lled ashore, churning up the mud, they startled the dull, heavy
alligators into activity, sending them scurrying off the muddy banks
into deep water, to await the passing of the, to them, large water
monster, whose great bulk dwarfed them into insignificance the most
extreme.

Lower and lower down stream went the steamer with the dense black line
of jungle on either side, till at the suggestion of the Malay pilots the
steam was turned off, a couple of boats lowered, and the position of the
vessel being reversed, she was allowed to float down head to stream, for
quite another half-hour, when the word having been given, a small anchor
that had been hanging down in the water was let go, without so much as a
plash, the stout hemp cable ran quietly out, and the vessel was checked
just off the narrow mouth of a creek, which seemed to run up amidst the
palms and undergrowth, for there were no mangroves till the tidal waters
were reached.

There was a little rapid passing to and fro here, and a couple of boats
were silently lowered down, to go a quarter of a mile below to watch the
other entrance to the creek, for the Malays were too fox-like not to
have a hole for exit as well as one for entry. But everything was done
in the most noiseless manner, so that when three more boats full of
soldiers, marines, and sailors rowed off for the creek, no one would
have imagined that they had slipped off on a deadly errand, or that the
steamer was cleared for action, the guns shotted and every man ready to
let loose a deadly hail that should cut down the jungle like a scythe
amidst the corn.

But the British officers had yet to learn that the Malays were more than
their equals in cunning. No sooner had the steamer passed on into the
bank of mist and darkness that overhung the river, than there was a
rustle, a splash, the rattling noise of large oars being thrust out, and
in a couple of minutes the two long snaky prahus they had passed crammed
with fighting men were gliding up stream towards the residency, where
certainly there were sentries on guard, but no dread of an enemy at
hand.

The boats then had pushed off from the steamer, which lay ready to help
them, and rowing out of the swift waters of the river they began to
ascend the dark and muddy creek, when Bob Roberts, who was with the
lieutenant and part of the soldiers in the same boat suddenly
whispered--

"Hark! wasn't that distant firing?"

They listened, but could hear n