When you
hear it, every man must throw himself down, for the guns will be
already loaded with grape, and I shall fire a broadside towards
the spot where I have heard your signal.
"As soon as the broadside is fired, make down to the shore, occupy
a house close to the water, and keep the Malays off till the boats
come ashore to fetch you off. Your crew has been very carefully
picked. I have consulted the warrant officers, and they have selected
the most taciturn men in the ship. There is to be no smoking;
of course the men can chew as much as they like; but the smell of
tobacco smoke would at once deter any native from entering a hut.
If a Malay should come in and try to escape, he must be fired on
as he runs away; but the men are to aim at his legs."
The instructions were carried out. A small hole was bored in the
back of each of the huts, so that a constant watch could be kept
up unseen by the closest observer in the forest, a hundred yards
behind. The night passed off quietly, as did the next day. The men
slept and watched by turns. On the afternoon of the second day, a
native was seen moving cautiously from tree to tree along the edge
of the forest. As soon as it was dark, Dick, whose watch it was,
crawled cautiously from hut to hut.
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