Scores of men then set to work, bringing up the earth and stones that had been piled close at hand.
In the meantime, the three hundred men on the walls kept up a shower of arrows on the enemy.

The battering rams, which consisted of trees stripped of their branches, and some forty feet long and ten inches thick, did their work and, by the time the entrance was secure, the Malays poured in with exultant shouts.
A large supply of the fireballs had been placed on the platforms and, as these were lighted and thrown down, the assailants were exposed to a deadly shower of arrows as they rushed forward.

At this moment the rajah's servant brought up four double-barrelled guns.
"They are loaded," the chief said, as he handed one of these to Harry.
"How long is it since they were fired ?" the latter asked.
"It is three months since I last went out shooting," the rajah replied.
Harry at once proceeded to draw the charges.
"I should advise you to do the same, Rajah.

A gun that has not been fired for three months is not likely to carry straight, and is more dangerous to its owner than to an enemy." The rajah called up two of his men, and one of these at once drew the charges of the guns, and reloaded them from the powder horn and bag of bullets the servants had brought.
The enemy did not press their attack, but retired behind the palisades and, from this shelter, began to shoot their arrows fast, while a few matchlock men also replied.
"It would be as well, Rajah, to order all your men to sit down.
There is no use in their exposing themselves to the arrows, and they are only wasting their own.

We must wait, now, to see what their next move will be.