:
,
AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
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NOT TO BE BAULKED EASILY
Pafc 330
Frontispiece
AMONG THE
DARK MOUNTAINS
Or, Cast Away in Sumatra
BY
DAVID KER
Author of " Blown Away from the Land "
Illustrated by Frances Ewan
BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
LONDON AND GLASGOW
Blackie's
Splendid Half-Crown Books
FOR BOYS
Among the Dark Mountains. D. Ker.
Bunyip Land. G. Manville Fenn.
The Log of a Privateersman. Harry Col-
lingwood.
The Wigwam and the War-path. Ascott
R. Hope.
Paris at Bay. Herbert Hayens.
FOR GIRLS
The Discretion of Decinia. Maude Leeson.
Clarinda's Quest. Ethel F. Heddle.
Girl Comrades. Ethel F. Heddle.
Three Fair Maids. Katharine Tynan.
The Four Miss Whittingtons. Geraldine
Mockler.
Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow
PREFACE
All the adventures in this story are taken from life,
and most of them occurred to myself. The tale as a
whole represents fairly enough the state of Sumatra
when Mrs. Ker and I visited it in the year of the
great eruption, and does no more than justice to
the extreme kindness of the Dutch colonists.
DAVID KER.
CONTENTS
Page
I. BESIEGED BY A SHAKK 11
II. THE LONELY FIGURE ON THE CLIFF 20
III. OVER THE PRECIPICE 29
IV. MARMADUKE GETS HIS WISH 35
V. FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 44
VI. A GRIM WARNING 62
VII. IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT 68
VIII. SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM 76
IX. THE ISLAND CITY 88
X. TIDINGS OF EVIL 99
XI. A NEW WAY OF BEING PRESENTED AT COURT . . . 107
XII. A MALAY KING AT HOME 114
XIII. THE DEADLY CALM 126
XIV. A BEWITCHED VESSEL 135
XV. THE TIGER OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN 150
XVI. CAST UP BY THE SEA 157
XVII. OVER INTO SUMATRA 172
XVIII. IN THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 180
XIX. A MALAY TOWN 190
XX. ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 202
XXI. CALLING ON THE RAJAH 217
XXII. DEATH'S AMBUSH 222
7
Vlll AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Pe
XXIII. FACING A MONSTER 230
XXIV. EVIL TIDINGS .234
XXV. UP INTO THE MOUNTAINS 240
XXVI. AN EASTERN MONTENEGRO 246
XXVII. LIVING DEATH ...'.. 255
XXVIII. THE MYSTERIOUS SOUND 261
XXIX. MEETING AN OLD FRIEND 265
XXX. WALKING IN DARKNESS 270
XXI. THE STROKE OF DOOM 276
XXXII. THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 26, 1883 ... = ... 289
XXXIII. A BLACK SABBATH . . 293
ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing
Page
NOT TO BE BAULKED EASILY Frontispiece
" NO COFFEE, EH?" 80
" HE JUST TOOK HOLD OF MY HAND AND PRESSED IT TO
HIS FOREHEAD " 144
HE CAUGHT HARIMAU'S ARM JUST AS THE LATTER WAS
ABOUT TO MAKE HIS SPRING . 272
AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER I
BESIEGED BY A SHARK
HHHESE are the Arabian deserts, I suppose; and they
do look dismal enough for anything. But why on
earth do they call this the Red Sea? It's as blue
as a sailor's jacket, so far."
"Why, bless yer, sir, you can call a sea any thin' you
like, but 'twon't make it so. You don't s'pose that the
Black Sea 'ud dye you black, like a hink-bottle, if you was
to fall into it; or that the Yellow Sea's like a pot o' mus-
tard, or the White Sea like a bowl o' milk ! I've knowed
a sea where the water was as thick as treacle, so as our
oars stuck fast in it every stroke we pulled ; but it wasn't
treacle, for all that. Why, I've actually knowed chaps as
was wicious enough to call me a liar; but, thank goodness,
it couldn't make me one!"
"Of course not, Mr. Graves; whoever said so libelled
you most shamefully," answered, with commendable gravity,
one of the two boys whom the ancient mariner was address-
ing. "But don't you think yourself that in that yarn of
yours last night you made the sea-serpent just a few miles
too long?"
"Wait till you see him, and then you can judge for
yourself," retorted the undaunted Graves. "Why, Mr.
Marmaduke, d'ye think as how your father, Lord Heather-
11
12 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
moor (long life to him!), would ha' made me steward of
this 'ere yacht o' his'n if so be as I was a man whose word
couldn't be depended on? No, no, the truth afore all
things when you can't think of nothin' better."
And with this edifying precept of morality Mr. Graves
turned and skated aft with the peculiar motion character-
istic of a steward at sea, leaving Marmaduke Wyvil and
Alfred Huntley to enjoy in all its fulness the ever-changing
splendour of a panorama not easily matched even in the
Eastern seas.
In fact, the two lads had been in raptures with every-
thing that they saw during the Red Sea voyage, for, having
never till now beheld either Africa or Asia, it was quite a
new sensation to see the shores of both continents by turns,
and sometimes both at once.
Ever since leaving Suez one marvel had followed another.
They had seen the plumy crests of palm-trees seventy feet
high waving over the Well of Moses, and the bold rocky
headland of Ras Attakah looming through the twilight
above those gloomy waters where, according to a grim
Arab legend, the shrieks of Pharaoh's drowning hosts may
still be heard mingling with the roar of the storm. By
dint of ceaseless running up and down, and constant worry-
ing of every man on board to " tell them when it was time
to look", they had succeeded in being on deck just when
the yacht was fairly abeam of that solitary opening in the
vast eastern mountain-wall through which one catches a
passing glimpse of the great altar-shaped mass of Mount
Sinai, towering above the scorched, crumbling hills of
Arabia the Stony. They had enjoyed, as only English
boys can, their first glimpse of a "real live desert", and
had marvelled greatly (being still unfamiliar with the
wonderful tropical "mirage") to see shining lakes and
clustering trees amid these burning sands; and they mar-
velled yet more when the stately palm-trunks were sud-
denly seen to stoop and totter, the beautiful lakes melted
BESIEGED BY A SHARK 13
away like a dream, and, as far as eye could reach, nothing
was visible save the hot brassy glare of the eternal desert.
Then came the shoals, rocks, shallows, and small islets of
the perilous Strait of Jubal (or Jumble, as the sailors not
inaptly persisted in calling it), where the Gulf of Suez at
length comes of age as the genuine " Red Sea ". As they
passed Shadwan Island our heroes took care to make the
steward point out to them, twice over, the fatal reefs upon
which the poor old Carnatic had been hurled to destruction;
and then the brave little yacht left all dangers behind her,
and glided forth into the splendid solitude of the open sea.
And then, day after day, nothing but the same boundless
expanse of water, flushing into golden glory in the first
brightness of morning, lying blue and vast beneath the
hot, cloudless sky of noon, or flashing back the last glow
of sunset against the fast-falling shadows of night. On the
third day a fresh breeze sprang up from the north-east, and
Marmaduke saw with his own eyes the phenomenon at
which he had so often laughed incredulously in books of
travel that, although they were out of sight of land, the
weather-rigging was perfectly brown with the light powdery
sand of the distant desert.
Early on the fourth morning after leaving Jubal's Strait
there started up before them from the clear bright sea,
black and grim against the glorious sunrise, a seemingly
endless procession of bare, rocky, volcanic islets, gloomy,
voiceless, lifeless as a funeral train. These were the for-
midable Zebayir Isles, strewn far and wide with charred
rocks and black ashes, in stern warning of the unquench-
able fires below.
The sight of these ocean hermits moved the good Mr.
Graves to relate one of his most truthful stories.
"Now, Mr. Marmaduke, you that's always longin' for
adwentures, how 'ud you like sitch an adwenture as to be
wrecked on one o' them h'islands as I was once, with
never a morsel of 'baccy, and nothin' to eat but rats?"
14 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"Eats!" echoed Wyvil. "Well, that was paying them
in their own coin, with a vengeance just like the nigger
eating the land-crab : ' Aha, massa ! land-crab eat black man
never mind ! black man eat he ! ' "
"But, I say," cried Huntley, "where did you get rats
from on a desert island?"
" Why, they corned off the wreck, o' course. Don't yer
know as rats always leave a sinkin' ship? and where was
they to go but on to the h'island?"
"True," said Huntley quite seriously. "I beg your
pardon, Mr. Graves pray go on!"
" Well, now you'll want to know, I s'pose, how I managed
to cotch them rats. I'll tell yer. There was only one
spring o' water in the 'ole h'island, and so I went and filled
my mouth with water, and then sat atop of the spring and
held my mouth open, and when the rats came to drink
I cotched their 'eads in my teeth, and killed as many as I
wanted ! "
"But how didn't the water run out if you kept your
mouth open ? " asked Alfred in a somewhat unsteady voice,
while Marmaduke struggled with a suspiciously violent fit
of coughing which had suddenly attacked him.
"Because I knowed when to shut my mouth, which is
more'n you seems to do," retorted this modern Munchausen
as he shuffled indignantly away.
"There's no catching old Graves," chuckled Marmaduke;
" he has an answer to everything. He's as good as that chap
who, when they told him that facts were against him, said
coolly : ' So much the worse for the facts ! ' "
" Or like that Yankee in the story," said Alfred, " who,
when they asked him how deer with horns sixteen feet
broad could run about among trees that he'd said were
only two feet apart, answered as bold as brass: 'I guess
that's their look-out!'"
Farther to the south they passed the frowning rocks of
Jebel Zukur and Harish, among the jagged black teeth
BESIEGED BY A SHARK 15
of which a few mouldering timbers stood out ominously;
and then, as night came on, the cold splendour of the rising
moon showed to our heroes, looming ghost-like far away
along the western sky, the huge, shadowy outline of the
Abyssinian mountains, overhanging the wide, smooth sweep
of Annesley Bay.
"There, Alfred, my boy, that's the place where your
father and I first made each other's acquaintance," said a
deep voice behind the two lads, as they stood devouring the
unknown land with their eyes.
"Was it here that the Abyssinian expedition landed,
then?" asked Alfred Huntley, looking eagerly at the tall,
handsome man who had just appeared at his side.
"This was the place," replied Lord Heathermoor, "and
I can tell you it was a bustling place then, though it's so
quiet and lonely now. Well do I remember how we all
stood looking at those mountains, when we first sighted
'em, wondering what was waiting for us behind them; for
of course we couldn't tell whether Theodore's whole army
might not be ready to pounce upon us the minute we got
out of sight of our fleet."
"I wish I had been there!" said his son, with sparkling
eyes.
"The only man among us who seemed quite cool," pur-
sued Heathermoor, "was your father, Alfred; for, although
he wasn't Colonel Huntley in those days, but only a junior
captain, it took a good deal to fluster him. I can tell you
that, young as he was, his men would have followed him
anywhere; for, as I heard one of them say once: 'Cap'n
Huntley never says Go and fight, but always Come and
fight!'"
"Bravo!" cried Alfred. "That's just what old Eichard
Coeur de Lion said in The Talisman, you know: 'I never
bade man do that which I would not do myself ' and I'll
be bound my father never did, either! When I see him
I'll get him to tell me all that Abyssinian business over
16 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
again. I say, won't it be jolly meeting him again? I
haven't seen him now, you know, since they sent him out
to Borneo, years and years ago."
" No more have I," said Marmaduke, " and we'll be very
glad to see him again too won't we, father? He's to join
us at Singapore, isn't he?"
" So his last letter said," answered his father; " but it was
written nearly a year ago; his plans may have changed
since then. Anyhow, we'll go first to Singapore, and see;
and if this weather holds, and nothing goes wrong, we
oughtn't to be long in getting there."
But something did go wrong, much sooner than any of
them could have expected.
After leaving Annesley Bay the Mermaid stood over to
the Arabian coast, and next morning they sighted a mass
of white flat-roofed houses and tall tapering minarets
huddled together upon the low sandy beach, which Wyvil
heard one of the sailors call " Mocha ".
