Section 43

He came here and robbed me,’ droned on Cornelius, ‘and he made all the people believe him. But if some- thing happened that they did not believe him any more, where would he be? And the Bugis Dain who is wait- ing for you down the river there, captain, is the very man who chased you up here when you first came.’ Brown observed nonchalantly that it would be just as well to avoid him, and with the same detached, musing
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air Cornelius declared himself acquainted with a back- water broad enough to take Brown’s boat past Waris’s camp. ‘You will have to be quiet,’ he said as an after- thought, ‘for in one place we pass close behind his camp. Very close. They are camped ashore with their boat hauled up.’ ‘Oh, we know how to be as quiet as mice; never fear,’ said Brown. Cornelius stipulated that in case he were to pilot Brown out, his canoe should be towed. ‘I’ll have to get back quick,’ he explained.
“It was two hours before the dawn when word was passed to the stockade from outlying watchers that the white robbers were coming down to their boat. In a very short time every armed man from one end of Patusan to the other was on the alert, yet the banks of the river remained so silent that but for the fires burn- ing with sudden blurred flares the town might have been asleep as if in peace-time. A heavy mist lay very low on the water, making a sort of illusive grey light that showed nothing. When Brown’s long-boat glided out of the creek into the river, Jim was standing on the low point of land before the Rajah’s stockade — on the very spot where for the first time he put his foot on Patusan shore. A shadow loomed up, moving in the greyness, solitary, very bulky, and yet constantly elud- ing the eye. A murmur of low talking came out of it. Brown at the tiller heard Jim speak calmly: ‘A clear road. You had better trust to the current while the fog lasts; but this will lift presently.’ ‘Yes, presently we shall see clear,’ replied Browm.
“The thirty or forty men standing with muskets at ready outside the stockade held their breath. The Bugis owner of the prau, whom I saw on Stein’s veran- dah, and who was amongst them, told me that the boat, shaving the low point close, seemed for a moment to grow big and hang over it like a mountain. ‘If you
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think it worth your while to wait a day outside,’ called out Jim, ‘I’ll try to send you down something — bullock, some yams — what I can.’ The shadow went on moving. ‘Yes. Do,’ said a voice, blank and muffled out of the fog. Not one of the many attentive listeners understood what the words meant; and then Brown and his men in their boat floated away, fading spectrally without the slightest sound.
“Thus Brown, invisible in the mist, goes out of Patusan elbow to elbow with Cornelius in the stern- sheets of the long-boat. ‘Perhaps you shall get a small bullock,’ said Cornelius. ‘Oh, yes. Bullock. Yam. You’ll get it if he said so. He always speaks the truth. He stole everything I had. I suppose you like a small bullock better than the loot of many houses.’ ‘I would advise you to hold your tongue, or somebody here may fling you overboard into this damned fog,’ said Brown. The boat seemed to be standing still; nothing could be seen, not even the river alongside, only the water-dust flew and trickled, condensed, down their beards and faces. It was weird, Brown told me. Every individual man of them felt as though he were adrift alone in a boat, haunted by an almost imperceptible suspicion of sighing, muttering ghosts. ‘Throw me out, would you? But I would know where I was,’ mumbled Cornelius, surlily. ‘I’ve lived many years here.’ ‘Not long enough to see through a fog like this,’ Brown said, lolling back with his arm swinging to and fro on the useless tiller. ‘Yes. Long enough for that,’ snarled Corne- lius. ‘That’s very useful,’ commented Brown. ‘Am I to believe you could find that backway you spoke of blindfold, like this? ’ Cornelius grunted. ‘Are you too tired to row?’ he asked after a silence. ‘No, by God!’ shouted Brown suddenly. ‘Out with your oars there.3 There was a great knocking in the fog, which after o
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while settled into a regular grind of invisible sweeps against invisible thole-pins. Otherwise nothing was changed, and but for the slight splash of a dipped blade it was like rowing a balloon car in a cloud, said Brown. Thereafter Cornelius did not open his lips except to ask querulously for somebody to bale out his canoe, which was towing behind the long-boat. Gradually the fog whitened and became luminous ahead. To the left Brown saw a darkness as though he had been looking at the back of the departing night. All at once a big bough covered with leaves appeared above his head, and ends of twigs, dripping and still, curved slenderly close alongside. Cornelius, without a word, took the tiller from his hand.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
“I don’t think they spoke together again. The boat entered a narrow by-channel, where it was pushed by the oar-blades set into crumbling banks, and there was a gloom as if enormous black wings had been outspread above the mist that filled its depth to the summits of the trees. The branches overhead showered big drops through the gloomy fog. At a mutter from Cornelius, Brown ordered his men to load. ‘I’ll give you a chance to get even with them before we’re done, you dismal cripples, you,’ he said to his gang. ‘Mind you don’t throw it away — you hounds.’ Low growls answered that speech. Cornelius showed much fussy concern for the safety of his canoe.
