Complete Works of Joseph Conrad (Illustrated) (16 page)

“They called the old woman,” went on Babalatchi, “and he told them all — about the brig, and how he tried to kill many men.  He knew the Orang Blanda were very near, although he had said nothing to us about that; he knew his great danger.  He thought he had killed many, but there were only two dead, as I have heard from the men of the sea that came in the warship’s boats.”

“And the other man, he that was found in the river?” interrupted Lakamba.

“That was one of his boatmen.  When his canoe was overturned by the logs those two swam together, but the other man must have been hurt.  Dain swam, holding him up.  He left him in the bushes when he went up to the house.  When they all came down his heart had ceased to beat; then the old woman spoke; Dain thought it was good.  He took off his anklet and broke it, twisting it round the man’s foot.  His ring he put on that slave’s hand.  He took off his sarong and clothed that thing that wanted no clothes, the two women holding it up meanwhile, their intent being to deceive all eyes and to mislead the minds in the settlement, so that they could swear to the thing that was not, and that there could be no treachery when the white-men came.  Then Dain and the white woman departed to call up Bulangi and find a hiding-place.  The old woman remained by the body.”

“Hai!” exclaimed Lakamba.  “She has wisdom.”

“Yes, she has a Devil of her own to whisper counsel in her ear,” assented Babalatchi.  “She dragged the body with great toil to the point where many logs were stranded.  All these things were done in the darkness after the storm had passed away.  Then she waited.  At the first sign of daylight she battered the face of the dead with a heavy stone, and she pushed him amongst the logs.  She remained near, watching.  At sunrise Mahmat Banjer came and found him.  They all believed; I myself was deceived, but not for long.  The white man believed, and, grieving, fled to his house.  When we were alone I, having doubts, spoke to the woman, and she, fearing my anger and your might, told me all, asking for help in saving Dain.”

“He must not fall into the hands of the Orang Blanda,” said Lakamba; “but let him die, if the thing can be done quietly.”

“It cannot, Tuan!  Remember there is that woman who, being half white, is ungovernable, and would raise a great outcry.  Also the officers are here.  They are angry enough already.  Dain must escape; he must go.  We must help him now for our own safety.”

“Are the officers very angry?” inquired Lakamba, with interest.

“They are.  The principal chief used strong words when speaking to me — to me when I salaamed in your name.  I do not think,” added Babalatchi, after a short pause and looking very worried — ”I do not think I saw a white chief so angry before.  He said we were careless or even worse.  He told me he would speak to the Rajah, and that I was of no account.”

“Speak to the Rajah!” repeated Lakamba, thoughtfully.  “Listen, Babalatchi: I am sick, and shall withdraw; you cross over and tell the white men.”

“Yes,” said Babalatchi, “I am going over at once; and as to Dain?”

“You get him away as you can best.  This is a great trouble in my heart,” sighed Lakamba.

Babalatchi got up, and, going close to his master, spoke earnestly.

“There is one of our praus at the southern mouth of the river.  The Dutch warship is to the northward watching the main entrance.  I shall send Dain off to-night in a canoe, by the hidden channels, on board the prau.  His father is a great prince, and shall hear of our generosity.  Let the prau take him to Ampanam.  Your glory shall be great, and your reward in powerful friendship.  Almayer will no doubt deliver the dead body as Dain’s to the officers, and the foolish white men shall say, ‘This is very good; let there be peace.’  And the trouble shall be removed from your heart, Rajah.”

“True! true!” said Lakamba.

“And, this being accomplished by me who am your slave, you shall reward with a generous hand.  That I know!  The white man is grieving for the lost treasure, in the manner of white men who thirst after dollars.  Now, when all other things are in order, we shall perhaps obtain the treasure from the white man.  Dain must escape, and Almayer must live.”

“Now go, Babalatchi, go!” said Lakamba, getting off his chair.  “I am very sick, and want medicine.  Tell the white chief so.”