"Mocha!" cried he. "Is this the place where the coffee
comes from?"
"The place where it doesn't come from, you mean,"
laughed his father. "First and foremost, nearly all the
coffee of these parts is exported through Aden now; and,
secondly, no coffee ever grew anywhere near Mocha since
the world began. It's all grown on the slopes of the Coffee
Mountains, one hundred and twenty miles to the eastward,
so that ' Mocha ' coffee is as great a mistake as ' Jerusalem '
artichokes, which, as I dare say you know, are really giro-
sol (turn to the sun)."
By this time the narrowing sea had brought both coasts
in sight at once, and along either shore a long line of
craggy heights began to loom out like a wall to the south-
ward, as the brave little yacht glided on toward the smaller
of the two passages into which the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb
is divided by Perim Islet, as Goat Island parts Niagara.
(B633)
BESIEGED BY A SHARK 17
"Now, boys," cried Lord Heathermoor, as he passed
them in his hasty walk up and down the deck, " keep your
eyes open, for in another hour or two you'll be out of the
Red Sea into the Indian Ocean."
But it was fated that they were to do nothing of the
kind. The famous strait was already in sight when our
heroes were startled by a sudden slackening of the Mermaid's
speed, ending at length in her coming to a complete stand-
still. Then followed a hoarse shout, a loud jingling of
bells, a trample of hasty steps to and fro, and presently
two or three deep voices at once announced that there was
"some'at wrong with the h'en-gine!"
Happily, the "some'at" was nothing very serious, but
the chief engineer reported that the damage would need
several hours to repair, and Lord Heathermoor, facing the
mishap with the coolness of a veteran seaman, gave orders
to cast anchor forthwith, and set to work at once.
" And lower that boat at the stern," he added, little fore-
seeing what the consequences of that order were to be;
" it'll be a good chance to give her a soak, and keep the sun
from cracking her planking."
And now Heathermoor being down in the engine-room,
and all the rest of the ship's company fully occupied the
two lads were left to their own devices; and just at that
moment, as ill-luck would have it, Alfred Huntley's quick
eye caught a brilliant streak of white far away on the port
quarter, breaking the deep-blue surface with a keen, sudden
flash.
"I say, Duke," cried he eagerly, "isn't that a coral reef
yonder?"
"It must be!" exclaimed Marmaduke excitedly. "Hur-
rah ! it's just the very thing I've always been wanting to
see! I say, wouldn't it be a lark to go out to it and get
some coral to take home for a curio? We can take this
boat that's towing astern, and be out there in no time."
"But how will your father like it?" objected his cooler
( B 533 ) B
18 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
companion. "You know he always sends a couple of the
men with us when we go for a pull."
"Pooh!" cried Wyvil; "what's the good of bothering
him in the middle of his work just for that 1 ? All the men
are wanted on board just now, and we can pull there and
back, easy, before they've done working. Besides, my
father's always telling me that I must learn to shift for
myself, and here's a good chance to do it!"
Alfred yielded, against his better judgment, and in a
trice the two young madcaps slid down into the boat, cast
her loose, and pulled with all their might toward the distant
reef.
It was a longer pull than they expected for distances
are nowhere more deceptive than in the Eastern seas, but
they reached it at last, and were soon in the full enjoyment
of wonders that seemed to have come bodily out of the
fairy tales of their childhood.
They appeared to be standing upon a monster nosegay
of flowers of every hue pale gold, glossy green, snowy
white, delicate pink, vivid scarlet, and velvety black, with-
out order and without end. Over this enchanted garden
long wreaths of rich golden-brown sea-weed trailed like
twining creepers, and, far down in the depths below, fresh
shoots and tendrils could be seen branching upward through
the cool transparent water, so perfectly formed that it
seemed impossible they should really be nothing more than
cold, hard stone.
Suddenly a shout from Wyvil drew his comrade's atten-
tion to a blackish-yellow mass floating past the southern
end of the reef. At first sight it might have passed for a
drifting bunch of sea-weed, but a second glance showed
them the round shining back, flat head, and broad fan-
shaped "flippers" of a sedate old turtle, which was
"paddling its own canoe" toward the Arabian shore, in the
leisurely fashion of one to whom time was no object.
"I say, Alf," cried Marmaduke, as he pointed to this
BESIEGED BY A SHARK 19
living iron-clad, "we've got to collar that fellow, and no
mistake ! My father's very fond of turtle-soup, and it'll be
a fine present to take him back. Lend me a hand to shove
off the boat, and we'll have the beggar in no time Hollo!"
Well indeed might Wyvil utter that startled " Hollo " as
he turned round, and well might poor Alfred stare blankly
in the same direction. It was just as Marmaduke was
speaking of shoving off the boat that he suddenly discovered
that there was no boat to shove off !
Their boat was gone!
Whether the hastily-reeved knot had come undone, or
whether the projecting spike of coral to which it had been
made fast had broken short off, the boat was gone, leaving
them alone upon the reef without any means of escape. It
was already fully fifty yards away from them, and drifting
farther and farther beyond their reach every moment.
" Can't be helped," said Huntley doggedly, as his cool,
self-reliant spirit rallied itself from the first shock of this
terrible discovery. " If we've let it go, we've got to get it
back again, for we can't be left here like this. It's not very
far to swim; that's one comfort. Here goes!"
"Let me go!" cried Wyvil, stopping his friend as the
latter was throwing off his jacket for the plunge; "it was
all my fault for not taking better care."
"Fudge!" exclaimed Alfred impatiently; "we've no time
to fight about it now. Stand clear!"
But, just as he was about to plunge in, Wyvil clutched
his arm with both hands in a grasp of iron, and dragged
him backward, shouting, as he did so:
" Hold hard for your life, old boy ! do you see that ? "
Huntley had no need to ask what " that " was, for, as his
comrade spoke, there came darting up like a spear-point
through the clear, smooth water, within a few feet of the
spot where they stood, a black, jagged, hideous thing,
which even the inexperienced boys knew at once for the
back-fin of a shark !
CHAPTER H
THE LONELY FIGURE ON THE CLIFF
QTARTLING as was the sudden appearance of this
O horrible creature, the poor lads did not realize even
now the frightful peril that hung over them. Of course
they and their boat would soon be missed, and the men
would come and pick them up. In fact, just at first, both
boys were more inclined to congratulate themselves upon
having caught sight of the monster in time to avoid him
than to have any thought of alarm.
Huntley was the first to perceive that the tide was fast
rising, and already reached their feet where they stood;
and, as he looked round for some higher point whither to
retreat, he saw with inconceivable horror that the whole
reef lay equally low, the coral insects being unable to exist
above the water-level. It was but too plain that its whole
surface would soon be covered by the sea, and they would
then be at the mercy of their ferocious enemy, one stroke
from the powerful flukes of whose huge forked tail would
suffice to fling them off into deep water, to be drowned or
devoured alive.
Thoroughly alarmed at last, the boys shouted for help
with all their might. But it soon became fearfully evident
that the ceaseless hammering aboard the yacht the sound
of which reached them faintly even there was more than
sufficient to drown their distant call, while their figures,
unrelieved by any patch of bright colour, were at that
distance so completely blended with the grey outline of the
coast as to be only too easily overlooked.
Meanwhile the tide rose steadily, and the shark circled
20
THE LONELY FIGURE ON THE CLIFF 21
restlessly around them, as if feeling that its time was at
hand. Drawing back as far as they could from the edge of
the narrow reef, and clinging tightly to each other to keep
their footing against the swirl of the rising water, the
forlorn lads silently awaited their doom. It seemed hard
to die and by such a death with help and friends full in
sight! But what could they do?
But all at once Marmaduke Wy vil called out eagerly :
"Look, Alf, our boat's drifting right down towards the
yacht, and they must see her! There's a chance for us
yet!"
In fact, a few minutes later, they saw that a boat was
being lowered from the port side of the Mermaid, and
already thought themselves safe; but their hearts died
within them when they perceived she was heading not for
them but for their drifting boat, the men being evidently
under the impression that the latter had merely got loose
by accident.
"Shout with all your might, Duke!" cried Huntley;
"it's our only chance. Now, then both together!"
Whether this final call had been heard, or whether some-
one had sighted them through a glass, it was evident that
their danger had been perceived at last, for in another
moment the second boat (which had just brought the first
alongside the Mermaid) was seen to turn suddenly, and
shoot toward them like an arrow.
But, swiftly as she came, it seemed doubtful even now
whether she would arrive in time. The heaving tide was
already above the ankles of the two castaways, and it was
only by the most violent exertion of their fast -failing
strength that they were able to make good their footing
against that quiet, steady, overwhelming pressure.
The sailors bent to their oars with desperate energy, for
they now saw plainly the imminent peril of those whom
they came to save. But the shark, too, was on the alert,
and, having thrust himself through a gap in the outer edge
22 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
of the reef, was all but touching the boys with his shovel-
like snout.
Dimly, as if in a dream, Wyvil saw the set faces of the
approaching rescuers heard their shouts of encouragement,
and the harsh grating of the boat's bow against the coral
and then felt himself clutched by two strong hands, and
dragged on board, while Huntley came tumbling down beside
him.
Lord Heathermoor was leaning over the side of the yacht
when they reached her, but, seeing what a deep and terrible
impression had been left upon both lads by this hair-breadth
escape from a horrible death, he wisely refrained from
weakening its effect by any reproof of his own. The boys
themselves, however true to Marmaduke's favourite
maxim that " any fellow who was ashamed to own himself
in the wrong was no better than a coward ", lost no time
in making their confession.
" It's all my fault, father," cried Wyvil frankly; " it was
I persuaded Alf to go."
" No, it was my fault too, rejoined Huntley, " for I
oughtn't to have given in."
" Well, well, my dear boys," said Heathermoor kindly,
" I think you've both had a pretty good lesson to be more
careful another time, so we'll say no more about it."
Half an hour later they were off again, heading toward
the entrance of that storied ocean which (as Marmaduke
had once said in a school theme) " was formerly ploughed
by the adventurous barks of those great historical navi-
gators, Sindbad the Sailor, Vasco da Gama, and Robinson
Crusoe."
As they neared the straits, Perim Islet gradually de-
veloped itself from the huge shadowy likeness of a monster
sword-fish into a small, barren ridge of dark-grey rock,
three miles long by nearly two broad, and two hundred
and nine feet above the sea at its highest point. Lying
THE LONELY FIGURE ON THE CLIFF 23
close to the Arabian shore, it made a very unequal division
of the channel, the western or African passage being fully
ten miles in width, while the eastern passage (for which
the yacht was making) was barely one.
As they entered it, Lord Heathermoor called out to the
two lads: "Now, boys, here are three nations for you at
once France, Italy, and Old England."
It was indeed as he said. Against the pale-yellow sand
of the Arabian shore stood gauntly out a huge, massive,
prison-like building of grey stone, garrisoned by a handful
of sickly French soldiers. A little way beyond the straits
the bare outline of the African coast was broken by the
deep, narrow notch of Assab Bay, in the hollow of which,
hidden by intervening hills, nestled Italy's infant colony of
1870; and between the two the British Union Jack waved
defiantly over Perim Islet itself.
But the jaunty flutter of its crimson folds was the only
sign of life that relieved the grim desolation of one of the
dreariest spots upon the face of the earth. No living thing
was to be seen, no sound of life to be heard, upon the bare,
stony ridge, unchequered by a single speck of verdure.
Over its dark surface two narrow white foot-paths wound
upward, like veins, to the highest point, from which a low
grey wall (surmounted by the round white tower of a light-
house, and flanked on one side by a cluster of tumble-down
Arab hovels) looked sullenly down upon the smooth, sunny
sea, through the narrow, cunning eyes of countless loop-
holes.
" What a nice quiet place to spend one's holidays!" cried
Wyvil with a school-boy grin. " Who on earth lives here,
father?"
