Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk — Volume 01 by Gilbert Parker
page 18 of 69 (26%)
page 18 of 69 (26%)
|
figures sprang up on all sides of him. Without a word he drove the
excited horse at his assailants. Three caught his bridle-rein, and others snatched at him to draw him from his horse. "Hands off!" he cried, in the language of Mandakan, and levelled his pistol. "He is English!" said a voice. "Cut him down!" "I am the Governor's son," said the lad. "Let go." "Cut him down!" snarled the voice again. He fired twice quickly. Then he remembered the tribe-call given his father by Pango Dooni. Rising in his saddle and firing again, he called it out in a loud voice. His plunging horse had broken away from two of the murderers; but one still held on, and he slashed the hand free with his sword. The natives were made furious by the call, and came on again, striking at him with their krises. He shouted the tribe-call once more, but this time it was done involuntarily. There was no response in front of him; but one came from behind. There was clattering of hoofs on Koongat Bridge, and the password of the clan came back to the lad, even as a kris struck him in the leg and drew out again. Once again he called, and suddenly a horseman appeared beside him, who clove through a native's head with a broadsword, and with a pistol fired at the fleeing figures; for Boonda Broke's men who were thus infesting the highway up to Koongat Bridge, and even beyond, up to the Bar of Balmud, hearing the newcomer shout the dreaded name of Pango Dooni, scattered for their lives, though |
|