Sandokan: The Pirates of Malaysia (The Sandokan Series Book 3)

by Emilio Salgari

  “Where is he?” exclaimed Ada. “Where is my beloved? Let me see him!”

  “Tremal-Naik!” shouted Yanez.

  The Indian rushed into the pagoda and fell before Ada’s feet.

  “Mine!... Still mine!... Tell me again, Ada, tell me that you’ll be my wife!” he exclaimed.

  The young woman placed her hands upon his head.

  “Yes, I will be your wife,” she said. “My father promised me to you, and I love you.”

  Almost simultaneously a rifle blast sounded from across the bay.

  Instantly a voice cried out, “To arms! Pirates of Mompracem! The enemy approaches!”

  Chapter 14

  Rajah Brooke’s Revenge

  AT THE SOUND of that cry, the Tiger of Malaysia rushed to the door of the hut.

  “The enemy here!” he roared. “How can that be!?!”

  He drew his scimitar, a terrible weapon in the hands of that formidable man, and ran out of the fort shouting, “To me, Tigers of Mompracem!”

  Yanez, the pirates, Kammamuri and the two lovers raced after him, weapons drawn. Even the Priestess of the Eastern Temple had picked up a scimitar, ready to fight alongside her benefactors.

  Aier-Duk and his eight men were running down the path to the bay. Sandokan spied a large squadron of armed men, several Dyaks, Indians and Europeans, among the trees a short distance behind them.

  “To arms, pirates of Mompracem! The enemy!” shouted Aier-Duk, racing towards the boat anchored upon the shore.

  Six or seven rifle blasts thundered from the forest and several bullets grazed the water.

  “The rajah’s troops!” exclaimed Sandokan. “So soon! Very well, James Brooke, I accept your challenge!”

  “What shall we do, Sandokan?” asked Yanez.

  “We’ll fight, brother,” replied the pirate. “We have no other option. The fort is sturdy, it will hold.”

  Aier-Duk and his men quickly crossed the small tract of water and reached the island. Sandokan and Yanez rushed towards the brave Dyak and saw that one of his arms was bleeding.

  “Were you ambushed?” asked Sandokan.

  “Yes, Captain, but I didn’t lose a man.”

  “How many men are we dealing with?”

  “At least three hundred.”

  “Who’s in command?”

  “A white man, Captain.”

  “The rajah?”

  “No, not the rajah; a naval officer, a lieutenant.”

  “A tall man with a long red moustache?” asked Yanez.

  “Yes,” replied the Dyak. “I’d say about forty of his men are European.”

  “That’s Lieutenant Churchill.”

  “Lieutenant Churchill?” asked Sandokan.

  “The commander of the fort.”

  “You didn’t see the rajah?” asked the Tiger.

  “No, Captain.”

  Sandokan scowled.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Yanez.

  “The wretch is going to attack by sea,” said the pirate. “The Royalist may be advancing towards this island as we speak.”

  “By Jupiter!” exclaimed Yanez, frowning. “We’ll be caught in a crossfire!”

  “But we’ll fight, and once we’re out of powder and cannonballs, we’ll attack with our scimitars and krises.”

  The enemy troops had stopped six hundred meters from the shore, but at a signal from their commander had begun to advance behind the trees and thickets. Their muskets, having fallen silent for a moment, began to thunder once again.

  “By Jupiter!” exclaimed Yanez, “It’s starting to hail!”

  “Everyone back into the fort!” shouted Sandokan.

  The pirates, Tremal-Naik, Ada and Kammamuri re-entered the courtyard, after having sunk the boat to prevent the enemy from using it to cross the small strip of water.

  They barricaded the entrance with large boulders then opened the numerous loopholes along the walls. Once the work had been completed, the Priestess of the Eastern Temple was led into the great hut and the pirates took to their battle stations.

  “Fire, Tigers of Mompracem!” thundered Sandokan, who had led Yanez and eight of his toughest men up onto the roof of the great hut.

  The pirates responded with a war cry, as the sound of rifle blasts filled the air.

  “Long live the Tiger of Malaysia! Long live Mompracem!”

