dignified and self-possessed merchant rolled his
eyes round the hut as if in search of something. Suddenly espying a
heavy pole, or species of war-club, which lay in a corner, he seized it
and whirled it round his head as if he had been trained to such arms
from childhood.

Just then a second salvo shook the very earth. Mr Hazlit sprang out of
the hut, shouted, "To the rescue! Aileen, to the rescue!" in the voice
of a Stentor, plunged wildly into a forest-path, and disappeared almost
before the horrified ladies could form a guess as to his intentions.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

RECOUNTS THE WILD, FIERCE, AND IN SOME RESPECTS PECULIAR INCIDENTS OF A
BUSH FIGHT.

Although the pirates were taken aback by this unexpected advance of the
Rajah's gun-boat to within pistol-shot of their very doors, they were by
no means cowed. Malays are brave as a race, and peculiarly regardless
of their lives. They manned their guns, and stood to them with
unflinching courage, but they were opposed by men of the same mettle,
who had the great advantage of being better armed, and led by a man of
consummate coolness and skill, whose motto was--"Conquer or die!"

We do not say that the captain of the gun-boat _professed_ to hold that
motto, for he was not a boaster, but it was clearly written in the fire
of his eye, and stamped upon the bridge of his nose!

The pirate-guns were soon dismounted, their stockade was battered down,
and when a party at last landed, with the captain at their head, and
Edgar with his diving friends close at his heels, they were driven out
of their fortification into the woods.

Previously to this, however, all the women and children had been sent
further into the bush, so that the attacking party met none but
fighting-men. Turning round a bend in a little path among the bushes,
Edgar, who had become a little separated from his friends, came upon a
half-naked Malay, who glared at him from behind a long shield. The
pirate's style of fighting was that of the Malay race in general, and
had something ludicrous, as well as dangerous, about it. He did not
stand up and come on like a man, but, with his long legs wide apart and
bent at the knees, he bounded hither and thither like a monkey, always
keeping his body well under cover of the shield, and peering round its
edges or over, or even under it, according to fancy, while his right
hand held a light spear, ready to be launched at the first favourable
moment in