CHAPTER SEVEN.
A MORNING WALK.
When Ned Murray opened his eyes again, it was to gaze at the faint dawnwhich was making its way into the larger room; and he lay puzzled andwondering for a few minutes before he could quite make out where he was.Then it all came like a flash, and he looked across the room to dimlymake out the figure of his uncle fast asleep.
Ned lay thinking for a few moments and then rose softly, ready dressedas he was, and stole out, with the bamboo flooring creaking beneath hisfeet.
At the top of the steps he found Hamet, and after a few words spoken ina whisper, Ned said: "I don't suppose uncle will wake yet, but if hedoes, say I'm gone down to look at the river."
The Malay nodded, and showed his white teeth, and Ned stepped quietlydown, looking sharply round to have hard work to restrain a start, as hecaught sight of four swarthy sentries standing spear in hand. But heignored their presence, and walked slowly along, but only to be aware ofthe fact directly, that two of them were following quietly in his steps,and looking, as he glanced back once, with his hands in his pockets andwhistling softly, singularly ghostly and strange.
For there was a heavy mist floating softly in the morning air, and asthe boy slowly made his way among the houses, there was a feeling ofchilliness that, in combination with the novelty of his position, madehim shiver.
His intention was to have a look round the place; and, after a glance atthe doctor's house with its charming garden, he walked first in onedirection and then in another, conscious of the fact that his two guardswere always a short distance behind, but apparently bound on quite adifferent mission, for they never seemed to look at him once.
Suddenly he altered his mind, and turned back to have a look at therajah's own place, and in doing this he had to pass pretty close to theswarthy-looking spearmen, who merely drew back between two houses tillhe had passed, and followed as before.
"Two for uncle and two for me," said Ned at last. "Well, I never knewthat I had two shadows before."
The light was getting a little clearer above the mist, which did notseem to rise above the tops of the cocoa-nut trees, and he had nearlyreached the clump, in the midst of which was the clearing, when hesuddenly noticed a dimly-seen figure glide out from among the trees, andanother, and another--three who barred his farther advance.
"He has his guards too," thought Ned, and he turned back with theintention of going as far as the jetty, and then returning to see if hisuncle was awake, when there was a sharp _clank_-_clink_ away to hisleft.
The sound was familiar, but he could not recall what it was, though itcame nearer and nearer, apparently from down a lane of houses.
Then, all at once, he knew. For from out of the mist came the darkfigures of half a dozen men bearing spears, and directly after, betweentwo more, the prisoner he had seen brought in the previous day; and ashe caught a glimpse of the dark face, he could see that the man wasslowly chewing away at his betel-nut.
Six more spearmen followed, apparently led by an officer who marchederect behind the heavily-fettered prisoner, with one hand resting uponthe handle of his kris.
No one heeded the boy, and the party marched on toward the river-side,when, under the impression that the man was being taken down to embarkonce more, and be sent up or down the river, Ned followed, and his guardcame now more closely behind.
To Ned's surprise, the leaders of the party turned off a little to theright, leaving the jetty on their left, and with it the smaller boats,but they were evidently making still for the river, and halted upon itsbank, just in front of where, half hidden by the mist, the large prahuswung at her anchorage.
"They are going to hail a boat from the prahu and keep him imprisonedthere," thought Ned; and as he fancied this, he began to consider howsafe a place it would be for a man, so heavily chained that any attemptat escape by swimming must mean being borne down by the weight of hisfetters.
He walked close up, meaning to see the prisoner put on board the boat,but no one attempted to hail the prahu, and as Ned drew aside, he sawthat the prisoner was led close to the edge of the swift river, whichnow began to look as if it were so much liquid opal, for bright hues oforange and purple began to gleam through the wreathing mist, and theplume-like dripping tops of the various kinds of palms stood out clearerin the coming light.
"They are going to take off his chains first," thought the boy, as hedrew nearer still, no one paying the slightest heed to his presence; andhe had a full view of the man as the spear-bearers drew up in two lineswhose ends rested on the river, leaving their officers standing by theprisoner, and undoing his bonds.
Ned was not half a dozen yards away, and a feeling of satisfactionpervaded him as he saw the wrists set free, and heard the chain clank asit was thrown on the ground.
The fetters from the man's ankles followed next, and fell to the ground,while Ned could not help wondering at the stolid aspect of the prisoner,who displayed not the slightest satisfaction at being freed from sopainful and degrading a load.