  The enemy had almost reached the opposite shore, firing incessantly as they advanced. Several men had begun to cut down trees, perhaps intending to build a raft and sail to the island. However, they quickly learned it would not be easy to approach a fort defended by the indomitable pirates of Mompracem. Volley after volley roared forth from the loopholes with speed and precision; minutes later, sixteen men lay dead upon the ground.

  “Fire, Tigers of Mompracem!” shouted the Tiger of Malaysia, his voice thundering repeatedly as he issued command after command.

  “Long live the Tiger! Long live Mompracem!” replied the pirates as they fired their weapons, aiming the bullets into the thick of the enemy attackers.

  The rajah’s soldiers were soon forced to retreat back into the forest. They had just reached the safety of the trees, when they sighted a dark mass advancing along the opposite shore; a large troop of men come to bolster their ranks. A shower of bullets immediately rained down upon the roof of the fort’s great hut, where Sandokan stood, rifle in hand.

  “By Jupiter!” exclaimed Yanez as several bullets whistled past his ears. “There’re more of them!”

  “And ships!” shouted Sambigliong, sitting nearby.

  “Where?”

  “Look over there, at the end of the bay. Two... four... seven... a true fleet!”

  “Good Lord!” exclaimed the Portuguese. “Little brother!”

  “What is it?” asked Sandokan, loading his carbine.

  “We’re about to be surrounded.”

  “You have a rifle, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And a scimitar, and a kris?”

  “Certainly.”

  “Well then, brother, we’ll fight.”

  Without giving a second thought to the bullets whistling about him, he climbed to the top of the roof and thundered, “Tigers of Mompracem, revenge! The Exterminator is approaching! Man the palisades! Fire upon those dogs!”

  The pirates quickly abandoned the loopholes and raced atop the fortress walls, climbing like cats. Tremal-Naik, Sambigliong, Tanauduriam and Aier-Duk led the charge, inspiring the men with their fearlessness. Rifles soon began to fire with incredible fury. Lights flashed from beneath every tree lining the shore, shots cracking in the night. Hundreds upon hundreds of bullets crisscrossed through the air, hissing menacingly.

  From time to time, the thundering voice of the Tiger of Malaysia, the curses of the Tigers, the commands of the rajah’s officers, and the war cries of the Indians and Dyaks could be heard above the fray. At other times, however, triumphant cheers gave way to the shrieks and howls of the wounded and dying. Suddenly a blast roared through the air, drowning out the sound of the musketry. A cannon had announced its arrival.

  “Ah!” exclaimed Sandokan. “The rajah’s fleet!”

  He looked towards the sea. A large silhouette had entered the bay and was heading towards the island; two lanterns, one green, one red, shone from its sides.

  “Sandokan!” shouted a voice.

  “Keep fighting, Yanez!” replied the Tiger of Malaysia.

  “By Jupiter! We have a ship at our backs.”

  “If we have to, we’ll board her—”

  He did not finish. A light flashed from the ship’s bow and a cannonball smashed into the wall, opening a breach as the plank crashed to the ground.

  “The Royalist!” exclaimed Sandokan.

  The ship rushing to aid the enemy was in fact Rajah Brooke’s schooner, the same ship that had attacked and sunk the Helgoland at the mouth of the Sarawak River.

  “Wretch,” roared Sandokan, his eyes enflamed with hatred. “Ah! Why could
n’t I have a prahu as well? I’d show him what the Tigers of Mompracem can do!”

  Another blast thundered from the bridge of the enemy ship and a second cannonball brought down another part of the wall.

  The Tiger of Malaysia howled with rage.

  “We’re done for!” he exclaimed, a note of agony in his voice.

  He rushed down from the roof of the hut, followed by his men, just as a cloud of grapeshot swept across the fort’s summit. He climbed up the barricade that still blocked the entrance and shouted, “Fire, Tigers of Mompracem, fire! Show the rajah who we are!”

  The battle grew fierce. The rajah’s troops, who until then had remained hidden among the trees, charged towards the beach and unleashed an infernal barrage of fire; the fleet, which until then had maintained a cautious distance, noting that it was now backed by a powerful cannon, began to advance, determined, or so it seemed, to land upon the island.

  The pirates’ situation was becoming desperate. They fought with extreme fury, firing upon the ship, then upon the fleet, then upon the troops gathered along the shores of the bay, encouraged throughout by the Tiger’s commands. However, their numbers were too small to fend off such a large enemy!

