The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 173: what you’re looking at

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

THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. 557 course, a man or two to guard himself and his boby—move off to the attack of the fort. And if the attack failed, as he hoped and believed it would, the Malay loss would doubtless be very heavy ; and he had heard quite enough of their vindictive nature to feel assured they would take their revenge upon him and Percy. Yes, the more he thought about it, the more convinced did he become that it was their doom to die. “Well,” he murmured, ‘‘God’s will be done.’’ It was best, perhaps, ‘that his child should die now, young and innocent as he was; and as for himself, if he could but be satisfied that the little fellow’s death was quick and easy, he cared not how soon he followed him. As he cogitated painfully over this problem he saw a partyof twelve Malays detach themselves from the rest and move off in the direction of the fort. ‘Chen after a considerable interval came the sounds of firing, followed some twenty minutes later by the return of four only out of the twelve. A sickening fear came over Grant at first that those in the fort had suc- cumbed to the attack, and that the eight absentees were remaining behind in charge of the prisoners. Buta little reflection led him to believe that, had such been the case, the prisoners would have been brought in triumph to the Malay camp. Could it be possible then, he asked himself, that the missing eight had fallen in the attack? It might be so. ‘The bearing of the four who had re- turned was anything but triumphant ; and there was a great deal of excited talk and gesticulation on their part, seemingly in the nature of an explana- tion, and more excited talk among the others, followed, after a long and stormy debate, by the preparation and despatch of the letter, the delivery of which we witnessed in the preceding chapter. ; This last act of the Malays completely reassured Grant as to the safety of the fort and its inmates, but it also confirmed him in his belief that his own fate and that of his child was sealed. CHAPTER XXXV.—FIGHTING FOR LIFE. THE messengers soon returned, a few questions were put to them and answered ; a couple of sentries were posted with loaded muskets at the entrance of the bushy path leading to the fort ; a man was detailed to keep watch upon the two prisoners ; the watch fire was bountifully replenished ; and then the camp sank into a state of repose. “The long, weary, trying night gradually wore to its close. The moon hung low in the western sky ; the horizon to the eastward paled from violet black to pearly gray ; and‘the stars in that quarter were beginning to lose their luster. 7 The air, which during the earlier hours of the night had been oppressively sultry, now came cool and refreshing to the fevered brows of the anxious watchers; the insects had subdued their irritating din, as is their wont toward the dawn; the watch fire had smoldered down to a heap of gray, feathery, faintly glowing ashes; the two sentinels at the entrance of the bushy path had ceased the alert pacing to and fro, and, having grounded GOMmichbooks-co