" A military Robinson Crusoe from the garrison of Aden,"
replied his father, " with a Hindoo sergeant for his Man
Friday, and thirty sepoys to represent the Caribbee Indians.
But I can tell you that, dreary as you think it, there was
once a man who begged to be allowed to stay here."
24 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"Did he?" exclaimed Marmaduke. "He must have
been a brother to that fellow who broke into prison again
after he was let out!"
"Well, the story was this: As I've told you, the officer
in charge is sent over from Aden, and relieved every few
months; but, as you may suppose, all the young 'subs'
hold this post in particular abhorrence, and do their best
to avoid being sent to it. So you may think the com-
mandant of Aden was considerably astonished to receive,
one day, an application from the young fellow stationed at
Perim, not for the shortening of his term of duty, but for
the extension of it for three months more ! "
"Well, I never!" cried Alfred Huntley; "that's as bad
as the yarn of the boy who used to steal castor-oil!"
" The old commandant granted the application at once,
inwardly setting down this good young man as either a
very zealous officer or a most amazing fool; but it wasn't
long before in came a second letter from the same man,
asking for another three months at Perim ! This struck the
old man as rather too improbable, and he began to conceive
dark suspicions."
"And well he might, I'm sure!" chuckled Marmaduke
Wyvil.
" However," continued Lord Heathermoor, " he hadn't
time to look into the matter just then, being himself on the
point of going home on leave. But the explanation came
sooner than he expected; for, when he got to London,
almost the first man he ran against was his zealous subaltern
from Perim, who had been enjoying himself in England for
several months past, having left behind, with his trusty
sergeant on the island, several written applications for an
extension of duty, to be sent to Aden one by one, whenever
his time was nearly up."
By this time they were well into the narrow channel,
and could see the ominous white of the fatal coral reefs
streaking the shallow water on either side of them. Just.
THE LONELY FIGURE ON THE CLIFF 25
at the foot of the Perim cliffs, the rusted funnel and broken
foremast of a wrecked steamer rose gauntly up from a long,
low sand-bank; and as they began to near the other end
of the strait, they caught sight of the shattered hull of a
second wreck stranded among the rocks of the African
shore.
"Doesn't Bab-el-Mandeb mean 'Gate of Weeping'?" said
Wyvil. "The old strait seems to deserve its name, with
all these wrecks about!"
" Why, bless yer, sir," chimed in old Graves's voice from
behind, " if 'twarn't for plunderin' a wreck now and then,
what 'ud them poor h' Arabs have to amuse 'em? I've
heard folks say that up in the Shetland h'Isles, or some
sitch barbarious place, whenever a ship was wrecked upon
their coast, they used to give part of the plunder to the
church, and pray that Heaven would be merciful, and send
'em more wrecks before long ! "
And now, as they swept forth from the perilous straits
into the open waters of the Gulf of Aden a kind of side-
pocket of the Indian Ocean, our heroes suddenly caught
sight of something which looked like a broad patch of white
foam, a few hundred yards off, upon the starboard bow,
strongly outlined against the deep blue of the sea, and un-
dulating ceaselessly with a quick, irregular motion, like a
table-cloth vigorously shaken out. The boys snatched at
their spy-glasses, and instantly the seeming foam resolved
itself into a vast cloud of white sea-birds, in the height of
their day's fishing, and to all appearance making a very
successful " haul ".
As the yacht neared them, the whole tableau became
clearly visible; and a very curious sight it was. Far and
wide, the smooth sea was alive with flapping wings and
pouncing beaks, swooping, diving, seizing, shooting up again,
and replunging instantaneously, while the air echoed with
their screams and the ceaseless rush of their pinions.
Here and there, along the skirt of the column, broke forth
26 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
a burst of shrill cries, and a jostle of conflicting forces worthy
of a football match, as some lucky fellow, who had drawn
a prize in this marine lottery, was assaulted simultaneously
by a dozen or more of his good friends and neighbours,
" with intent to rob ". To the left of the main body, and
about fifty yards away from it, a few old stagers had formed
themselves into a joint-stock company, and were fishing
very profitably on their own account, while three or four
gluttons, who had already crammed down quite as much
as they could conveniently hold (and possibly a little more),
were flapping heavily away to digest their Lenten supper
elsewhere.
" Look, look, Alf !" shouted Wyvil; " there's a fellow just
brought up a big fish, and another fellow's whipped it away
from him the minute he came up!"
"And see there!" cried Huntley; "there are two of 'em
having a fight for a fish in the air, and now they've let it
fall, and a third 'un's gone off with it serve 'em both right
for being so greedy!"
"Well, boys," said Lord Heathermoor's voice behind
them, " even in this uneventful age there's something to
be seen out here, eh?"
"Yes, that's just it!" rejoined Wyvil in the regretful
tone of a good man bemoaning a lost opportunity of useful-
ness; "there's such a horrid lot to look at that one hasn't
even time to read and I'm in the middle of such a stunning
story too!"
"What story's that?" asked his father, smiling at this
characteristic regret.
" Ashley Thurraboy's last In the Wilds of the New
World" replied Marmaduke, the greater part of whose
luggage, in fact, consisted of selections from the works of
Messrs. Kingston, Ballantyne, Henty, Jules Verne, and Co.
"Aha! you've got hold of Thurraboy 'Thorough Boy',
as Punch calls him. Well, he ought to be able to write
about strange adventures, for he's had some pretty startling
THE LONELY FIGURE ON THE CLIFF 27
ones himself, by all accounts. I remember meeting him a
few years ago at a country house in Devonshire, just after
he came back from that wonderful journey of his through
South America, which is what I suppose that book of yours
is about."
"And have you really seen him yourself?" cried Wyvil
eagerly.
" Really and truly I have enjoyed that pleasure ; and, so
far as I can recollect, he had neither horns nor hoofs, nor a
fiery halo round his head, but looked very much like an
ordinary man."
" I only wish I could come across him somewhere, and
have a talk with him about these jolly books of his!" said
Marmaduke enthusiastically.
" You wouldn't get much out of him if you did," answered
Heath ermoor. "All the time he was with us at Falcon-
hurst he hardly ever spoke a word, though what little he
did say was certainly very much to the purpose. One
evening, at dinner, a conceited young fool, who was always
trying to make himself appear clever by crying down every-
one else, said in a cheeky kind of way: 'Stanley may be
something of a traveller, but he's no critic; he can't even
tell a good book from a bad one !' ' So I thought,' answered
Thurraboy quietly, ' for I've heard him praise one of yours.'"
During the night they held a straight course through the
open sea, keeping well away from the Arabian coast on the
north and the dangerous African shore on the south. But
next morning Lord Heathermoor, coming on deck just be-
fore daybreak, gave orders (somewhat to the surprise of
the officer of the watch) to lay the yacht on a course which
would bring her well to the southward, and full in sight of
that great cliff-wall which towers in an almost unbroken line
from Berberah, along the Somauli coast, right onward to the
vast wedge-shaped headland of Cape Guardafui, the eastern-
most point of Africa.
" The last time I passed this way," said he, " I picked up
28 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
a shipwrecked crew somewhere hereabouts; and who knows
but we might find someone else in distress here this time 1
It's worth trying, anyhow."
All that morning the dainty little vessel skimmed along
like a sea-bird beneath that mighty rampart, which rose
sheer up out of the sea to a height of more than one thousand
feet; and our young travellers made their necks ache by
constantly bending them back to stare up at the endless suc-
cession of grim, dark-grey precipices overhead, which, with
their bare, scorched, crumbling rocks, dusty hollows, frown-
ing crags, and dry torrent-beds that gaped on every side
like thirsty mouths panting for water bore out fully all
that the boys had heard or read of the savage desolation
(unmatched even in Africa itself) for which this strange
out-of-the-way corner of No-Man's-Land is so unenviably
famous.
" Isn't there a text somewhere," said Marmaduke Wy vil
in an undertone to his comrade, " which speaks of ' the land
where all things are forgotten'? I should think this must
be the very place!"
But just at that moment Lord Heathermoor (who was
pacing up and down the deck as usual, underneath the
awning) was seen to give a sudden start, glance keenly
upward at the mighty precipice above him, and then,
bringing his telescope hastily to his eye, look long and
fixedly at the highest point of the cliff, above which a dark
spot had just risen up against the hot cloudless blue of the
tropical sky.
These proceedings were not lost upon the quick-eyed
lads, who, interested at once, whipped out their glasses,
and turned them in the same direction. Then two sharp
exclamations burst forth like one, for the first glance
showed them that this slow-moving spot at which they
were gazing was the figure of a solitary man in European
dress !
CHAPTER III
OVER THE PRECIPICE
SUCH an apparition, in such a place, was enough to
startle the most case-hardened traveller alive; and
the boys were excited beyond measure, though somewhat
divided in opinion as to who this stranger might be who
had made his appearance in such a melodramatic way.
Huntley felt convinced that he was an African explorer,
who had turned up here at the end of a walk right across
the continent; and the more romantic Wyvil was equally
positive that he must be a pirate!
But Heathermoor, who had been on this formidable coast
three or four times already, was not long in guessing the
truth.
"He must be an Englishman," said he, "escaped from
captivity among the Somaulis, and we must lend a hand to
help him. Give him a shout, my men, as loud as you can!"
The crew lifted up their voices in a lusty shout, and,
whether the forlorn man heard it or not, he had evidently
caught sight of the yacht, for he was seen to wave his hand
toward her. But just then he glanced quickly over his
shoulder as if pursued, and then moved hastily, though
with the tottering step of one whose strength was well-
nigh exhausted, toward a spot a few hundred yards to
his left, where a narrow, winding, break-neck path (upon
which, when seen from below, it seemed as if even a moun-
tain-goat could hardly have found footing) zigzagged in a
greyish-white thread down the dark face of the cliff.
" They're after him, plain enough," muttered Heather-
moor, "and we have no time to lose. Mr. Walters, you
29
30 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
know these seas better than I do; how close can we stand
in to the shore without risk of running aground?"
" About a quarter of a mile more, my lord, is as much as
we can do safely."
" Stand in, then. Cast loose the gripes of the starboard
quarter-boat, and stand by to lower away when I give the
word."
"Ay, ay, my lord!"
But, ere the Mermaid could cover the allotted distance,
the fierce excitement of this grim drama was unexpectedly
and formidably heightened.
The fugitive on the cliff who had kept glancing quickly
over his shoulder as he ran was seen to stop short all at
once, to cast one more rapid glance behind him, and then (as
if driven to desperation by some imminent danger) to lower
himself deliberately over the edge of that tremendous pre-
cipice, and begin to scramble down the fearful depth below.
So thunderstruck were even the hardy seamen at this
unheard-of and seemingly needless rashness that they
stood staring blankly at each other without uttering a
word. The excited Marmaduke bit his lips till they bled ;
and even Alfred Huntley, as he watched the small dark
figure hanging upon the face of that terrific precipice, like
a fly on a wall, clenched his hands till the knuckles grew
white.
But they soon had something else to think of, for in
another moment there came floating toward them from
the shore the sound of a far-off yell, which, faint and
distant though it was, was as ominous of evil as the scream
of a pouncing vulture. Then there started up against the
sunny sky, upon the dark brow of the precipice, three or
four wild forms, quickly followed by a dozen more.
Through Heathermoor's powerful telescope, the black,
bony frames, and lean, cruel, wolfish faces of these grim
pursuers were plainly visible, and he evidently recognized
them at a glance.
OVER THE PRECIPICE 31
" Somaulis ! " he muttered savagely. " I see it all now.
They're in chase of that poor fellow, and they've come up
so as to cut him off from the path, and make him scramble
right down the cliff to escape them ! But they sha'n't have
him, if I die for it."
Then his orders rang out in quick succession, clear and
decisive :
"Heave to! Stand by your boat! Let go the davit-
tackle falls! Lower away!"
The boat was lowered and manned in a trice, and, skil-
fully steered by the second officer, Mr. Browne, flew toward
the shore as swiftly as four stout oarsmen could send her.