“Meantime Tamb’ Itam had reached the end of his journey. The fog had delayed him a little, but he had paddled steadily, keeping in touch with the south bank. By-and-by daylight came like a glow in a ground glass globe. The shores made on each side of the river a dark smudge, in which one could detect hints of colum- nar forms and shadows of twisted branches high up. The mist was still thick on the water, but a good watch was being kept, for as Tamb’ Itam approached the camp the figures of two men emerged out of the white vapour, and voices spoke to him boisterously. He answered, and presently a canoe lay alongside, and he exchanged news with the paddlers. All was well. The trouble was over. Then the men in the canoe let go their grip on the side of his dug-out and incontinently fell out of sight. He pursued his way till he heard voices coming
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to him quietly over the water, and saw, under the now lifting, swirling mist, the glow of many little fires burn- ing on a sandy stretch, backed by lofty thin timber and bushes. There again a look-out was kept, for he was challenged. He shouted his name as the two last sweeps of his paddle ran his canoe up on the strand. It was a big camp. Men crouched in many knots under a subdued murmur of early morning talk. Many thin threads of smoke curled slowly on the white mist. Little shelters, elevated above the ground, had been built for the chiefs. Muskets were stacked in small pyramids, and long spears were stuck singly into the sand near the fires.
“Tamb’ Itam, assuming an air of importance, de- manded to be led to Dain Waris. He found the friend of his white lord lying on a raised couch made of bam- boo, and sheltered by a sort of shed of sticks covered with mats. Dain Waris was awake, and a bright fire was burning before his sleeping-place, which resembled a rude shrine. The only son of Nakhoda Doramin answered his greeting kindly. Tamb’ Itam began by handing him the ring which vouched for the truth of the messenger’s words. Dain Waris, reclining on his elbow, bade him speak and tell all the news. Beginning with the consecrated formula, ‘The news is good,’ Tamb’ Itam delivered Jim’s own words. The white men, departing with the consent of all the chiefs, were to be allowed to pass down the river. In answer to a question or two Tamb’ Itam then reported the pro- ceedings of the last council. Dain Waris listened attentively to the end, toying with the ring which ultimately he slipped on the forefinger of his right hand. After hearing all he had to say he dismissed Tamb’ Itam to have food and rest. Orders for the return in the afternoon were given immediately. Afterwards
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Dain Waris lay down again, open-eyed, while his personal attendants were preparing his food at the fire, by which Tamb’ Itam also sat talking to the men who lounged up to hear the latest intelligence from the town. The sun was eating up the mist. A good watch was kept upon the reach of the main stream where the boat of the whites was expected to appear every moment.
“It was then that Brown took his revenge upon the world which, after twenty years of contemptuous and reckless bullying, refused him the tribute of a common robber’s success. It was an act of cold-blooded ferocity, and it consoled him on his deathbed like a memory of an indomitable defiance. Stealthily he landed his men on the other side of the island opposite to the Bugis camp, and led them across. After a short but quite silent scuffle, Cornelius, who had tried to slink away at the moment of landing, resigned himself to show the way where the undergrowth was most sparse. Brown held both his skinny hands together behind his back in the grip of one vast fist, and now and then impelled him forward with a fierce push. Cornelius remained as mute as a fish, abject but faithful to his purpose, whose accomplishment loomed before him dimly. At the edge of the patch of forest Brown’s men spread them- selves out in cover and waited. The camp was plain from end to end before their eyes, and no one looked their way. Nobody even dreamed that the white men could have any knowledge of the narrow channel at the back of the island. When he judged the moment come, Brown yelled, ‘Let them have it,’ and fourteen shots rang out like one.
“Tamb’ Itam told me the surprise was so great that, except for those who fell dead or wounded, not a soul of them moved for quite an appreciable time after the first discharge. Then a man screamed, and after that
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scream a great yell of amazement and fear went up from all the throats. A blind panic drove these men in a surging swaying mob to and fro along the shore like a herd of cattle afraid of the water. Some few jumped into the river then, but most of them did so only after the last discharge. Three times Brown’s men fired into the ruck, Brown, the only one in view, cursing and yell- ing, ‘ Aim low ! aim low ! ’
“Tamb’ Itam says that, as for him, he understood at the first volley what had happened. Though un- touched he fell down and lay as if dead, but with his eyes open. At the sound of the first shots Dain Waris, reclining on the couch, jumped up and ran out upon the open shore, just in time to receive a bullet in his fore- head at the second discharge. Tamb’ Itam saw him fling his arms wide open before he fell. Then, he says, a great fear came upon him — not before. The white men retired as they had come — unseen.