But Babalatchi was not to be got rid of in this summary manner.  He knew that his master, after the manner of the great, liked to shift the burden of toil and danger on to his servants’ shoulders, but in the difficult straits in which they were now the Rajah must play his part.  He may be very sick for the white men, for all the world if he liked, as long as he would take upon himself the execution of part at least of Babalatchi’s carefully thought-of plan.  Babalatchi wanted a big canoe manned by twelve men to be sent out after dark towards Bulangi’s clearing.  Dain may have to be overpowered.  A man in love cannot be expected to see clearly the path of safety if it leads him away from the object of his affections, argued Babalatchi, and in that case they would have to use force in order to make him go.  Would the Rajah see that trusty men manned the canoe?  The thing must be done secretly.  Perhaps the Rajah would come himself, so as to bring all the weight of his authority to bear upon Dain if he should prove obstinate and refuse to leave his hiding-place.  The Rajah would not commit himself to a definite promise, and anxiously pressed Babalatchi to go, being afraid of the white men paying him an unexpected visit.  The aged statesman reluctantly took his leave and went into the courtyard.

Before going down to his boat Babalatchi stopped for a while in the big open space where the thick-leaved trees put black patches of shadow which seemed to float on a flood of smooth, intense light that rolled up to the houses and down to the stockade and over the river, where it broke and sparkled in thousands of glittering wavelets, like a band woven of azure and gold edged with the brilliant green of the forests guarding both banks of the Pantai.  In the perfect calm before the coming of the afternoon breeze the irregularly jagged line of tree-tops stood unchanging, as if traced by an unsteady hand on the clear blue of the hot sky.  In the space sheltered by the high palisades there lingered the smell of decaying blossoms from the surrounding forest, a taint of drying fish; with now and then a whiff of acrid smoke from the cooking fires when it eddied down from under the leafy boughs and clung lazily about the burnt-up grass.

As Babalatchi looked up at the flagstaff over-topping a group of low trees in the middle of the courtyard, the tricolour flag of the Netherlands stirred slightly for the first time since it had been hoisted that morning on the arrival of the man-of-war boats.  With a faint rustle of trees the breeze came down in light puffs, playing capriciously for a time with this emblem of Lakamba’s power, that was also the mark of his servitude; then the breeze freshened in a sharp gust of wind, and the flag flew out straight and steady above the trees.  A dark shadow ran along the river, rolling over and covering up the sparkle of declining sunlight.  A big white cloud sailed slowly across the darkening sky, and hung to the westward as if waiting for the sun to join it there.  Men and things shook off the torpor of the hot afternoon and stirred into life under the first breath of the sea breeze.

Babalatchi hurried down to the water-gate; yet before he passed through it he paused to look round the courtyard, with its light and shade, with its cheery fires, with the groups of Lakamba’s soldiers and retainers scattered about.  His own house stood amongst the other buildings in that enclosure, and the statesman of Sambir asked himself with a sinking heart when and how would it be given him to return to that house.  He had to deal with a man more dangerous than any wild beast of his experience: a proud man, a man wilful after the manner of princes, a man in love.  And he was going forth to speak to that man words of cold and worldly wisdom.  Could anything be more appalling?  What if that man should take umbrage at some fancied slight to his honour or disregard of his affections and suddenly “amok”?  The wise adviser would be the first victim, no doubt, and death would be his reward.  And underlying the horror of this situation there was the danger of those meddlesome fools, the white men.  A vision of comfortless exile in far-off Madura rose up before Babalatchi.  Wouldn’t that be worse than death itself?  And there was that half-white woman with threatening eyes.  How could he tell what an incomprehensible creature of that sort would or would not do?  She knew so much that she made the killing of Dain an impossibility.  That much was certain.  And yet the sharp, rough-edged kriss is a good and discreet friend, thought Babalatchi, as he examined his own lovingly, and put it back in the sheath, with a sigh of regret, before unfastening his canoe.  As he cast off the painter, pushed out into the stream, and took up his paddle, he realised vividly how unsatisfactory it was to have women mixed up in state affairs.  Young women, of course.  For Mrs. Almayer’s mature wisdom, and for the easy aptitude in intrigue that comes with years to the feminine mind, he felt the most sincere respect.

He paddled leisurely, letting the canoe drift down as he crossed towards the point.  The sun was high yet, and nothing pressed.  His work would commence only with the coming of darkness.  Avoiding the Lingard jetty, he rounded the point, and paddled up the creek at the back of Almayer’s house.  There were many canoes lying there, their noses all drawn together, fastened all to the same stake.  Babalatchi pushed his little craft in amongst them and stepped on shore.  On the other side of the ditch something moved in the grass.

“Who’s that hiding?” hailed Babalatchi.  “Come out and speak to me.”

Nobody answered.  Babalatchi crossed over, passing from boat to boat, and poked his staff viciously in the suspicious place.  Taminah jumped up with a cry.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, surprised.  “I have nearly stepped on your tray.  Am I a Dyak that you should hide at my sight?”