But the fortune of this race with death seemed terribly
doubtful even now, for all the chances were manifestly
against the fugitive. As yet though aided by the cleft
of a dry torrent-bed, down which he was clambering like
a sweep down a chimney he had achieved barely a third
of the descent; and, despite the wonderful activity which
he displayed, it was mere madness to expect that he could
distance in that way men who were advancing along a
beaten path.
"Pull, my lads, pull!" shouted Browne to his crew;
"it's to save a Christian man from cut-throat savages!"
The brave fellows worked like giants, but, do what they
would, it seemed fatally certain that they must come too
late ; for now they could all see plainly that the path which
the savages were following must sooner or later cut right
across the line of the course taken by the intended victim
in his descent. And, if they reached the point of intersec-
tion first, the forlorn man would be at their mercy.
That they would do so there could now be little doubt,
for they were advancing at an increasingly rapid pace down
the formidable path, evidently quite indifferent to the pre-
sence of the yacht, which they probably supposed to be
unarmed, as she had made no attempt to fire upon them.
Moreover, the English could not feel sure of getting the
32 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
best of it, even if they did arrive in time, for the Somaulis
numbered ten men, and, though seemingly without fire-
arms, all carried short swords or spears, while Mr. Browne
and his crew were only five, at least one of whom would be
needed to take care of the boat.
The savages themselves, too, were manifestly aware of
their advantage, as was shown by the exulting yell with
which they quickened their pace.
But nothing of all this escaped the vigilant eye of Lord
Heathermoor, who had been watching the whole scene
through his telescope from the deck of the Mermaid; and,
just at the critical moment, his voice was heard again:
" Mr. Walters, load the signal-gun, and give those fellows
a shot. Don't kill any of them if you can help it, but just
try and scare them off; and then, if they won't take a hint,
we must go at 'em in earnest with the Gatling."
In a trice the light iron carronade, which, with a Gatling-
gun fixed on a pivot amidships, formed the yacht's whole
armament, was loaded and run out, and its bang fired a
long train of thundering echoes among the crannied cliffs
overhead.
The intervention of this new pleader was more successful
than even Heathermoor himself could have ventured to
hope, for although the old tar who managed the piece had
obeyed his captain's humane commands by aiming a little
below the advancing Somaulis, in order to avoid needless
bloodshed, yet the sharp and stunning report of a cannon
from a vessel which they had supposed quite unarmed, the
crash of the ball against the cliff, the shower of broken
stones which it dashed up on every side, and the howls of
their foremost man, who had been hurt by a flying splinter
of rock, were more than enough for the startled savages.
For an instant they halted in doubt and dismay, and then,
as the lusty cheer with which the shot was hailed by the
English boat's crew, who were by this time nearing the
shore, came rolling to their ears from below, they turned
OVER THE PRECIPICE 33
and scampered up the steep path almost as quickly as they
had come down it.
A few moments later the rescuers ran their boat along-
side of a narrow platform of rock at the foot of the preci-
pice, just in time to see this strange melodrama take another
and very unexpected turn.
The daring climber, prevented by the formation of the
cliff from seeing what lay below him, had suddenly come to
a standstill at the top of a rock which plunged down to the
sea in an all but sheer descent of fully thirty feet. To
all appearance he could get neither up nor down, and
Browne was just shouting to him an offer to send some of
the sailors up to his assistance, when the stranger was seen
to slide over the edge of the rock, and shoot like an arrow
down its almost perpendicular face.
A muttered exclamation of dismay broke from the sea-
men, who thought that he had fallen, and that he would
certainly be either killed or terribly injured. But this
man was one of the best and boldest cragsmen on the face
of the earth, and it was not the first time that he had run
such a risk unscathed. To their utter amazement, he slid
down to the foot in safety; but the rush of his descent was
too great to be checked, and, shooting like a skater across
the narrow and slippery ledge upon which he alighted, he
plunged headlong into the sea. But several strong hands
clutched him as he rose to the surface again, and he was
instantly dragged into the boat, which was soon alongside
of the Mermaid once more.
"Shall we lower the rope-ladder for you?" asked Mr.
Browne, seeing the rescued man show signs of exhaustion
now that the excitement was over, " or would you like us
to hoist you up along with the boat?"
"Neither, thank you," replied the stranger cheerily;
" I'm not so far gone but what I can climb a rope yet."
The voice that spoke was a very peculiar one, and not to
be easily forgotten; and Heathermoor, starting visibly as
( B 533 ) C
34 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
he heard it, shot a keen glance at the rescued man as the
latter swung himself up on to the deck. The glory of the
tropical sunset fell full upon the stranger's dark, bearded,
weather-beaten face, and threw out in strong relief every
line of its bold resolute features.
"Ashley Thurraboy, as I'm a living man!" cried the
master of the yacht in amazement.
"The same, at your service," replied the great author
with perfect composure; "and this is not the first time that
I have had the pleasure of meeting Lord Heathermoor."
CHAPTER IV
MARMADUKE GETS HIS WISH
MARMADUKE WYVIL happened to be within earshot
of this astounding revelation, and the sudden dis-
covery that the very man in whose tales he delighted, and
whom he had just been wishing to meet, stood before him
in all the glory of an escape from real live savages, was
enough to make him spring forward as if at an electric
shock.
But he was doomed to be grievously disappointed; for,
ere he had time to speak a word, his father, seeing that
their strange guest was not only wringing wet, but so worn
out that he could hardly stand upright, led away Thurraboy
below, and insisted upon his going to bed forthwith.
There was little slumber for our impatient Marmaduke
that night, and even when he did fall asleep at last he was
haunted by wild and troubled dreams.
He dreamed that the rescued man was not Ashley
Thurraboy, but Sindbad the Sailor, who sternly refused to
answer any questions about his seven voyages, declaring
that his travels were about to appear in the form of a
Christmas book, and that he owed it to his publishers not
to let any of the facts get abroad before the day of publi-
cation. By way of amends, however, the great navigator
offered to make the boy a present of one of the jewels
which he had picked up in the famous "Valley of
Diamonds". But no sooner had he pulled it out than it
turned into a shark, and hunted Wyvil up and down the
deck, calling out fiercely: "You escaped me on the coral
reef, but I'll have you now, or I'm a porpoise!" And here-
35
36 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
upon our hero set up a howl that startled the whole ship,
and awoke to find himself sprawling on his back on the
floor.
Even the cool Huntley was scarcely less excited, and
came on deck at sunrise next morning, whither Wyvil had
preceded him by some minutes, in the hope of finding Mr.
Thurraboy already there.
But they watched and waited in vain. Strong and
seasoned as he was, their chosen hero had evidently reached
the limit of his endurance, for he slept fourteen hours at a
stretch from sheer exhaustion; and nothing more was seen
of him till the Mermaid was well on her way toward the
Isle of Socotra, and had almost lost sight of that dreary
corner of Africa in which, as the Irish engineer truly said,
" even a robber could hardly find the means to 'arn an
honest living!"
But, in spite of this great disappointment, our young
voyagers were in high spirits. This trip of theirs, which
had at first been gallingly uneventful and "just like any
other voyage, you know ", really seemed to be developing a
fair amount of romance at last. In the same twenty-four
hours they had themselves had a hair-breadth escape from
destruction, and had witnessed another even more exciting;
and, better still, they had now got on board with them a
man who was proverbial for strange experiences of every
kind, and would, as they hoped, pour out to them as many
startling adventures as Kobinson Crusoe himself.
But even this hope was soon to be taken away from them,
for, directly after lunch at which Mr. Thurraboy did not
appear Lord Heathermoor came up to them as they stood
looking over the side, and said in his usual kindly way:
" My boys, I know you're wanting to hear all about Mr.
Thurraboy's adventures in Somauliland, arid it's very natural
that you should. But, whatever he may have been doing
there, I can see that it has given him a great shock, and
the less he's reminded of it the better, till his nerves get
MARMADUKE GETS HIS WISH 37
settled a bit; so I want you both to promise me not to ask
him any questions until he chooses to tell us all about it
himself."
The two bright faces clouded for an instant, but no
persuasion was needed to make the brave English lads give
up at once any pleasure of their own which could give pain
to other people; and Marmaduke, manfully choking down
his disappointment, replied in his cheeriest tones :
"All right, Dad! I won't say a word to him about it."
" Nor I either," added Huntley with equal readiness.
" That's right!" cried Heathermoor heartily; "and I see
I've warned you just in time, for here he comes."
Here he came, sure enough, in a well-worn suit of navy-
blue lent him by Mr. Walters, and as he moved slowly
across the deck to join them, the two boys, who had only
caught a passing glimpse of their favourite author the night
before, took a good look at him.
As Lord Heathermoor had said, there was little about
Ashley Thurraboy's appearance to distinguish him at first
sight from other men, and any ordinary observer would
have been surprised and disappointed to find, in the hero of
so many daring deeds and wild adventures, nothing more
than a plain, strongly-built man of middle height, with a
sunburned face, and a thick, reddish-brown beard. But, to
a practised reader of men's faces, the keen, watchful eye,
the firm mouth, the fearless bearing, and the bold, self-
reliant look would have told their own story, and fully
borne out the criticism passed upon him by an observant
sailor the evening before:
"He's the right sort, is that chap! If he had a craft of
his own, I'll be bound he'd sail her till she went all to bits,
and then he'd take a needle and thread and stitch her to-
gether again ! "
"Glad to see you on deck again, Mr. Thurraboy; I hope
you've had a good rest," said Lord Heathermoor with that
38 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
frank geniality that made him a favourite wherever he
went. " Allow me to introduce my son, Marmaduke, a de-
voted admirer of yours, who has read, I think, every book
that you have ever written."
"And I'm just in the middle of one of them now!" cried
Wyvil, shaking with boyish heartiness the great writer's ex-
tended hand ; " and I was wishing, only the other night, that
I could fall in with you somewhere and now here you are!"
"Well, I'm glad to find that I've turned up so oppor-
tunely," laughed the author of In the Wilds of the New
World; "for, as a rule, I seem to come in just when I'm
not wanted."
"And this," continued Heathermoor, putting Huntley
forward, "is Mr. Alfred Huntley, a great friend of ours,
Avho is going out with us to meet his father, Colonel
Randolph Huntley of the th, of whom, I dare say, you
have heard."
"What? 'Rescue Randolph?'" cried Thurraboy. "I
should think I have heard of him, and I hope there's no one
in all England who has not heard of the man who ventured
across a hundred yards of open plain, with dozens of sharp-
shooters firing at him all the time, to save a wounded native
soldier whom everyone else had left to die ! I'm very glad
to make your acquaintance, Mr. Huntley, and I can tell you
you may well be proud of your father."
Alfred looked as if he were quite of the same opinion
himself.
"And now that we are all acquainted with each other,
Mr. Thurraboy," resumed Heathermoor, "may I ask what
your plans are, and what we can do to assist them? If
you are only out on a holiday cruise, and not in any
special hurry, I need hardly say we shall be glad of your
company as long as you are good enough to favour us with
it; but if you're bound for any particular place in these
seas, you have only to say the word and I'll run you there
as fast as steam can carry us."
MARMADUKE GETS HIS WISH 39
"You're very kind," answered Thurraboy; "and, to tell
you the truth, my idea was to catch a steamer at Aden and
go on to Singapore, which was to be my starting-point for
a cruise among the Malay Islands."
"The very thing!" cried his host. "We are bound for
Singapore too, to pick up Colonel Huntley and take him
home with us, as his term of service is just up now he's
been something in the consul or commissioner line, you
know, since he left the army. Well, then, I hope you'll
consider yourself my guest until we get there, and my
wardrobe is quite at your service for anything that you
may require in the way of clothes."
The boys, as may be supposed, were in ecstasies at this
arrangement, and when Thurraboy took his place at table
that evening, for the first time, their delight rose to the
highest pitch, though they were still manfully true to
their promise of abstaining from questioning him about
his recent perils.
The weather continued favourable, and, passing under
the vast limestone precipices of Socotra Island (" a kind of
appendix to the last volume of East Africa", as Mr.
