The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

oe THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD, So much pleasure, indeed, did they derive from it that they said something to little Percy’s tormentor which was evidently an incitement for him to continue his ill treatment of the child, for the fellow, with an acquiescent grin, had no sooner finished his task of lashing the little fellow to the tree— a task which he performed with the utmost deliberation and gusto—than he retired a pace or two, contemplating the helplessness of his little victim with malignant satisfaction, and then, with a glance toward Grant and a few laughing words to his companions, he stepped forward and dealt the poor child a savage blow upon the mouth with his clinched fist—so cruel a blow that it extorted another piercing scream of pain and terror from the sufferer, and caused his quivering lips to stream with blood. Grant said nothing this time, nor did he renew his worse than useless efforts to burst his bonds, but he directed toward the fellow a look of such deadly ferocity that the wretch actually quailed under it, and seems yer <td enough to slink away into the background under cover of an order bh another Malay, apparently one of the officers of the proa, now Steppe,opr- ward and gave him. . f Possibly the order given may have been to desist from further ill t...it- ment of the child, for the newcomer next said somethin g to the group of onlookers, which caused them also to retire, with many a backward glance of animosity at Grant, which he returned with interest. These dismissed, the officer, if such he was, looked at the sobbing child’s bonds, and, with a muttered word or two, he proceeded to loosen them sufficiently to relieve the little fellow from the cruel suffering they had caused him—a proceeding which won for him a look of unspeakable gratitude from Grant which seemed to be not wholly unappreciated. The loosening of his bonds afforded the poor child so much relief that he now felt almost comfortable, comparatively speaking ; and, exhausted with the pain and terror he had already endured, he soon sank intoa kind of stupor, which, if it did not amount to actual insensibility, approached it so nearly as to afford the poor little fellow at least a temporary forgetfulness of his situation and surroundings. : Grant, speaking quietly once or twice to him without obtaining a reply, . at once saw with intense satisfaction the state his child had fallen into “and to such a state of despair had he now been brought that he would have been positively happy could he have’been assured that his darling boy was dead and beyond the reach of further suffering. For as he now had leisure to reflect, the future, so far as they two were concerned, was without a single ray of hope to brighten it. He knew, of course, that those stanch comrades of his at the fort would not abandon him and his child to the mercy of the Malays without making some attempt at a res- cue ; but there were only three of them, and what could three men, however brave, do against such overwhelming odds unless acting upon the defensive and behind stone walls? There, indeed, but not in the open field, he had some hopes for them, and there he fully expected they would all very shortly have their hands full, for he momentarily expected to see the whole body of the Malays—except, of Eomicbooks 3