  Bullets rained down upon them, felling the pirates two or three at a time. The Royalist’s cannons fired without pause, grenade after grenade opening large rifts in the fort’s wall. At three that morning, more reinforcements arrived to assist the attackers: a fast yacht armed with a large cannon. She opened fired immediately and brought down the remnants of the fort’s outer defences.

  “We’re done for!” murmured Sandokan from atop the barricade as he fired at the advancing fleet, “It’s only a matter of time.”

  By four o’clock only seven people remained in the fort: Sandokan, Yanez, Tremal-Naik, Ada, Sambigliong, Kammamuri, and Tanauduriam. The walls reduced to rubble, they had retreated into the great hut, part of which had already been destroyed by the combined cannon fire from the Royalist and the yacht.

  “Sandokan,” said Yanez at one point, “We can’t resist much longer.”

  “As long as we have gunpowder and bullets, we won’t surrender,” replied the Tiger of Malaysia, his eyes fixed on the enemy fleet, which, though repelled six times, was about to attack again and attempt to land its troops.

  “We’re not alone, Sandokan. There’s a woman with us.”

  “We can still win, Yanez. We’ll let the enemy come ashore and fight them man-to-man.”

  “What if a bullet were to strike Ada? She... Careful!”

  A grenade launched from aboard the Royalist had exploded just then, taking down a large tract of the wall, metal fragments whistling into the large room over the group of pirates.

  “They’re going to kill my fiancée!” exclaimed Tremal-Naik who had readily leapt in front of the Priestess of the Eastern Temple.

  “We have to surrender or prepare to die,” said Kammamuri.

  “We have to surrender, Sandokan!” shouted Yanez. “We promised to protect Marianna’s cousin!”

  Sandokan did not reply. Standing by the window, rifle in hand, eyes blazing, lips parted, his face contorted in violent rage, he watched as the enemy rapidly advanced toward the island.

  “We have to surrender, Sandokan,” repeated Yanez.

  The Tiger of Malaysia sighed. A second grenade flew through an opening and struck the opposite wall where it exploded in a shower of burning fragments.

  “Sandokan!” shouted Yanez for the third time.

  “Brother,” murmured the Tiger.

  “We have to surrender!”

  “Surrender!” shouted Sandokan, his voice no longer human. “The Tiger of Malaysia surrender to James Brooke! Never!”

  “There’s a woman here, Sandokan!”

  “I know...”

  “Marianna’s cousin!”

  “I know...”

  “We have no choice, Sandokan. We cannot win!”

  A third grenade exploded in the room as two heavy calibre cannonballs struck the top of the hut, and brought down half the roof. The Tiger of Malaysia turned and looked at his companions. They were all clutching their weapons, ready to continue the fight, the Priestess of the Eastern Temple standing among them. She appeared calm, but her eyes betrayed her anxiety.

  “You’re right,” the pirate murmured darkly. “The battle is lost; ten more minutes of this and the hut will be filled with corpses. We have to surrender.”

  He pressed his hands against his brow.

  “Sandokan!” cried Yanez.

  A loud hurrah drowned out his voice. The rajah’s soldiers had finally reached the island and were charging towards the fort.

  Sandokan shook himself awake. He drew his terrible scimitar and for a moment it appeared as if he were about to rush out of the hut to engage his enemies, but the thought was fleeting and he turned instead to address his friends.

  “The final hour has sounded for the Tigers of Mompracem!” he exclaimed painfully. “Sambigliong, raise the white flag.”

  With a gesture, Tremal-Naik stopped the pirate from fastening some white rags to the barrel of a rifle then advanced towards Sandokan, leading his fiancée by the hand.

  “Sir,” he said, “if we surrender, no harm will come to Ada, Kammamuri, and myself, but the rajah will not spare you and your men; you’ll be hanged as pirates. You’ve saved us; we place our lives in your hands. If there’s any chance of victory, give the order to attack and we’ll rush at the enemy to the cry of “Long live the Tiger of Malaysia! Long live Mompracem!”

  “Thank you, my noble friend,” said Sandokan, his voice deeply moved as he pressed the hands of the Indian and the young woman. “Unfortunately, the enemy has already landed and there are only seven of us. We have no choice but to surrender.”

  “What about you?” asked Ada.