Thurraboy professionally remarked), they were soon right
out in the Indian Ocean, far from the sight of land.
"How fine it must have been to be here in the old
times," cried Marmaduke Wyvil enthusiastically, "when
you might bump against a new empire any morning before
breakfast, and when pirates, water-spouts, mermaids, sea-
serpents, spectre ships, and all sorts of jolly things were as
common as blackberries ! But nowadays, when everything's
mapped out and written down, and when you know just
where you are, and where you're going, and how long it'll
take you to get there, it's no fun at all!"
"Well, I must say I agree with you there, Duke," said
his father, smiling, "and that's just why I prefer to go
about in this little yacht of mine, which at all events leaves
me free to go where I like instead of crawling along a line
40 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
traced by somebody else, as one has to do in a passenger
steamer."
"You're right there," put in Thurraboy; "but, do what
one will, travelling nowadays is a sadly unromantic affair,
especially on such a well-frequented road as this Red Sea
route to India. There was still some excitement possible
in the days when Vasco da Gama, as he swept forward
into the unknown waste of waters, could say with Cole-
ridge's Ancient Mariner:
' We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea ! '
But 1497 and 1883 are two very different things, and
one's only chance of distinction in these prosaic days is
to be able to say:
' We were the last that ever passed
Out of that hackneyed sea ! ' "
" True enough," said Heathermoor, laughing. " Sharks,
water- spouts, hurricanes, 'fairy coral isles', and 'light
periaguas ' (whatever they may be) are fairly worn thread-
bare by this time; and even the invaluable pirate whose
priceless services to literature have almost atoned for his
injuries to commerce is now as completely 'played out'
in fiction as in fact."
" Well, then," cried Wyvil, " why not make a yarn out
of the old days when there was some romance ? Have you
ever written a story about Vasco da Gama's voyage round
the Cape, Mr. Thurraboy ?"
" Never," said the great writer, " and, in fact, there
would be no credit in it, for the actual history is so roman-
tic that it needs no addition. All that one would have to
do would be to copy it out, and any fool could do that!"
"I wish you would do it for us then, Mr. Thurraboy,"
said Wyvil with an unconscious sarcasm at which his
father looked aghast.
MARMADUKE GETS HIS WISH 41
"Ay, do!" chimed in Huntley with equal eagerness.
"You could do it first-rate. Make it a regular romance,
you know, like Mayne Reid or Jules Verne."
" Oh, if you want something in the ' thrilling romance '
style, that's another matter!" answered the author, taking
out his pencil. "Well, what shall we call it? Into the
Unknown Ocean: a Tale of Mystery and Terror!"
"That'll do tiptop," cried both boys at once, quite un-
conscious that they were being made fun of. " Now, then,
how does it begin?"
Thurraboy scribbled for a few moments in his note-book,
and then, with a sly smile at his impatient audience, read
aloud as follows:
"CHAPTER I. A TERRIBLE VISION
"It was midnight. The light breeze barely sufficed to
fill the wide sails of the Portuguese caravels, which cast
a dark shadow in the ghostly splendour of the tropical
moonlight over the smooth, shining waters below. Already
had the practised ears of Vasco da Gama's veteran seamen
caught the distant booming of the surf upon the unknown
shore. High on the poop of his flagship stood the great
admiral himself, straining his keen eyes into the blackness
behind which lay a new world.
" Suddenly the dauntless leader gave a violent start, and
a deathly pallor fell over those calm, stern features which
had faced unquaiMngly all the thousand perils of the un-
known sea. What new and unheard-of terror could this
be, then, which had power to dismay even him?
"Right down upon him came, gliding out of the dark
bank of cloud into which the moon had just plunged, a vast
shadow, wearing the shape of a large vessel of antique
fashion and cumbrous Eastern build. But was her mighty
hull really a solid fabric wrought by human hands, or only
a shadowy mass of gloom 1 Was the white haze above her.
42 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
through which the stars twinkled faintly, her outspread
canvas or a fleecy cloud hanging between sea and sky?
And were those crimson streaks at her mast-heads fluttering
pennons or tongues of lapping flame ?
" The night seemed to grow darker as the terrible form
came on, and, in the ghostly phosphorescence that played
around her bows, shark and sword-fish might be seen dart-
ing aside in panic terror, while the sea-birds that hovered
on the still night air flitted away with ominous shrieks.
Mute and motionless, the SaoMigueVs cfrew stood gazing
upon the ghastly spectacle, every man seeing reflected in
his comrade's face the horror that distorted his own.
" On came the fearful stranger, looming out plainer and
plainer every moment. Her shadowy decks Vere crowded
with men all arrayed in the gorgeous garb of the Orient,
but with the white, rigid faces and rayless eyes of the
dead. High above all towered a mighty, form in gilded
armour and purple robes, whose massive 'features seemed
frozen into a stony look of eternal pain, and deep in whose
swarthy forehead was sunk the blood r rusted head of a huge
iron nail, the jagged point of which projected through a
yawning wound in the back of the skull, which his jewelled
turban vainly strove to conceal.
"For one instant the phantom bark stood out awfully
distinct amid the gloom, close alongside, and then vanished
as if it had never been.
"A stifled cry burst from the Portuguese admiral's
quivering lips:
" ' I have seen it at last! It is if must be the Angue-
bona Callaventejo!'
"'And what, in St. Miguel's name, is that?' asked Dom
Fernando do Monte, the second in command, looking
wonderingly at his leader's convulsed features.
" ' What? do you not know?' asked Da Gama in a voice
scarcely human.
" 'May I become a Spaniard if I do!'
MARMADUKE GETS HIS WISH 43
" ' No more do I,' said the great admiral solemnly.
" And with this explanation he was about to vanish into
his state-cabin when something happened."
"Well, how does it go on?" asked both boys at once
with breathless eagerness, as the narrator paused.
"To be continued," answered Thurraboy, smiling at
their disappointed faces ; and then he added more gravely :
"Now that ^you've seen,, for yourselves how easily such
rubbish can he. written, I hope you'll remember that what
is very easy W write is often very hard to read ; and, what-
ever you do, don't get a taste for those blood-and-thunder
serials which some boys are so fond of, for they're always
sheer nonsense, and very often something a great deal
worse."
And Marmaduke Wyvil who, when at school, had
devoured a-Vrfpind dozen of those thrillingly impossible
Western romanbes in which one small boy puts to flight, by
his prowess, a w"hple tribe of Eed Indians looked rather
foolish, and made'tio -reply.
CHAPTER V
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES
FOR the next few days the two lads enjoyed to the full
all those "marvels of the tropical seas" about which
they had heard and read so much, though they had never
actually beheld them till now.
They saw sky and sea meet in a perfect arch, so strangely
blended that the keenest eye could not tell where one
ended and the other began, and their ship seemed to be
hovering in the centre of a transparent bubble. They saw,
once and again, the loom of land along the horizon so plain
that they were already running to find it on the chart, when
it suddenly melted and disappeared, while a noarse laugh
from the sailors told them that it was only " Cape Fly-
away ". They sighted in the distance, to their unbounded
delight, a small water-spout, and were greatly disappointed
that it did not come near enough to be broken with a
cannon-shot, according to the recipe laid down in all re-
spectable books of sea-travel.
Animate wonders, too, combined with inanimate ones
to fill up the measure of their enjoyment. They watched
the dolphin leap upward from the clear bright water, and
the wide-winged albatross hang poised over their mast-head,
like a white cloud upon the deep-blue sky, recalling weird
memories of the ancient mariner and that unlucky cross-
bow with which he committed his famous " albatrossity ".
They saw the charming little nautilus (called by sailors
" Portuguese man-of-war ") glide past them with outspread
sail by thousands at a time. Night after night the phos-
44
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 45
phorescent jelly-fish lit up the whole sea with a procession
of purple lamps that seemed to have no end; and once the
sea itself appeared to have caught fire, and every ripple in
their wake was a quivering jet of flame.
Nor was this all. Our heroes had at length the supreme
pleasure of seeing the renowned flying-fish " real live
flying-fish, and no mistake " shooting like living rainbows
from wave to wave, with the many-coloured sheen of the
sunlight upon the wet surface of their outspread wings.
And by night the deck was all a-glitter with the silvery
scales of these poor little wanderers, which attracted as
usual by the vessel's lights " flew on board for breakfast "
(as the steward cruelly said) by scores at a time, though
the finest of them were generally snapped up by the ship's
cat, on the principle that the early cat catches the fish, as
well as the early bird the worm.
" Yes, there's plenty to see here," said Thurraboy, to
whom our heroes were pouring out their enthusiasm one
afternoon; "but I do wish people could find some new
way of describing it all. After reading for the thousandth
time, in exactly^ the same words, about ' balmy skies ',
' fairy islets ', ' frolicsome porpoises stirring the bright-blue
sea into foam with their unwieldy gambols ', the ' ever-
renewed freshness of the boundless ocean ', and all the rest
of it, one does really begin to tire of the ever-renewed stale-
ness of the boundless ocean, and to wish that it would be
a little fresher. And the worst of it is, that every young
clerk who has been rowed round Bombay harbour, and
every lady who has gone for a half -hour's sail outside of
Aden, claim to know as much about the tropical seas as
men who have spent their whole lives upon them. People
travel fast, as well as live fast, nowadays. I knew a man
once who wrote two volumes on India after being a week
ashore at Bombay; and I'm daily expecting to see the
announcement of a book called Half an Hour at the South
Pole, by the author of Twenty-jive Minutes in Central Africa \ "
46 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" Well done, Mr. Thurraboy ! " laughed Marmaduke ;
"you ought to write reviews you'd do 'em tiptop!"
"I have done a good many," said the author quietly;
" and, in fact, I think I can boast of having written the
shortest review in the world : ' The preface is a flat per-
formance, the work a flatter, and the author a flatterer.'
But, as I was saying, if these people could even write the
same nonsense in different words, it would be always some-
thing of an improvement. You can't think how sick I
am of perpetually hearing about ' the phosphorescent
sparkles which played around the eddies in our wake,
crowning the twilight sea with a diadem of lambent flame '.
Why on earth, too, is a flame always lambent on such occa-
sions? and what meaning, if any, do its task-masters attach
to that most ill-fated of words 1 "
11 If it's Latin," said Huntley, " it ought to mean ' lick-
ing'; so perhaps it's a kind of flame that licks every other
sort."
"Hear, hear!" cried Wyvil; " that's just like old Charles
Lamb saying, when he called that man a naufrageous villain :
' I don't know what it means, but it sounds a good sort of
word to throw at a fellow'. Hollo! here comes another
gang of flying-fish!"
"And here comes something else after them, or I'm
much mistaken," said Thurraboy. " Keep a look-out, now,
both of you, for you're going to see a form of hunting
which Captain Mayne Reid never saw in his life."
Such a suggestion was more than enough to make both
lads stare with all their might at the approaching shoal of
flying-fish, which were no longer skimming playfully from
billow to billow in mere sportiveness, but leaping and dart-
ing with the quick, irregular, terrified movement of fugitives
from a deadly and imminent danger.
What that danger was soon became apparent.
Up through the clear bright sea, piercing the surface
with a sudden stab, came the black, pointed, dagger- like
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 47
back-fin of an enormous shark, in hot pursuit of the poor
little runaways.
" Hard lines on 'em!" muttered Wyvil compassionately.
Scarcely had he spoken, when it became evident that the
" lines " were even harder than they had seemed, for, just
as the fish were in full flight from their terrible pursuer, up
shot another pointed fin right in their path, and a second
shark, darting in among them, headed them right back into
the clutch of his confederate. It was soon manifest, indeed,
that the two partners in this firm of Shark Brothers were
playing into each other's hands, or rather jaws the one
chasing them forward, while the other made a circuit to
cut off their retreat, so that, between the two, the poor
little victims were snapped up by half a dozen at a time.
