THE PASSING OF PĔNGLIMA PRANG SĔMAUN
separated from the main building, was connected with it by a platform.
it was here that Pĕnglima Prang Sĕmaun, Haji Ali, and the rest of their crew arrived one morning before daylight and quickly landed under the cover of darkness.
The enterprise they had undertaken was a perilous one. Their force numbered about thirty men all told, they had come about ninety miles right into the heart of the enemy's country, and, if there were any failure, retreat was a choice between a return against the current with a hostile people on either bank, or a long pull to the river's mouth under the same conditions and then the sea.
Pĕnglima Prang Sĕmaun had, however, calculated the chances, and he counted on a successful surprise and, if need be, the pursuit of those tactics which he had already, at Bandar, found so useful.
Once on shore the palisade of Haji Mûsah's house was cautiously approached, and, the gate being locked, it was scaled, and the whole party noiselessly established themselves beneath the house and waited for daylight.
It so happened that the house contained only two men and two women—Haji Mûsah and his wife,
127
