Suddenly-- Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha

Suddenly--
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" laughed the little gun sardonically, and the leading canoe swung round broadside to the stream, because the men who steered it were dead, and half of the oarsmen also.
"Ha-ha-ha-h-a-a!"
There was a wild scramble on the second canoe; it swayed, capsized, and the river was full of black heads, and the air resounded with shrill cries.
As for the remainder of the flotilla it swung round and made for safety; the machine-gun corporal slipped in another belt of cartridges, and made good practice up to nine hundred yards, from which two canoes, frantically paddled, were comparatively safe.
Sanders put his tiny telegraph over to full speed ahead and followed.
On the shore the Lulungo made a stand, and missiles of many kinds struck the little steamer. But the Maxim sprayed the village noisily, and soon there came a nervous man waving a palm leaf, and Sanders ceased firing, and shouted through his megaphone that the messenger must swim aboard.
"Lord, we feel great shame," said the man. He stood in a wet place on the deck, and little rills of water dripped from him. "We did not know we fought Sandi the lion, Sandi the buffalo, before the stamp of whose mighty feet----"
Sanders cut him short.
"There is a white man, a white woman, and a young girl in your city," he said. "Bring them to the ship, and then I will sit in the palaver-house, and talk this matter over."
The man shuffled uneasily.
"Master," he said, "the white man died of the sickness; the woman is ill also; as for the girl, I know nothing."
Sanders looked at him, his head on one side like an inquisitive bird.
"Bring me the white man, alive or dead," he said softly; "also the white woman, well or ill, and the girl."
In an hour they brought the unfortunate missionary, having taken some time to make him look presentable. The wife of the missionary came in another canoe, four women holding her, because she was mad.
"Where is the girl?" asked Sanders. He spoke very little above a whisper.
The messenger made no answer.
"The girl?" said Sanders, and lashed him across the face with his thin stick.
"Master," muttered the man, with his head on his chest, "the chief has her."
Sanders took a turn up and down the deck, then he went to his cabin and came out with two revolvers belted to his hips.
"I will go and see this chief," he said. "Abiboo, do you run the boat's nose into the soft sand of the bank, covering the street with the Maxim whilst I go ashore."
He landed without opposition; neither gun banged nor spear flew as he walked swiftly up the broad street. The girl lay before the chiefs hut quite dead, very calm, very still. The hand to cut short her young life had been more merciful than Sanders dared hope. He lifted the child in his arms, and carried her back to the ship. Once he heard a slight noise behind him, but three rifles crashed from the ship, and he heard a thud and a whimper of pain.
He brought the body on board, and laid it reverently on the little after-deck. Then they told him that the woman had died, and he nodded his head slowly, saying it was better so.