The Rajah of Dah Part 14

"I daresay we shall get some rare collecting, and when we are tired, we'll slip down to the boat some night and get right away. Hamet, I daresay, could manage that."

"He would do his best, sir," said the Malay, gravely.

"Then now for a good comfortable snooze on those clean mats, for I'm tired out. Come along, Ned. Good-night, Hamet. Where do you sleep?"

"Across the door, sahib," said the man, who bore the lamp into the sleeping chamber, and then stretched himself across the entrance.

"You can sleep too, Ned," said Murray, yawning as he threw himself on his simple couch.

"No, uncle," said Ned. "I am going to lie and think a bit."

"Bah! Sleep, boy. It is only a bit of an adventure after all.

Heigho-ha-hum! Good-night."

"Good-night, uncle," said Ned, as he too lay down, hearing the distant cry of a tiger through the mat-screened door; and then he began thinking about the adventures of the past day, and how strange their position was.

Only began: for in spite of tigers, mosquitoes, and the fact that fierce-looking Malay spearmen were about the place, Ned's waking moments were moments indeed, and only few. Certainly not a minute had elapsed before he was fast asleep.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

A MORNING WALK.

When Ned Murray opened his eyes again, it was to gaze at the faint dawn which was making its way into the larger room; and he lay puzzled and wondering 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 dimly make out the figure of his uncle fast asleep.

Ned lay thinking for a few moments and then rose softly, ready dressed as he was, and stole out, with the bamboo flooring creaking beneath his feet.

At the top of the steps he found Hamet, and after a few words spoken in a whisper, Ned said: "I don't suppose uncle will wake yet, but if he does, say I'm gone down to look at the river."

The Malay nodded, and showed his white teeth, and Ned stepped quietly down, looking sharply round to have hard work to restrain a start, as he caught sight of four swarthy sentries standing spear in hand. But he ignored their presence, and walked slowly along, but only to be aware of the 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 and whistling softly, singularly ghostly and strange.

For there was a heavy mist floating softly in the morning air, and as the boy slowly made his way among the houses, there was a feeling of chilliness that, in combination with the novelty of his position, made him s.h.i.+ver.

His intention was to have a look round the place; and, after a glance at the doctor's house with its charming garden, he walked first in one direction and then in another, conscious of the fact that his two guards were always a short distance behind, but apparently bound on quite a different mission, for they never seemed to look at him once.

Suddenly he altered his mind, and turned back to have a look at the rajah's own place, and in doing this he had to pa.s.s pretty close to the swarthy-looking spearmen, who merely drew back between two houses till he had pa.s.sed, and followed as before.

"Two for uncle and two for me," said Ned at last. "Well, I never knew that I had two shadows before."

The light was getting a little clearer above the mist, which did not seem to rise above the tops of the cocoa-nut trees, and he had nearly reached the clump, in the midst of which was the clearing, when he suddenly noticed a dimly-seen figure glide out from among the trees, and another, and another--three who barred his farther advance.

"He has his guards too," thought Ned, and he turned back with the intention of going as far as the jetty, and then returning to see if his uncle was awake, when there was a sharp _clank_-_clink_ away to his left.

The sound was familiar, but he could not recall what it was, though it came nearer and nearer, apparently from down a lane of houses.

Then, all at once, he knew. For from out of the mist came the dark figures of half a dozen men bearing spears, and directly after, between two more, the prisoner he had seen brought in the previous day; and as he caught a glimpse of the dark face, he could see that the man was slowly chewing away at his betel-nut.

Six more spearmen followed, apparently led by an officer who marched erect behind the heavily-fettered prisoner, with one hand resting upon the 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 embark once more, and be sent up or down the river, Ned followed, and his guard came now more closely behind.

To Ned's surprise, the leaders of the party turned off a little to the right, leaving the jetty on their left, and with it the smaller boats, but they were evidently making still for the river, and halted upon its bank, just in front of where, half hidden by the mist, the large prahu swung at her anchorage.

"They are going to hail a boat from the prahu and keep him imprisoned there," thought Ned; and as he fancied this, he began to consider how safe a place it would be for a man, so heavily chained that any attempt at escape by swimming must mean being borne down by the weight of his fetters.

