The third lieutenant had been shot dead, twelve men had been killed,
ten of the midshipmen's party were missing, and of the rest but
few had escaped without wounds more or less serious.
Harry was the first to recover his senses, being roughly brought
to by a bucket of water being dashed over him. He looked round the
deck. Of those who had sprung on board with him, none were visible
save Dick Balderson, who was lying near him, with a cloth tightly
bound round his shoulder.
As he rose into a sitting position a murmur of satisfaction broke
from some Malays standing near. It was some time before he could
rally his senses.
"I suppose," he thought at last, "they are either keeping us for
torture or as hostages. The rajah may have given orders that any
officers captured were to be spared and brought to him. I don't
know what his expectations are," he muttered to himself; "but if
he expects to be reinstated as rajah, and perhaps compensated for
the loss of his palace, he is likely to be mistaken; and in that
case it will go mighty hard with us, for there is no shadow of
doubt that he is a savage and cruel brute."
He had now shaken off the numbness caused by the blow that he had
received, and he managed to stagger to where Dick was lying, and
knelt beside him and begged the Malays to bring water.
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