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 whizzed threateningly about her head--

and then she got the gun into action.

At the rate of fifty a minute, a stream of projectiles

tore into the bow of the prahu when suddenly a richly

garbed Malay in the stern rose to his feet waving a

white cloth upon the point of his kris. It was the

Rajah Muda Saffir--he had seen the girl's face and at

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