One of these two " sea-lawyers " kept near the yacht for
several hours after, and Marmaduke, having begged a piece
of pork from the cook, rigged up a hook and line over the
starboard quarter, bent upon avenging the flying-fish by
entrapping the destroyer himself in turn. But the shark,
whether suspecting a trick, or merely scared by the beat of
the screw, fought shy of the tempting bait, and Wyvil, shak-
ing his fist at the unabashed monster, indignantly informed
him that he " wasn't half a shark ", and that he ought to be
ashamed of himself!
That evening, and the next, and the next after that,
Wyvil was fully employed in drawing out Mr. Thurraboy;
for, as he confided to Huntley, "one don't get hold of a
real live author every day"; and Thurraboy, though still
rigidly silent about his recent adventures in Somauliland,
seemed ready enough to talk on any other subject, and
answered the boy's questions very good-naturedly.
"Do you find it very hard work to write one of those
books of yours, Mr. Thurraboy V asked Marmaduke, on the
third evening.
"Not particularly; the hardest part of the work is after
48 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
it is written, when I have to go all over it again, revising
and correcting the proofs. Many and many a time have
I had to correct the same misprint twice or thrice over; and
of course the proof-readers, in their wisdom, always know
what you mean to say better than you do yourself, and
put something quite different from what you really wrote,
very likely making utter nonsense of some of your most
telling passages."
"Well, that is too bad!" cried Huntley sympathizingly.
" But surely, when once you've put it all straight for 'em,
they can't get wrong again ! "
" Can't they? My dear boy, you have no notion of what
a proof-reader is capable or a printer either, for that
matter. I could tell you some fine tales of that sort from
my own experience. Do either of you know the story of
the head-master and the runaway dog?"
" No do tell us," cried Alfred, zealously echoed by his
comrade.
"Well, there was an English county paper which pub-
lished on the same day the account of a farewell address,
given by the head-master of , and the description of
the antics of a runaway dog; and what should they do but
go and mix the two stories, with the following result:
" 'Dr. Grimwig, the esteemed head-master of School,
delivered his farewell address yesterday morning, before
taking his departure for London. He exhorted his pupils,
in the most moving terms, to be as obedient and well-
disciplined under the rule of his successor as they had been
under his own; and, having thanked them for their atten-
tion, took a whim to play some frantic freaks. He ran
furiously down the High Street, barking violently, till he
reached the market-place, at which stage of his proceedings
some mischievous boys pounced upon him, tied a tin kettle
to his tail, and then let him loose again. A great crowd
gathered round, and for a few minutes there was quite a
lively scene."
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 49
" First rate ! " cried Wy vil, as well as he could speak for
laughing. " I say, Alf, wouldn't our old ' head ' have been
wild at a thing like that!"
" Rather !" chuckled Huntley; "I can just fancy I see
him reading it, and growling out, ' Most unwarrantable and
disgraceful buffoonery ! "'
"Oh, that's nothing to some that I could show you!"
said Mr. Thurraboy, taking out his pocket-book. " I cut
a bit out of an English paper myself, not so long ago, mix-
ing up the presentation of a gold-headed cane to Dr. M ,
the scientist, with the chopping-up and cooking of a pig by
machinery, which beats the other one hollow. Just listen
to this:
" ' A select deputation of Professor M 's friends
waited upon him at his own residence yesterday afternoon,
and after a brief conversation, the unsuspicious hog was
seized by the hind-legs, and sent sliding along a beam until
he reached the hot-water tank. His friends explained the
object of their visit, and presented him with a very hand-
some gold-headed butcher, who caught him by the tail,
swung him round, cut his throat from ear to ear, and, in
less than a minute, his carcass was in the water. Thereupon
he stepped forward, and said that there were times when
the feelings overpowered one, and for that reason he would
not attempt to do more than thank those whom he saw
around him for this kind compliment, for the rapidity with
which that huge animal was cut to pieces was simply
astonishing. The doctor had no sooner concluded his re-
marks than the machine seized him, and, in less time than
it takes to write it, he was chopped small, and worked into
delicious sausages. The occasion will long be remembered
by the learned professor's friends as the most delightful of
their lives. The best pieces may be had for tenpence a
pound; and we are sure that all who have profited by his
valuable lectures will rejoice that he has been so handsomely
treated.' "
(B533) D
50 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
During the reading of this edifying extract at which the
boys laughed till they were fairly exhausted Huntley's
eye was attracted by the glitter of a small steel plate on
the Russia-leather pocket-book in Thurraboy's hand, bear-
ing a half-effaced inscription : " A . . . y gift, from R . . . n,
Se . . . oth, 1872 ". At the same moment he caught sight
of a gaping rent in the leather just behind the plate, laying
the back completely open.
"I say, Mr. Thurraboy," cried he, "you'd better let us
give you a new pocket-book when we get to Singapore, for
that one's pretty nearly worn out and no wonder, if you've
had it ever since 72!"
" But it's not worn out," said Wyvil, looking close at the
rent. " That's a cut, and it must have been done by a "
Here the recollection of his father's warning checked him
just as he was about to add " a weapon ", which manifestly
had been the instrument of this damage; but Thurraboy
evidently understood him, and answered with a significant
smile.
"I see what you mean," said he, "and you're quite right.
That torn pocket-book is a souvenir of my adventures
among the Somaulis the other day, about which I know
you have been wanting to hear; and it's very good of you
to have gone so long without asking me any questions
about it"
" My father thought you wouldn't like it," replied Mar-
maduke Wyvil simply.
"And if you prefer to avoid the subject," put in Lord
Heathermoor, who came up to the group at that moment,
"you may rest assured that we shall never trouble you
with questions about it."
"You are all very kind," said the author heartily; "but
I don't think I should mind talking about it now, though I
own I would not have cared to be reminded of it when the
whole business was still fresh. Besides, it was you who
got me out of the scrape, and therefore you have a right to
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 51
know all about it; so, if you'll sit down here, I'll tell you
the whole story.
" I don't know if any of you have ever been to Zeylah,
which is a tiny port on the African coast (pretty nearly
due south from the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait) where we've
lately established a British consul and one or two other
matters of the kind getting up the scaffolding, so to speak,
for the annexing of it by and by. Well, there was a young
fellow named Frank Bartlett that I'd chummed with a good
deal at Aden, who was told off to make a fresh survey of
the coast from Zeylah to Berberah, the only other port in
Somauliland; and he offered to take me along with him.
It was too good a chance to be lost, for, apart from his
being capital company, he had got a very snug little cutter
for the trip, and the weather seemed inclined to behave
itself properly; so away I went, taking with me just a few
things for the voyage, and leaving the rest of my luggage
at Aden which, as matters have turned out, was just as
well.
"Our survey succeeded capitally, and all went right till
we got to Berberah, which was by way of being our farthest
point. If we had turned there it would have been all right;
but just then, by ill-luck, poor Bartlett heard some talk
among the Arab traders of a dangerous reef that lay close
inshore about fifty miles to the eastward, which he did
not remember to have seen laid down on his chart. Sure
enough, when we came to overhaul the chart, there was no
such reef marked at all; and nothing would serve Bartlett
but he must go and find it for himself, thinking (as he well
might) that it would be a feather in his cap to have been
the first man to survey it and mark it down.
" I didn't much like the idea myself, for there seemed to
me to be signs of a change in the weather. But Bartlett
was so set upon his new idea that he wouldn't hear a word
against it; and of course I could not well say much, he
being the commander of the expedition, and I only his
52 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
guest. I wish I had, though, for all that; but it's too late
to think about it now.
"Well, we stood eastward to look for this place, and
found it just where the Arabs had said; but as the water
was too shallow to let the cutter get inshore, we lowered
the boat, took two men with us, and went in to make a
thorough overhaul of it, leaving our little craft lying hove-
to outside.
" A very ugly reef it was, stretching a good way out to
sea, just near enough to the surface to be certain destruc-
tion for everything but small boats, and just far enough
below it to keep it completely hidden unless the water was
quite clear and perfectly calm. It stood a bit higher, how-
ever, where it joined the narrow strip of sandy beach along
the foot of the cliffs. At that point it was only just 'awash';
and when Bartlett (who had evidently made up his mind
not to leave a single foot of it unsurveyed) saw that there
wasn't even water enough to let our boat go right round it,
he beached the boat, left our two men in charge of her, and
actually set off to wade along the edge of the reef where it
skirted the shore; and I, of course, had to go along with
him, till he had seen all that he wanted.
" ' Well,' says he at last, stopping short, ' I think that
will do now, and though it's been a long job, it was worth
the trouble to be the first man that has done it. If the
fame of a discoverer be worth anything,' he went on, laugh-
ing, ' this day's work ought to make me immortal ! '
" Poor lad, he little thought how terribly truly he spoke !
" The words were hardly out of his mouth when, far out
to seaward, I caught sight of something like a light cloud
of steam, sweeping toward us over the water quicker than
an express train.
" We were still staring at it in a stupid kind of way (for
somehow neither of us took in at first what it really was)
when all at once just as I was beginning to notice that,
wherever this cloud passed, the deep blue of the sea changed
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 53
to a sickly white we heard a terrible outcry from our
cutter, and saw three or four men rushing up and down
her deck like mad.
" But it was too late. Before we had time to move, or
even to speak, there came a hiss like the pelt of a driving
shower, and a blast of spray, or rain, or both, came smash-
ing into our faces like a volley of shot, fairly blinding us
for a moment or two. And when it had passed, and we
looked about for the cutter, she was gone. Whether she
had been sunk, or blown out to sea, she was gone, and we
never saw her more.
" All this had passed so quickly (for the whole thing was
over in less time than I've taken tc tell it) that we hardly
knew what had happened, and stood staring blankly. But
we soon had something else to think about, for just then
one of the men whom we had left in charge of our boat
jumped up and gave a shout, pointing at the same time to
the cliffs overhead. We both ran or rather splashed toward
him as fast as we could, and soon saw that he had given
the alarm none too soon.
"Just opposite the spot where the boat lay, a deep,
narrow ravine or cleft (evidently a dry torrent-bed) sloped
steeply downward to the beach between two sheer walls of
rock, quite in the style of one of the subways in our rail-
way stations; and at the higher end of this gorge had just
appeared a band of Somauli savages a dozen strong at the
very least, and well armed, as we could see by the glitter
of steel as they moved hurrying down the pass straight
toward us.
" ' Shove off the boat,' shouted Bartlett to the men, 'it is
our only chance!'
" And then, seeing them hesitate, as if they didn't relish
the notion of turning tail before ' niggers ', he called out
again :
" ' Shove off, I tell you ! where there's one dozen of these
fellows in sight, there will be three or four dozen more be-
54 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
hind, and we can't fight 'em all ! The only chance is to get
out to sea at once.'
" I had my own thoughts about that, for the squall had
whipped up such a sea that our poor little boat seemed to
have no more chance in it than an egg-shell; and what we
had just seen happen to the cutter wasn't very encouraging,
as you may think. However, there was nothing else to be
done; so we pushed off, right into the thick of it.
" Then, tossed and beaten and banged about as we were
deafened and blinded and strangled by the foam and
spray and whirl a huge wave hanging over our heads like
a tower one moment, and the next moment underneath
us, heaving us up to the very sky we had, luckily for
us, no time to think what a forlorn hope it was to coast
fifty miles through such a sea in an open boat, without
food or water, which was the only prospect that lay before
us. But that question was to be settled for us sooner than
we expected, for all at once we saw ahead of us a solid
wall of water as high as a house, extending to right and
left as far as eye could reach, and coming right down upon
us like a whirlwind.
"'Steady!' roared Bartlett, as he saw the men waver and
look like turning to head for the shore. 'If you put the
boat about, we're done for! Go right at it, and pull like
mad we may do it yet!'
" They obeyed with a will for, indeed, our only chance
was to meet the great wave and ride over it before it had
time to break, and, a few seconds later, we found our-
selves half-way up a smooth, shining precipice of water,
upon which our boat seemed to hang like a fly on a wall !
"For an instant I hoped that we might escape after all;
but suddenly I saw the great overhanging crest begin to
curl over and break into foam, and then I set my teeth
hard, knowing that it must overwhelm us.