“Thus Brown balanced his account with the evil fortune. Notice that even in this awful outbreak there is a superiority as of a man who carries right — the abstract thing — within the envelope of his common desires. It was not a vulgar and treacherous massacre; it was a lesson, a retribution — a demonstration of some obscure and awful attribute of our nature which, I am afraid, is not so very far under the surface as we like to think.
“Afterwards the whites depart unseen by Tamb’ Itam, and seem to vanish from before men’s eyes al- together; and the schooner, too, vanishes after the manner of stolen goods. But a story is told of a white long-boat picked up a month later in the Indian Ocean by a cargo-steamer. Two parched, yellow, glassy-eyed, whispering skeletons in her recognized the authority of a third, who declared that his name was Brown. His
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schooner, he reported, bound south with a cargo of Java sugar, had sprung a bad leak and sank under his feet. He and his companions were the survivors of a crew of six. The two died on board the steamer which rescued them. Brown lived to be seen by me, and I can testify that he had played his part to the last.
“It seems, however, that in going away they had neglected to cast off Cornelius’s canoe. Cornelius him- self Brown had let go at the beginning of the shooting, with a kick for a parting benediction. Tamb’ Itam, after arising from amongst the dead, saw the Nazarene running up and down the shore amongst the corpses and the expiring fires. He uttered little cries. Suddenly he rushed to the water, and made frantic efforts to get one of the Bugis boats into the water. ‘Afterwards, till he had seen me,’ related Tamb’ Itam, ‘he stood looking at the heavy canoe and scratching his head.’ ‘What became of him?’ I asked. Tamb’ Itam, star- ing at me, made an expressive gesture with his right arm. ‘Twice I struck, Tuan,’ he said. ‘When he be- held me approaching he cast himself violently on the ground and made a great outcry, kicking. He screeched like a frightened hen till he felt the point; then he was still, and lay staring at me while his life went out of his eyes.’
“This done, Tamb’ Itam did not tarry. He under- stood the importance of being the first with the awful news at the fort. There were, of course, many sur- vivors of Dain Waris’s party; but in the extremity of panic some had swum across the river, others had bolted into the bush. The fact is that they did not know really who struck that blow — whether more white robbers were not coming, whether they had not already got hold of the whole land. They imagined themselves to be the victims of a vast treachery, and utterly
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doomed to destruction. It is said that some small parties did not come in till three days afterwards. However, a few tried to make their way back to Patusan at once, and one of the canoes that were patrolling the river that morning was in sight of the camp at the very moment of the attack. It is true that at first the men in her leaped overboard and swam to the opposite bank, but afterwards they returned to their boat and started fearfully upstream. Of these Tamb’ Itam had an hour’s advance.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“When Tamb’ Itam, paddling madly, came into the town-reach, the women, thronging the platforms before the houses, were looking out for the return of Dain Waris’s little fleet of boats. The town had a festive air; here and there men, still with spears or guns in their hands, could be seen moving or standing on the shore in groups. Chinamen’s shops had been opened early; but the market-place was empty, and a sentry, still posted at the corner of the fort, made out Tamb’ Itam, and shouted to those within. The gate was wide open. Tamb’ Itam jumped ashore and ran in head- long. The first person he met was the girl coming down from the house.
“Tamb’ Itam, disordered, panting, with trembling lips and wild eyes, stood for a time before her as if a sudden spell had been laid on him. Then he broke out very quickly: ‘They have killed Dain Waris and many more.’ She clapped her hands, and her first words were, ‘Shut the gates.’ Most of the fortmen had gone , back to their houses, but Tamb’ Itam hurried on the few who remained for their turn of duty within. The girl stood in the middle of the courtyard while the others ran about. ‘ Doramin,’ she cried despairingly, as Tamb’ Itam passed her. Next time he went by he answered her thought rapidly, ‘Yes. But we have all the powder in Patusan.’ She caught him by the arm, and, pointing at the house, ‘Call him out,’ she whispered, trembling.
“Tamb’ Itam ran up the steps. His master was sleeping. ‘It is I, Tamb’ Itam,’ he cried at the door, 407
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‘with tidings that cannot wait.’ He saw Jim turn over on the pillow and open his eyes, and he burst out at once. ‘This, Tuan, is a day of evil, an accursed day.’ His master raised himself on his elbow to listen — just as Dain Waris had done. And then Tamb’ Itam began his tale, trying to relate the story in order, calling Dain Waris Panglima, and saying: ‘The Panglima then called out to the chief of his own boatmen, “Give Tamb’ Itam something to eat ” ’ — when his master put his feet to the ground and looked at him with such a discomposed face that the words remained in his throat.