ing ladders all night," Harry said to
Abdool, who was with him on the wall; from which, owing to the fact
that the house stood on a rising knoll of ground, which commanded a
good view over the stockade, the assailants could be seen.

"Well, I have no doubt we shall be able to beat them off. We have
as many men as we want for the circuit of the walls and, while we
shall be partly sheltered, they will have to advance in the open."

The Malays had, indeed, been busy since daybreak in manufacturing
arrows from thin reeds and bamboos, used in the construction of the
huts demolished on the previous evening; tipping them with chips of
stone and winging them with feathers, of which plenty were found in
the houses and scattered about the yard. All felt that this would
be the decisive attack; and that the enemy, after one more repulse,
would draw off. That the repulse would be given, all felt
confident. Already the slaughter of their assailants had been very
great, while very few of their own number had fallen.

An hour later, large parties of the enemy advanced to the stockade.
This they did unmolested, as the distance was too great for
anything like certainty of aim. The rajah again took his place by
Harry's side. Presently, at the sound of a horn, a great flight of
arrows rose high in the air from behind the stockade.

"They are fire arrows!" the rajah exclaimed. "I will send a hundred
men down, to help the women to extinguish them;" and he himself
descended, an officer following, with the men.

The women were all seated close to the platforms and, as the arrows
came raining down, they ran out; being joined by the rajah and his
men. Had the leafy roofs remained in their place, the whole would
have been in a blaze in two or three minutes. As it was, the vast
proportion of the arrows stuck in the earth, and burnt themselves
out; while the few that fell among the debris that had not been
cleared away were extinguished, immediately. For two or three
minutes the showers of arrows continued; and then ceased as, to the
surprise of the assailants, there were no indications of the palace
being on fire.

Then the signal was given for the attack and, exasperated by the
failure of the plan they had relied upon as being certain to cause
a panic, the Malays, with loud shouts, rushed forward. A large
number of them carried ladders and, in spite of the many who fell
under the arrows of the defenders, the ladders were soon planted
agai