

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

360 THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. As these thoughts darted through Henderson's brain, and with them the frightful suggestion that those three—the unarmed man and the two helpless children, one of them Azs—might at that moment be beset by a cruel and bloodthirsty foe, a cold shudder went through his frame, and hurriedly speaking to his companions a few words which he intended should be reassur- ing, but which his manner rendered quite the reverse, he dashed down the inner stairway to the courtyard, and seizing Grant’s repeating rifle, which he knew to be loaded, and directing Manners and Nicholls—who had rushed out of their room at the sound of the firing—to arm themselves and follow him, he rushed up to the roof again. Descending to the ground by the outer ladder, he hurried in the direction of the creek. He had not advanced in this direction much beyond a hundred yards, along the pathway through the: brush, when a child’s screams—little Lucille’s—smote upon his distracted ear, and, darting forward in a very frenzy of apprehension, as he sprang round a bend in the path the poor child, her head uncovered and her long fair hair streaming behind her, her sweet eyes wild with terror, and her little hands outstretched, rushed up to him and with an inarticulate cry of joy sank exhausted and almost lifeless at his feet. Behind her, not a dozen yards distant, followed a fierce looking Malay, his parted lips revealing the white teeth clenched in the eagerness of pursuit, his cruel black eyes gleaming with the ferocious joy of anticipated success, and with a murderous looking creese with a long blade uplifted in readiness to strike the moment he should have brought the poor innocent little victim within reach of his lean muscular arm. To spring over the prostrate form of his darling child, thus placing himself between her and her pursuer, while he raised his rifle to his shoulder, was an act of such lightning-like rapidity with Henderson that he and his foe were almost within striking distance before he could check his career. The next instant the crack of his rifle rang out sharp and clear, and the Malay, with a convulsive bound, crashed face downward at his feet. Breathless with excitement and the exertion of his short run, his teeth clenched, and the fierce eagerness for battle suddenly awakened to full activ- ity within him, the doctor stood waiting impatiently for the next foe to pre- sent himself. CHAPTER XX X.—LvUCILLE’S STorY. Dr. HENDERSON stood breathless with excitement and suspense for some minutes after his victory over the first Malay, momentarily expecting fresh foes to appear. But none came ; only Manners and Nicholls now appeared upon the scene with their rifles in their hands, and eager questions in their eyes and on their lips for an explanation of the sudden and tragic turn of affairs. To them in a few terse words Henderson stated what had already taken place, adding an expression of his apprehension that Grant and little Percy boo (@) (E(0) aA) cS (E(0) -