"I had hardly time to say 'God help us!' when there
came a rush and a roar as if the sky had fallen, and all was
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 65
dark, and I felt myself snatched up and flung forward like
a stone out of a sling. Then there was a loud crash and a
stifled cry a ripping, cracking, rending noise a shock as
if I had fallen from the top of a house and then my breath
went, and I thought all was over.
"But all at once I was aroused by a clamour of yells
that might almost have awakened the dead; and, dashing
the salt water from my eyes, I looked up and found myself
lying on the sand-beach at the foot of the cliff, among the
broken timbers of the boat, which had been smashed all to
pieces. A little way off, Bartlett and one of the sailors
(the other had disappeared) were lying, in a helpless kind
of way which showed that they must be badly hurt, while
the savages whom I had seen coming down the gully, having
by this time gained the beach, were rushing down upon
them spear in hand, evidently meaning to murder them on
the spot!
" Faint and dizzy as I was, that sight roused me like an
electric shock. I scrambled to my feet, stumbling at every
step, and ran towards Bartlett, catching up as I went a
heavy piece of broken timber from the wreckage. Three
of the Somaulis were a little in advance of the rest, and
the foremost of them made a thrust at me with his spear;
but I dodged it, and, before he could draw back, felled him
with my club. Then I flung the club right in the face of
the second man, and, as he dropped, I snatched the short
sword from his girdle just in time to tackle number three.
"This third man had a gun, which he levelled full at
me; but the piece missed fire, and I cut him down. Just
then, however, the others came up in a body and sur-
rounded me; and all at once I felt a stunning blow on the
back of my head, and down I went; and after that I
remember no more.
" When I came to myself again, the first thing I saw was
poor Bartlett and the sailor lying dead beside me, having
been murdered in cold blood by these merciless brutes
56 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
because they were too badly hurt to be worth anything
as slaves; and I found myself tied hand and foot, and a
prisoner in the hands of the Somaulisl
" Of my captivity among them I don't care to say much ;
indeed I can only wonder, when I think of it, that I ever
lived through it at all. You may be sure that it was from
no motive of humanity that they spared my life, but simply
because they hoped to make their profit out of me by
selling me for a slave; and, in fact, you may judge how
much any thought of mercy had to do with it, when I tell
you that, on the very first night after my capture, I heard
them gravely deliberating whether it might not be as well
to put out my eyes, in order to ensure my not escaping.
" They lost no time in marching me over the mountains ;
and then my troubles began in earnest. Before starting,
they had plundered me of all that I had worth taking,
including even my English shoes of tanned leather, which
took the fancy of the chief; and you may think how I
fared in clambering barefoot over rocks almost too hot
to be touched, and in many places as sharp as a knife.
Moreover, I had got several bad scratches when I was flung
ashore by the big wave, which were but poorly protected
by my torn clothes; and, my hands being tied, of course I
could do nothing to help myself. So, what with the sun
blistering my skin, and the sharp stones gashing my bare
feet, and the dust and sand-flies getting upon the raw places
in my flesh, I had such a time of it that I really thought I
should have gone mad outright.
" Luckily for me, they went at a very slow pace, the two
men whom I had knocked over being so weak from their
hurts that they could scarcely crawl. Just at first I fully
expected that the others would take vengeance by killing
me at once; and, upon my word, I felt so miserable that I
hardly cared whether they did or not. But I found out
afterwards that the wonderful way in which I had escaped,
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGKS 57
first from the sea and then from their weapons, had made
these superstitious savages think that I could not be killed ;
and, when they saw how fast my strength was being used
up, they were not long in bethinking themselves that if
I got worn out or disabled on the march, there would be an
end of the profit which they hoped to make out of me. So
they slackened my bands, bandaged my hurts roughly, and
gave me an old half-worn pair of native sandals, which were
at all events better than nothing.
" Then my love of life began to revive again, and I deter-
mined to take the first chance of trying to escape, and I
prayed to God to strengthen me for it; and after that I
took heart again, and began to save up my strength in
every possible way, to be ready for the attempt.
" And now the circumstances themselves seemed to work
in my favour, for we got over the mountain sooner than I
expected, and came down into the Wadi Nogal, or Happy
Valley, which lies between the mountain ranges that run
right across Somauliland, like the Stoura Valley between
the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon in Syria.
" Here the savages halted and camped, their two wounded
men being by this time almost worn out. It was a beauti-
ful place, well watered, and abounding in wild figs and
other fruit; so that, after all these weary scramblings up
and down those burning, bare rock-ridges, I was really
comparatively comfortable for three or four days, in body
at least. But in mind I was not comfortable at all; for, do
what I would, I could never get a chance of escaping. In
the daytime they watched me closely, and every night,
besides tying my hands, they fastened a rope round my
body, and knotted it to the wrist of their strongest man.
So he and I woke each other up almost every time we
moved in our sleep, which was not particularly satisfactory
to either of us.
" As I've told you, I had picked up a smattering of their
language at Aden, and I did my best to persuade them to
58 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
carry me to Berberah, where there was an Italian trader,
a friend of poor Bartlett's, who would readily have gone
surety for my ransom. But I could see that they didn't
believe a word of it; and on the third evening I overheard
part of a talk between two of them, from which I gathered
that they meant to take me away to the south and sell me
there as a slave.
"When I heard that, I determined to escape or die for
it; for I knew that if they once got me down there, I should
have no chance.
"On the fifth day, two of the Somaulis, who had been
out hunting, brought in a young antelope a mighty treat
for these savages, who only taste meat once in a way.
Then I thought that my time had come, for I knew enough
of their ways to be sure that they would stuff till they
could hold no more, and then sleep like gorged boa-con-
strictors.
"I felt confident of getting free from my bands when-
ever the chance came, having learned from a famous juggler,
whom I once knew, a trick of stiffening up my muscles in
such a way as to make my arms nearly half as thick again
as in their natural state, so that a cord tied round them
when they were rigid would be pretty slack when the
muscles were relaxed again. The sentinel was my greatest
trouble, for I had seen that they always left one man on
guard, for fear of being surprised by another gang of
thieves like themselves, and I knew that he would not dare
to sleep, however drowsy he might be. So 1 puzzled over
it till I hit upon a plan, and only waited for night to carry
it out.
" When they tied my hands at nightfall, as usual, I tried
the juggler's trick; and, as if on purpose to make it easier
for me, the fellows were in such a hurry to get to their
food that they bound me hastily, and not half so carefully
as usual Moreover, the big man to whom I was generally
fastened thinking, I suppose, that he might as well be
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 59
comfortable for one night at least, and that there was no
chance of my being able to get away made fast the other
end of the rope that was round my body to a tree instead
of his own wrist.
" ' Many thanks to you, my worthy friends,' said I to
myself. 'If I don't get away from you now, it's no fault
of yours, anyway ! '
"They gave me some of the antelope meat, and I ate
every bit of it, not knowing when I might get more food
if I did escape. As for them, they gorged till they could
eat no more, and then (as I had foreseen) fell fast asleep,
all except the sentry, who stood leaning on his spear a few
paces away.
"And now my troubles began in earnest. As I knew
that there was no getting off without being seen by the
sentinel, I had decided to make sure of him first of all; and
of course it was specially important to do so as soon as
possible, because he would be relieved in three hours, and
then my escape would be discovered. On the other hand,
I dared not stir till all the rest were slumbering soundly;
and, upon my word, it seemed as if one or two of them
would never go to sleep. I got so wild at last, at the
thought of missing my only chance, that I was within an
ace of jumping up and making a rush for it. But at last
all was quiet, and then, having got rid of my bands, my
time came.
"After the cold of mountains several thousand feet high,
the air of this sheltered valley was quite warm and sultry,
and the nights were almost as warm as the days; so (just
as I had calculated) more than one of the Somaulis, heated
by the strong meat, had thrown off his haik a sort of long
white mantle with a hood, such as one sees among the Arab
shepherds of Palestine. One of them lay close to me, and
in a trice I had slipped it on; and then, picking my way
carefully among the sleepers, I went straight up to the
sentinel who took me for one of his own comrades coming
60 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
to speak to him. Before he could discover the trick, I
felled him with a blow on the temple from a heavy stone
that I held ready in my hand, stunning him so completely
that he was not likely to tell tales for some time ; and then,
snatching his short sword, away I went, a free man once
more.
" I knew my footprints in the soft sand would betray me,
so I stepped into the little stream beside which we had
encamped, and waded up it for more than a mile. Then I
came out upon a patch of hard ground that would tell no
tales, and pushed on faster than ever; and before daylight
I was miles away.
"My plan was to get as quick as I could to the moun-
tains (where I should not be so likely to fall in with any
natives) and cut across them down:to the sand-beach at the
foot of the sea-cliff, and then make my way along it to
Berberah, which would be only twenty or twenty-five miles
off by that time. So on I went, marching all night, lying
hid all day, and living on whatever fruit I could pick up.
"I need not dwell upon my further adventures how I
wore out my sandals, and cut my feet all to bits upon the
sharp stones how, when I was just at my very hungriest,
I found no fruit on the only tree anywhere in sight how
I rushed into a beautiful clear stream, with my tongue
hanging out of my mouth for thirst, and found the water
salt. At last I got across the mountains, and was just
climbing the last ridge that overhung the sea, when a sound
of voices made me dive into a cleft, just in time to escape a
straggling band of Somaulis, who were coming down the
hill.
" When they had gone past, I came out again ; but, as
ill-luck would have it, one of the rogues had lagged behind
the rest, and I came full butt upon him just as a passing
gust of wind threw aside my Arab mantle, and showed the
European dress underneath!
" ' Kafir!' (an unbeliever) shouted he, and ran at me with
FALLEN AMONG SAVAGES 61
his spear. Luckily the point caught my pocket-book
which the savages had left me as a thing of no value and
made that cut which you've seen, while I seized the spear
with one hand, and cut him down with the other. But the
rest had turned back at his shout, and were hurrying up
from below, yelling and flourishing their weapons; so there
was nothing for it but to throw off the long mantle and
run for my life. They hunted me right up to the crest of
the ridge, and I was just beginning to give myself up for
lost, when (thank God!) I caught sight of your yacht in
the offing. What happened after that you know as well
as I do."
CHAPTER VI
A GRIM WARNING
IS this really Ceylon, then, Graves?"
"Ceylon it is, sir, sure enough; and that's Adam's
Peak (as mayhap you've heerd on) loomin' out yonder to
the nor'ard; and if you was to look well at it through your
glass, p'raps you might make out Adam hisself a-standin'
on the top of it!"
" I dare say we could, Mr. Graves, if we had your eyes,"
said Huntley meaningly.
" ' For he must need have optics keen
Who sees what is not to be seen,"'
quoted Wyvil with a significant grin.
But the boys had barely time to catch a passing glimpse
of one of the finest panoramas in the world, when a thick
haze swept provokingly right across it, blotting out every
vestige of the beautiful "Queen of the Eastern Seas".
For nearly an hour the cloud remained impenetrable ; but,
just as the two lads were growing quite desperate at the
thought of not seeing the famous island after all, the sun
broke through the hovering dimness like a charging con-
queror, and the scattering mists revealed a low dark ridge,
at one point of which a narrow white line seemed to rear
itself upright out of the sea, while behind it a number of
white spots chequered the deep shadowy green of the hill-
side. This upright line was the lighthouse of Point de
Galle, and these white spots were the houses of the town
of Galle itself.
A GRIM WARNING 63
"This was the port-of-call for all steamers," said Lord
Heathermoor, " before the breakwater was built at Colombo,
the present capital, which lies a good way north of this, up
the west coast; but since then Colombo has had the best
of it, for this harbour of Galle is a very awkward one.