  “James Brooke will not hang me,” replied the pirate.

  “You may proceed, Sambigliong,” said Yanez.

  The pirate climbed up onto the roof of the hut and waved the white flag. They immediately heard a bugle sound from the Royalist’s deck, followed by a loud hurrah. Still clutching his scimitar, Sandokan left the hut, made his way through the courtyard strewn with bodies, weapons and cannonballs, and stopped near the remnants of the barricade.

  Two hundred of the rajah’s soldiers stood in a double line along the shore, weapons levelled, ready to fire. A launch carrying Rajah Brooke, Lord Guillonk and twelve crewmen had been lowered from the Royalist’s side and was rapidly approaching the island.

  “That’s my uncle,” Sandokan murmured sadly.

  He sheathed his scimitar, crossed his arms, and waited for the arrival of his two bitterest enemies.

  Advancing with great speed, the launch landed near the fort minutes later. James Brooke and Lord Guillonk stepped ashore and walked toward Sandokan, a large escort of soldiers following closely behind.

  “Are you requesting a ceasefire or are you surrendering?” asked the rajah, saluting with his sabre.

  “I’m surrendering, sir,” said the pirate, returning the salute.

  “I knew it was just a matter of time before I defeated the indomitable Tiger of Malaysia,” he said. “Sir, I place you under arrest.”

  Sandokan proudly raised his head and cast a menacing look upon his foe.

  “Rajah Brooke,” he hissed. “I still have five Tigers of Mompracem at my command, a small number, but enough to wage battle against your men. At a sign from me, they’d attack and kill you and your escort. You may arrest me once I’ve ordered them to put down their arms.”

  “You’re not surrendering then?”

  “I’m surrendering but only upon certain conditions.”

  “Sir, allow me to bring a few facts to your attention. You may not have noticed, but my troops have already landed; there are only six of you and two hundred and fifty of us; what’s more, I need but wave my hand and every one of their rifles will fire into your chest. I find it odd that even in defeat, the Tiger of Malaysia wishes to d
ictate conditions.”

  “The Tiger of Malaysia is not beaten yet, Rajah Brooke,” Sandokan said proudly. “I still have my scimitar and my krises.”

  “Should I order my men to attack?”

  “You may do as you wish, after you’ve heard what I have to say.”

  “Very well then, proceed.”

  “Rajah Brooke, Captain Yanez de Gomera, the Dyaks Tanauduriam and Sambigliong and myself are from Mompracem, and we surrender upon the condition we be tried by the Supreme Court of Calcutta. However, there are three among us who are not pirates; you will grant Tremal-Naik, his servant Kammamuri and Miss Ada Corishant their freedom. They shall be allowed to go wherever they wish.”

  “Ada Corishant! Ada Corishant!” exclaimed Lord Guillonk, rushing towards Sandokan.

  “Yes, Ada Corishant,” replied Sandokan.

  “That’s impossible!”

  “Why is that, Milord?”

  “She was kidnapped by Indian Thugs and was never heard from again.”

  “She’s in the fort, Milord.”

  “Lord James,” said the rajah. “Have you ever met Miss Ada Corishant?”

  “Yes, Excellency,” replied his lordship. “I met her once, years ago, a few months before she was kidnapped.”

  “Would you recognize her if you saw her again?”

  “Yes, I’m sure of it.”

  “Well then, sir, follow me,” said Sandokan.

  He led them through an opening and into the great hut. The Priestess of the Eastern Temple, Yanez, Tremal-Naik, Kammamuri, Tanauduriam and Sambigliong stood at the centre of the room, rifles in hand, krises clutched between their teeth

  Sandokan took Ada by the hand, presented her to his lordship and said, “Do you recognize her?”

  Two cries filled the air.

  “Ada!”

  “Lord James!”

  Uncle and niece embraced warmly.

  “Sir,” said the rajah, turning toward Sandokan, “How did Miss Ada Corishant escape the Thugs?”

  “Allow her to tell you herself,” replied Sandokan.

  “Yes, tell me everything!” exclaimed Lord James, embracing the young woman through tears of joy. “I want to know all that happened.”

  “Well then, tell him everything, Miss Ada,” said Sandokan.

  The young woman did not wait to be told twice and briefly narrated her story to his lordship and the rajah.