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_ '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 columnar 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 Iamb' 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 to
him quietly over the water, and saw, under the now lifting, swirling
mist, the glow of many little fires burning 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 little 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, demanded to be led
to Dain Waris. He found the friend of his white lord lying on a
raised couch made of bamboo, 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, deputing 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 proceedings 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 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 themselves 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 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 yelling,
"Aim low! aim low!"
'Tamb' Itam says that, as for him, he understood at the first
volley what had happened. Though untouched 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 forehead 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 altogether; 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 recognised the authority of a third, who declared that
his name was Brown. His 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 himself 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, staring hard at me, made an expressive
gesture with his right arm. "Twice I struck, Tuan," he said.
"When he beheld 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 understood the importance
of being the first with the awful news at the fort. There were,
of course, many survivors 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 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 up-stream. Of these
Tamb' Itam had an hour's advance.' _
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