Page:Malay Sketches.pdf/147

 lima Prang Sěmaun, shouted as he closed the door, “That has wetted you, Pěnglima!”

Wetted him with blood,

Haji Ahi called to the Pěnglima, “Help me, a ’watering’ has befallen our friend”; a polite way of expressing a disaster. By the time they got the man to the ground he was dead, for the spear had struck home,

The Pěnglima, furious at this sight, leapt on the platform, and, finding the door immovable, dashed open a small side-window with the butt end of a musket and fired into the house, but hurt no one.

In the scuffle before the door was closed Haji Mûsah had accidentally given his son-in-law a flesh wound on the shoulder, and that had disabled him, so the defence of the position rested on one man alone.

Pěnglima Prang Sěmaun now summoned Haji Mûsah to surrender, but the reply was, “I will not surrender.”

“Then,” said the Pénglima, “I will riddle the house with bullets.”

“Shoot away,” was the reply.

“I will burn the house down.”

“Burn it,” said Haji Mûsah, ‘‘and do whatever else you like, but I will not give in.”