“I was weary, and — I slept,” whispered Taminah, confusedly.

“You slept!  You have not sold anything to-day, and you will be beaten when you return home,” said Babalatchi.

Taminah stood before him abashed and silent.  Babalatchi looked her over carefully with great satisfaction.  Decidedly he would offer fifty dollars more to that thief Bulangi.  The girl pleased him.

“Now you go home.  It is late,” he said sharply.  “Tell Bulangi that I shall be near his house before the night is half over, and that I want him to make all things ready for a long journey.  You understand?  A long journey to the southward.  Tell him that before sunset, and do not forget my words.”

Taminah made a gesture of assent, and watched Babalatchi recross the ditch and disappear through the bushes bordering Almayer’s compound.  She moved a little further off the creek and sank in the grass again, lying down on her face, shivering in dry-eyed misery.

Babalatchi walked straight towards the cooking-shed looking for Mrs. Almayer.  The courtyard was in a great uproar.  A strange Chinaman had possession of the kitchen fire and was noisily demanding another saucepan.  He hurled objurgations, in the Canton dialect and bad Malay, against the group of slave-girls standing a little way off, half frightened, half amused, at his violence.  From the camping fires round which the seamen of the frigate were sitting came words of encouragement, mingled with laughter and jeering.  In the midst of this noise and confusion Babalatchi met Ali, an empty dish in his hand.

“Where are the white men?” asked Babalatchi.

“They are eating in the front verandah,” answered Ali.  “Do not stop me, Tuan.  I am giving the white men their food and am busy.”

“Where’s Mem Almayer?”

“Inside in the passage.  She is listening to the talk.”

Ali grinned and passed on; Babalatchi ascended the plankway to the rear verandah, and beckoning out Mrs. Almayer, engaged her in earnest conversation.  Through the long passage, closed at the further end by the red curtain, they could hear from time to time Almayer’s voice mingling in conversation with an abrupt loudness that made Mrs. Almayer look significantly at Babalatchi.

“Listen,” she said.  “He has drunk much.”

“He has,” whispered Babalatchi.  “He will sleep heavily to-night.”

Mrs. Almayer looked doubtful.

“Sometimes the devil of strong gin makes him keep awake, and he walks up and down the verandah all night, cursing; then we stand afar off,” explained Mrs. Almayer, with the fuller knowledge born of twenty odd years of married life.

“But then he does not hear, nor understand, and his hand, of course, has no strength.  We do not want him to hear to-night.”

“No,” assented Mrs. Almayer, energetically, but in a cautiously subdued voice.  “If he hears he will kill.”

Babalatchi looked incredulous.

“Hai Tuan, you may believe me.  Have I not lived many years with that man?  Have I not seen death in that man’s eyes more than once when I was younger and he guessed at many things.  Had he been a man of my own people I would not have seen such a look twice; but he — ”

With a contemptuous gesture she seemed to fling unutterable scorn on Almayer’s weak-minded aversion to sudden bloodshed.

“If he has the wish but not the strength, then what do we fear?” asked Babalatchi, after a short silence during which they both listened to Almayer’s loud talk till it subsided into the murmur of general conversation.  “What do we fear?” repeated Babalatchi again.

“To keep the daughter whom he loves he would strike into your heart and mine without hesitation,” said Mrs. Almayer.  “When the girl is gone he will be like the devil unchained.  Then you and I had better beware.”

“I am an old man and fear not death,” answered Babalatchi, with a mendacious assumption of indifference.  “But what will you do?”

“I am an old woman, and wish to live,” retorted Mrs. Almayer.  “She is my daughter also.  I shall seek safety at the feet of our Rajah, speaking in the name of the past when we both were young, and he — ”

Babalatchi raised his hand.

“Enough.  You shall be protected,” he said soothingly.

Again the sound of Almayer’s voice was heard, and again interrupting their talk, they listened to the confused but loud utterance coming in bursts of unequal strength, with unexpected pauses and noisy repetitions that made some words and sentences fall clear and distinct on their ears out of the meaningless jumble of excited shoutings emphasised by the thumping of Almayer’s fist upon the table.  On the short intervals of silence, the high complaining note of tumblers, standing close together and vibrating to the shock, lingered, growing fainter, till it leapt up again into tumultuous ringing, when a new idea started a new rush of words and brought down the heavy hand again.  At last the quarrelsome shouting ceased, and the thin plaint of disturbed glass died away into reluctant quietude.