Dyak and Malay fel like ten­pins before the mur­der­ous fire that was poured upon them from the invis­i­ble death-deal­ing mech­a­nism hid­den amid­ships. Those who were not killed dropped their weapons and fled pre­cip­i­tous­ly for their prahu.
Sing Lee, jab­ber­ing excit­ed­ly, had come to Vir­gini­a’s side, and was load­ing the belt with ammu­ni­tion from the mag­a­zine. The bal­ance of the
fight was short-lived, for scarce­ly had the ene­my turned to flee than Sing’s fore­cast proved cor­rect. The loud report of the gun had aroused the sleep­ing men of the Itha­ca’s crew, and a dozen mem­bers of it led by Budu­dreen and von Horn were soon leap­ing over the ves­sel’s side to board the prahu.

Vir­ginia was watch­ing the prahu from one of the cab­in ports. She saw the momen­tary hes­i­ta­tion and con­fu­sion which fol­lowed Sing’s first
shot, and then to her dis­may she saw the row­ers bend to their oars again and the prahu move swift­ly in the direc­tion of the Itha­ca.
It was appar­ent that the pirates had per­ceived the almost defense­less con­di­tion of the schooner. In a few min­utes they would be swarm­ing the deck, for poor old Sing would be entire­ly help­less to repel them. If Dr.von Horn were only there, thought the dis­tract­ed girl. With the machine gun alone he might keep them off.

At the thought of the machine gun a sud­den resolve gripped her. Why not man it her­self? Von Horn had explained its mech­a­nism to her in
detail, and on one occa­sion had allowed her to oper­ate it on the voy­age from Sin­ga­pore. With the thought came action. Run­ning to the
mag­a­zine she snatched up a feed-belt, and in anoth­er moment was on deck beside the aston­ished Sing.
The pirates were skim­ming rapid­ly across the smooth waters of the har­bor, answer­ing Sing’s harm­less shots with yells of deri­sion and wild,
sav­age war cries. There were, per­haps, fifty Dyaks and Malays–fierce, bar­bar­ic men; most­ly naked to the waist, or with war- coats of bril­liant col­ors. The sav­age head­dress of the Dyaks, the long, nar­row, dec­o­rat­ed shields, the flash­ing blades of parang and kris sent a shud­der through the girl, so close they seemed beneath the schooner’s side.

“What do? What do?” cried Sing in con­ster­na­tion. “Go b’low. Klick!” But before he had fin­ished his exhor­ta­tion Vir­ginia was rac­ing
toward the bow where the machine gun was mount­ed. Tear­ing the cov­er from it she swung the muz­zle toward the pirate prahu, which by now was
near­ly with­in range above the ves­sel’s side– a moment more and she would be too close to use the weapon upon the pirates.
Vir­ginia was quick to per­ceive the neces­si­ty for haste, while the pirates at the same instant real­ized the men­ace of the new dan­ger which
con­front­ed them. A score of mus­kets belched forth their mis­siles at the fear­less girl behind the scant shield of the machine gun. Lead­en pel­lets rained heav­i­ly upon her pro­tec­tion or whis­tled threat­en­ing­ly about her head– and then she gave the weapon to the Dyaks. Such a hail of bul­lets issued forth as none there had ever before beheld. Dyak and Malay fell like ten­pins before the mur­der­ous fire that was poured upon them from the invis­i­ble death-deal­ing mech­a­nism hid­den amid­ships. Those who were not killed dropped their weapons and fled pre­cip­i­tous­ly for their prahu.

Sing Lee, jab­ber­ing excit­ed­ly, had come to Vir­gini­a’s side, and was load­ing the belt with ammu­ni­tion from the mag­a­zine. The bal­ance of the
fight was short-lived, for scarce­ly had the ene­my turned to flee than Sing’s fore­cast proved cor­rect. The loud report of the gun had aroused the sleep­ing men of the Itha­ca’s crew, and a dozen mem­bers of it led by Budu­dreen and von Horn were soon leap­ing over the ves­sel’s side to board the prahu.