The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

554 THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. By what means, however, her crew had discovered the entrance to the harbor must remain a mystery ; probably it was the result of pure accident, for, as has already been mentioned, it was so artfully concealed that even Grant himself, when voyaging to and fro in the raft Curing the earlier part of his sojourn upon the island, had upon more than one occasion been puzzled to find it. Be this as it may, the moment of the proa’s arrival in the river was a most unfortunate one for the occupants of the punt, who were seen and chased by the Malays the instant that their vessel rounded the point. Grant at once saw that escape for himself as well as for the children was impossible ; he was as near-Grant Island as he was to the main, and in which- ever direction he headed he must inevitably be overtaken before he could make good his retreat, and with his usual promptitude he at once decided to continue his course for the islet, hoping to be able to make a sufficiently long stand against the enemy to permit of the children gaining the safe refuge of the fort. He was hailed as soon as seen ; but, of course, the only notice he took of this was to urge the clumsy, heavy punt with redoubled speed through the water. Finding him so contumacious, the Malays then fixed upon him several times, and succeeded in slightly wounding him in the head. As the proa advanced further up the stream,-and drew closer and closer still, in under the lee of the high land, the wind grew light and shy with her, and then, perhaps fearing that after all their prey might escape them, the crew hastily launched a boat and gave chase in her. * But for that unlucky wound in the head, it is possible that Grant might have succeeded in his plucky effort ; but though the bullet inflicted but little actual damage, the blow stunned and dazed him so that for a minute or two he scarcely knew where he was or what he was doing. ‘Trifling as was the amount of time thus lost, it was sufficient to ruin what little chance he originally had; for when the punt at length grounded with a shock on the sandy beach of the creek, the Malays were scarcely a dozen yards astern of her, and Grant had only just time to lift the youngsters out on the sand, to give the hasty injunction, ‘‘ Run away home, children, as fast as ever you can,’’ and to seize an oar in self defense, when the enemy-—nine of themn— were upon him. Of course, armed as he was with no better weapon than a clumsy oar, he had no chance whatever against such overwhelming odds, and, though he managed to fell three of his antagonists, the fight had not lasted two min- utes before his arms were pinioned from behind, his feet tripped from under him, and himself made a prisoner. He was quickly rolled over on his face, and his arms securely lashed behind him, when, this being satisfactorily accomplished, his captors raised him to his feet, and, conducting him to a tree, firmly bound him to its trunk. The idea then seemed to occur to the Malays that possibly the children might not yet be beyond the reach of capture, for two of them set off at a run in pursuit along the path leading to the fort. Grant guessed only too surely at the object of this sudden and hurried ebooks 3) =) (E(0)