What followed was so quick that Ned had hardly time to realise what itmeant, for the officer signed to the prisoner to kneel down, and hesullenly obeyed, while his lower jaw was working in a mechanical fashionas he kept on grinding his betel-nut. The sun was evidently now wellabove the horizon, for the gray mist was shot with wondrous hues, andthe palm-leaves high overhead were turned to gold. There were sweetmusical notes from the jungle mingled with the harsher cries and shrieksof parrots, and with a peculiar rushing noise a great hornbill flappedits heavy wings, as it flew rapidly across the river. In short, it wasthe beginning of a glorious tropic day for all there but one, who kneltsullen and hopeless, only a few yards from Ned, who stood spell-bound,now that he realised what was to happen, too much fascinated by thehorrible scene to turn and flee.
For, as the man knelt there with the guard of spearmen on either side,one Malay, who seemed to be an officer, but whom Ned realised to be therajah's executioner, took out a little handful of cotton wool from thefolds of his sarong, tore open the loose baju or cotton jacket hisvictim wore, so as to lay bare the bronze skin upon his shoulder, andplaced the wool over it like a loose pad just within the collar-bone.
"Is he going to set fire to it and brand him?" thought Ned; but the nextmoment he drew in his breath with a hiss, as if he suffered pain, forthe executioner whipped out, from its wooden sheath at his waist, ashort kris with a curved handle and a dull thin steel blade. This heheld with his left hand perpendicularly, with the point resting in thecentre of the cotton wool, and in the momentary pause which followed,Ned saw that the culprit was gazing straight at him in a dull heavy way,and that his lips were moving as he still ground the betel-nut betweenhis teeth.
It was but a momentary pause, and then, quick as lightning, theexecutioner brought his right hand with a smart blow upon the curvedhilt of the kris, driving it perpendicularly into the victim's chest,transfixing his heart, and as rapidly drew it forth, while the prisonerfell back, without struggle or groan, splash into the river, where Nedsaw him rolled over by the rapid current dimly-seen there, for the mistwas heavy on the surface; but visible till there seemed to be a rush inthe water, the dead man was snatched under, and the mist slowly rolledaway, to leave the surface glittering in the morning sunshine, andtaking a glorious tint of blue from the clear morning sky.
Ned saw all this vividly, and then a mist gathered over everythingagain, as he tottered rather than walked a few yards to where he couldthrow one arm round a tall slim cocoa-nut tree, and hold on, for he feltsick, and he knew that the mist now was only in his eyes.
But he saw the spearmen form up with military precision before andbehind the executioner, as he calmly thrust his little kris back in thewaist-folds of his sarong, and then the party marched off with theirspears glittering in the morning sun, and from somewhere in the jungle awild-fowl uttered his sharp short crow.
"Am I going to faint?" thought Ned; and then he started and turnedsharply round, for a voice said quickly: "
Ah, my lad! You there?"
Ned saw that it was Mr Braine standing before him, looking at himfrowningly, and with an air of disgust.
"Yes; I came for a walk," stammered Ned, huskily.
"And you saw that?"
"Yes," cried Ned, with a passionate cry, as his blood, which had seemedchilled and to flow sluggishly through his veins, now throbbed in histemples. "I could not stop them. I did not know. They have justmurdered a man. He fell into the river, and--and--oh, it is toohorrible!"
"It was not a murder. It was an execution by the rajah's command," saidMr Braine, coldly. "You ought not to have come."
"I didn't know, sir. I could not tell. I thought--I don't know--Inever imagined--"
"I beg your pardon, my lad," said Mr Braine, kindly. "I thought youwere attracted by a morbid desire to witness the horrible."
"Oh no!" said Ned with a shudder. "I should have been too great acoward if I had known. But has this man the right to do such things?"
"The rajah!" said Mr Braine, shrugging his shoulders; "he is king herein his own country. He has his tiny army and navy, and he has conqueredthe three petty chiefs nearest to his domain."
"But the English--the Queen," said Ned. "It seems terrible that a manlike this should have such power. Will not government interfere?"
"No. How could it? But there, come with me, and try to forget what youhave been seeing."
"But one moment, sir. Couldn't you have interfered to save the man'slife? Did you know he was to be mur--"
"Executed, my boy. Yes, and I appealed to the rajah for mercy; but hegave me so terrible an account of the man's life that I was silenced atonce. Come, you have plenty of time before breakfast. I want you tosee my home."