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 saw that the prisoner was led close to the edge of the swift river, which now began to look as if it were so much liquid opal, for bright hues of orange and purple began to gleam through the wreathing mist, and the plume-like dripping tops of the various kinds of palms stood out clearer in the coming light.

"They are going to take off his chains first," thought the boy, as he drew nearer still, no one paying the slightest heed to his presence; and he had a full view of the man as the spear-bearers drew up in two lines whose ends rested on the river, leaving their officers standing by the prisoner, and undoing his bonds.

Ned was not half a dozen yards away, and a feeling of satisfaction pervaded him as he saw the wrists set free, and heard the chain clank as it 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 so painful and degrading a load.

What followed was so quick that Ned had hardly time to realise what it meant, for the officer signed to the prisoner to kneel down, and he sullenly obeyed, while his lower jaw was working in a mechanical fas.h.i.+on as he kept on grinding his betel-nut. The sun was evidently now well above the horizon, for the gray mist was shot with wondrous hues, and the palm-leaves high overhead were turned to gold. There were sweet musical notes from the jungle mingled with the harsher cries and shrieks of parrots, and with a peculiar rus.h.i.+ng noise a great hornbill flapped its heavy wings, as it flew rapidly across the river. In short, it was the beginning of a glorious tropic day for all there but one, who knelt sullen and hopeless, only a few yards from Ned, who stood spell-bound, now that he realised what was to happen, too much fascinated by the horrible 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 the rajah's executioner, took out a little handful of cotton wool from the folds of his sarong, tore open the loose baju or cotton jacket his victim wore, so as to lay bare the bronze skin upon his shoulder, and placed 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 next moment he drew in his breath with a hiss, as if he suffered pain, for the executioner whipped out, from its wooden sheath at his waist, a short kris with a curved handle and a dull thin steel blade. This he held with his left hand perpendicularly, with the point resting in the centre 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 between his teeth.

It was but a momentary pause, and then, quick as lightning, the executioner brought his right hand with a smart blow upon the curved hilt of the kris, driving it perpendicularly into the victim's chest, transfixing his heart, and as rapidly drew it forth, while the prisoner fell back, without struggle or groan, splash into the river, where Ned saw him rolled over by the rapid current dimly-seen there, for the mist was heavy on the surface; but visible till there seemed to be a rush in the water, the dead man was s.n.a.t.c.hed under, and the mist slowly rolled away, to leave the surface glittering in the morning suns.h.i.+ne, and taking a glorious tint of blue from the clear morning sky.

Ned saw all this vividly, and then a mist gathered over everything again, as he tottered rather than walked a few yards to where he could throw one arm round a tall slim cocoa-nut tree, and hold on, for he felt sick, and he knew that the mist now was only in his eyes.

But he saw the spearmen form up with military precision before and behind the executioner, as he calmly thrust his little kris back in the waist-folds of his sarong, and then the party marched off with their spears glittering in the morning sun, and from somewhere in the jungle a wild-fowl uttered his sharp short crow.

"Am I going to faint?" thought Ned; and then he started and turned sharply round, for a voice said quickly: "Ah, my lad! You there?"

Ned saw that it was Mr Braine standing before him, looking at him frowningly, and with an air of disgust.

"Yes; I came for a walk," stammered Ned, huskily.

"And you saw that?"

"Yes," cried Ned, with a pa.s.sionate cry, as his blood, which had seemed chilled and to flow sluggishly through his veins, now throbbed in his temples. "I could not stop them. I did not know. They have just murdered a man. He fell into the river, and--and--oh, it is too horrible!"

"It was not a murder. It was an execution by the rajah's command," said Mr Braine, coldly. "You ought not to have come."

"I didn't know, sir. I could not tell. I thought--I don't know--I never imagined--"

"I beg your pardon, my lad," said Mr Braine, kindly. "I thought you were attracted by a morbid desire to witness the horrible."

"Oh no!" said Ned with a shudder. "I should have been too great a coward 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 here in his own country. He has his tiny army and navy, and he has conquered the three petty chiefs nearest to his domain."

"But the English--the Queen," said Ned. "It seems terrible that a man like this should have such power. Will not government interfere?"