Ned shivered a little as he gave a glance round at the scene, whichlooked so beautiful, that it seemed impossible that so great a horrorcould have taken place there. Then he followed the Resident, and awoketo the fact that they were alone.
"Where are the men who were following me," he said, and Mr Brainesmiled.
"Gone back to their quarters, I suppose," he said. "They consider youare in my charge now."
Ned gave him a curious look, which his companion interpreted directly.
"Very well," he said, laughing; "think so if you like. I suppose I amyour guard. Ah, here are your two friends," for the Tumongong and theother officer came up hurriedly, and made a communication to the lastspeaker.
"I must put you off, Murray," he said, turning quickly to the boy. "Therajah is taken ill. You can wander about the place a bit; I daresay Ishall be back soon."
He went off with the two Malay officers, and Ned hesitated for a fewmoments as to which direction he should take, and ending by making forthe river higher up the stream, so as to get right away from the spotthat he could not recall without a shudder. This part, too, lookedparticularly attractive with its groups of palms and large forest trees,some of which overhung the stream, one being covered with white flowersto its very summit.
It was all very beautiful as he neared it, and he began thinking of howdelighted his uncle would be with the orchids and other parasiticalplants which cling to the boughs; but all at once, as he was lookinground, he caught sight of one of his guards, and directly after of theother, for, as if by magic, they had reappeared, and the sensation ofbeing watched again, coming upon the recollections of the morningadventure, seemed quite to rob the place of its beauty.
"I may as well go back," he thought to himself, after wandering for ashort distance among the trees, and stopping at last to lay his handupon a branch which overhung the river, so that he could lean out andgaze down into the dark clear water, with some vague idea of seeingwhether there were any fish.
He could see none, but it was very attractive to gaze down into thatdark clear water with its patches of floating lotus-leaves, from amongwhich rose the bright blue waterlily-like flowers. They seemed likelyplaces for fish, and for a few minutes the grim horrors of the morningpassed away, and he began to think of what a capital place that would befor carp-fishing, if it were an English river at home, and to wonderwhat kind of fish there would be there. For that there were fish hefelt convinced, from a slight swirling movement he had seen, and theshaking of the stems and leaves once or twice, as if something weremoving somewhere below.
That smooth shadowy pool in the river was very beautiful, and the sunstreamed down through the leaves like a silver shower, as Ned stillthought of the fishing, and this brought up the recollection of the boyhe had seen on the river and at his return at night.
"Perhaps he's the rajah's son," thought Ned. "No," he continuedinconsequently, "he couldn't be, because the rajah has lots of wives,and of course he would have plenty of sons. I know," he thought, aftera pause; "he must be the Tumongong's boy. He did look something likehim. I shouldn't wonder if its--"
Ned's thoughts seemed at that moment to have been cut off short, or, touse a railway phrase, shunted off on to another track--that is, fromfancies about the Tumongong's son to the fishy inhabitants of the river.
For once more he noticed that about twenty feet from the overhangingbank, formed of twisted roots, on which he stood, one of the largestbeds of floating lotus-leaves was being agitated by what must certainlybe quite a large fish forcing its way toward him, till he could see itslong brown back just beneath the surface, and gliding very slowlynearer.
It was impossible to make out what it was for the leaves, two or threeof which were pushed up, and sank down again while others were forcedaside.
It was quite fascinating to watch it, and Ned was longing for some finetackle, when there was a sudden rustling in the boughs overhead, and adark animal that he could not clearly distinguish began leaping andbounding about, chattering, shrieking, and making other strange noises,as it shook the boughs and ran out on one over the water, to hang downby one hand and a foot, chattering and showing its teeth menacingly atthe big fish which was still slowly gliding nearer to the bank.
There was no mistaking what the animal was now, and wondering at itscomparative tameness, Ned's attention was now diverted to what was thefinest and most active monkey he had ever seen.
"I didn't know monkeys liked fishing," he was saying to himself, whenthe movement in the water increased, the animal in the tree swung itselfnearer, and there was a rush and splash just as the spectator felt aviolent shock as if some one had seized him from behind, and losing hisbalance he fell backward, and then in alarm rolled over twice away fromthe river, and struggled up to his knees, just as a figure rushed at himagain and dragged him farther away.