Your father and I, Alfred, were here together after the
Abyssinian war; and just then a batch of recruits fresh
from England had joined his regiment, and very much
entertained he and I were with the sayings and doings of
these raw lads, who were immensely astonished at every-
thing they saw in 'foreign parts'. When the first native
came alongside the transport that brought them, I heard
one very green 'Johnny Newcome' say to a comrade of
longer standing, in a tone of amazement and awe :
" ' I say, Bill, who on earth is that 'ere blackamoor
chap?' 4 . '
"'What? don't yer know him again?' cried the other
man, who happened to be from the same place as himself.
'Why, that's our old chum Tom Barton, as 'listed
along with me five year ago; he's been out 'ere h'ever
since.'
'"But he's black!' faltered the poor recruit, looking
utterly bewildered.
" ' In course he is ; what colour 'ud you have him be,
arter five year in this 'ere climate? In these parts, d'ye
see, the sun toasts a man bit by bit, same as bread toasted
afore a fire; fust you gits yeller, and then you gits black.
That chap yonder, you see' (pointing to a passing Chinese
boatman), 'is jist about half-baked now; he'll be as black
as all the rest afore long!'
" ' But you don't mean to tell me as how I'll turn black
too!' gasped the horror-stricken 'Johnny'.
" ' Why, o' course you will, Johnny my boy as black as
a boot!' answered the soldier, as cheerily as if he were
telling him the best news imaginable.
"And the poor lad actually believed every word of it,
64 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
and looked so miserable that I had to go and comfort him
by telling him that it was all nonsense."
The mist having cleared away by this time, our two
heroes eagerly turned their spy-glasses toward the shore.
But just then (as if on purpose to disappoint them) the
whole sky blackened to windward, and down upon them
came a real tropical squall, lashing the smooth, bright sea
into foam, and making the decks echo with the rattle of
heavy bullets of rain. A great heap of black, ragged
clouds, which seemed to tumble headlong from the sky
like falling rocks, blotted out for the second time all trace
of the ill-used island; and Wyvil muttered to his chum
with bitter emphasis:
"This blessed island seems to be like the tame boa-con-
strictor in the story, which, whenever it saw anybody look-
ing at it, crept under its blanket and stayed there for a
fortnight!"
But the wrath of the East-Indian sky is like that of its
people, "soon hot and soon cold". The storm passed away
as suddenly as it came. The great veil of blackness rent
asunder and floated away in scattered streamers of cloud;
the rain ceased; the sun broke forth in all its splendour,
casting a broad sheen of gold over the dripping deck and
the tossing sea; and then the whole coast-line started into
view at once, arrayed in the same gorgeous tropical colours
which gladdened the weary eyes of Alphonso d'Albuquer-
que's wave-tossed seamen four hundred years ago.
The ranks of an army in battle array could hardly be
more closely massed than those magnificent trees, which
clothed the hills, almost down to the water's edge, with a
sheet of dark, glossy green, contrasting very strikingly
with the narrow line of pale-yellow sand that divided it
from the deep, rich blue and the sparkling foam of the
Indian Ocean. At one point the sea of foliage was broken
by a wide patch of lighter green, where the wild grass grew
A GRIM WARNING 65
thick and rank over a broad slope dappled here and there
with dark clumps of trees which the axe had spared; and a
little farther on a deep blood-red stain, outlined with grim
distinctness amid the surrounding verdure, showed where a
mass of the overhanging ridge had crashed down into the
sea, laying bare, like an open wound, the raw red clay
below.
Behind the coast-line surged up, wave beyond wave, end-
less mountain-ridges, so thickly wooded that the whole
country-side looked like one great tree. Far up against
the sunny sky the plumy crests of the palms drooped
languidly upon the warm, dreamy air, with a gracefully
"used-up" aspect worthy of a fashionable beauty. When
a sudden gust of wind came frolicking through their out-
spread fans, like a frisky young nephew in a quiet house-
hold of sedate maiden aunts, they gave one impatient rustle
of protest against this boisterous intruder, who wouldn't let
a respectable tree have its afternoon nap in peace, and then
relapsed into stillness once more.
High over all, far away to the northward, the mighty
outline of Adam's Peak hovered between earth' and sky,
dim and faint as a half-forgotten dream. Everywhere the
same utter loneliness, the same deep, dreamy silence, the
same tropical gorgeousness and more than tropical languor.
But though all was still on land, it was far otherwise by
sea.
While yet several miles from the coast, our boys saw
quick puffs of white smoke spurting up all along the
beach, as if its whole length were being swept by a
furious cannonade.
"Look, look!" cried Wyvil eagerly; "see the cannon
firing! Don't they make a famous smoke? But, I say,
why don't we hear the sound?"
"Because those cannon are not loaded with powder,"
said Mr. Thurraboy with a quiet smile.
And, in fact, our heroes soon perceived that the seeming
( B 533 ) E
66 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
smoke-clouds were really vast sheets of snow-white spray
hurled up against the shadowy green of the forest by the
great waves which thundered ceaselessly upon the beach
below, rendering this whole coast so perilous at times during
the summer that many vessels are compelled to run past
Galle altogether, without making any attempt to enter the
port.
The two lads were naturally not a little elated at meet-
ing so many new sights in one day; but another spectacle,
more startling than all, was still in store for them, which
not only they, but the whole ship's company, were to have
terrible cause to remember.
By four in the afternoon the dark cliff of Dondra Head
lay right abeam, and about an hour later they glided round
the long, low promontory of Nillewelle Point, with its row
of trees ranged along it in line, like soldiers on parade, and
came fairly out into the formidable Bay of Bengal, which is
to the voyagers of the Indian Ocean what the Bay of Biscay
is to those of the North Atlantic.
The sun was sinking when they entered it, and, as the
glow faded, huge masses of purple clouds began to rise all
along the western horizon, towering like a precipice over
the darkening sea. Above this gloomy rampart the dying
light looked wan and ghastly, as if growing pale at the
approach of some unseen horror.
Then suddenly a fierce red glare rent the deepening
gloom, like lightning breaking from a storm-cloud. In one
moment the whole western sky seemed to become red-hot,
and from the fiery depths below came surging upward an
endless whirl of shadowy monsters, whose shapes appeared
to change every instant. Coiling snakes, shaggy lions,
pouncing eagles, leaping wolves, whirled up to join this
dance of spectres, now black as night, and now all aflame
with lurid red; and with these came worse horrors still,
limbless, formless, hideous, such as Dante might have seen
in the regions of the dead,
A GRIM WARNING 67
Last of all this phantom host rose a mighty shadow, of
which nothing could be plainly seen but the vast outline
of two expanded wings, and as it ascended it grew larger,
darker, more terrible, till it blotted the whole sky.
All at once there arose beside it another giant shape, as
grim and colossal as itself, and instantly the two were
grappled together as if in mortal combat. Before the
terror of that great battle the lesser demons trembled and
fled away, melting spectrally into the deepening darkness
of night. Suddenly the two terrible shapes seemed to roll
into one, and then they faded, ghost-like, into the gathering
gloom, and the burning glare behind them died away, and
night and utter blackness closed like a shroud over the
loneliness of the desolate sea.
"What on earth's all this?" cried Marmaduke Wyvil
with a look of very unwonted dismay upon his bold, bright
face.
"It's a warning!" said his father's voice from behind, in
a very grave tone. " Only once before in all my life have
I seen anything like this and then it came just before the
worst storm that I've ever faced yet."
CHAPTER VII
IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT
T ORD HEATHERMOOR'S forebodings, however, ap-
JLj peared to be as visionary as the phantom giants that
had caused them, for the next morning showed them a clear
bright sky, undimmed by any trace of those threatening
clouds which had lowered so darkly over it on the previous
night.
" I begin to think," cried he, with a look of great relief,
" that that hobgoblin business last night was a false alarm,
and that we're not going to have any storm after all."
" Well," said Thurraboy, " the same effect might have
been caused by some volcanic outbreak in one of the
Malay islands, and it would not be the first time if it
were so."
"The Malay islands!" echoed Wyvil in amazement.
"Why, you don't mean to say that a blow-up out there,
all those hundreds of miles away, can make any difference
to the look of the sky in Ceylon?"
"Indeed I do! In 1816, when the island of Sumbawa
blew up like a bomb-shell (the greatest eruption that has
ever been known in this part of the world), the effect of it
was seen quite plainly on the west coast of Ceylon, as I've
heard myself from some old people who were there then
and saw it."
"Talking of Malay islands," struck in Alfred Huntley,
" that reminds me that we were by way of learning some
Malay this voyage, and it strikes me it's just about time
for us to begin ; for I suppose another five or six days will
pretty well bring us to Singapore."
68
IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT 69
"Eight you are!" said Marmaduke. "You'll teach us
some; won't you, father?"
" And I shall be happy to join the class, if you will allow
me," added Mr. Thurraboy with a grave smile.
"You, Mr. Thurraboy!" cried Wyvil. "Why, I always
thought you knew every language under the sun! You
bring in enough of 'em in your books, I'm sure!"
"Not quite so many as that, I'm afraid," laughed the
author. " People said of Count von Moltke that he could
hold his tongue in ten languages, and I think I may say
that I can make mistakes in eleven; but Malay does not
happen to be one of them."
" Well," said Heath ermoor, " it's like many other Eastern
languages pretty easy if you want just to pick up a smatter-
ing of it, but hard enough if you mean to know it well.
There's just one past participle (sudah) for the whole lan-
guage, like the courier of a 'personally -conducted tour';
and so, when you have learned that, it's just as if you had
mastered all the past participles in Malay."
"That reminds me," put in Thurraboy, "of how, when I
was learning Arabic, the word mafeesh (there is not) seemed
to turn up at every corner. It even meant that a man was
dead, just as they say in the Bible : ' he is not '."
"The Malays have a much finer phrase for it than that;
they say, when a man dies, Sudah pulang ka rahmat Allah
(he has gone home to the mercy of God). Indeed, even
their commonest expressions are wonderfully picturesque.
They call the sun mata hari (eye of the day). Ice is ayer
batu (water stone). An honest man is befool (straight), a
rogue poosing (crooked). A spring or stream is called ana
ayer (child of the water) and a key ana kunching (son of a
lock)."
"And do they call a pistol 'son of a gun'?" asked Mar-
maduke, who had been listening with great interest.
"Not that I know of," laughed his father; "but they
have some other phrases that are quite as queer. They
70 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
call gunpowder ubat bedil (medicine for a gun), and to have
a pipe or cigar is meenum roko (to drink smoke). Then
their names for the different hours are very curious too.
The time just before daybreak is bloom terbang lalat (before
the flies are astir), which means a good deal, as you'll know
to your cost if you ever go up a Malay river. They call
sunrise pechah panas (the heat begins); 8 a.m., kring ambun
(the dew dries); 9 a.m., tengah naik (half-way up); 11 a.m.,
toolih tenggala (the plough is idle); noon, buntar membayang
(the shadows are round); 1.30 p.m., lekas ba'dah (after
prayers); 5 p.m., tooroon kerbau be-rendam (the buffaloes go
to the water); 10 p.m., jindera boodak (the children are
asleep).
The boys whose curiosity about this new and strange
language was now fully aroused eagerly accepted Heather-
moor's offer of a Malay manual, with which to commence
their studies, and the morning passed pleasantly enough.
But toward afternoon the light breeze which had pre-
vailed for the last two days (for they were now in the
interval of variable spring weather which comes between
the ending of the north-east and the rising of the south-
west monsoon) suddenly died away, and a dead calm
brooded over the glassy sea as far as the eye could reach.
"H'm, I don't much like that," said Lord Heathermoor
very gravely.
" Nor do I," added Mr. Thurraboy. " It looks to me as
if that storm of yours were coming after all."
"So it does to me too; and at all events it's just as well
to be ready for it."
And he at once gave orders to strip the yards, cover and
make fast the signal-gun, and "get all snug aloft and alow".
Nor were these precautions needless, for, as evening drew
on, presages of evil began to multiply on every side. A
close, sultry, lifeless heaviness brooded upon the air; a dead,
ominous silence settled down like a pall upon the lonely
sea. Though not a breath of wind was stirring, a slow,
IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT 71
sullen heaving began to disturb the glassy surface, like the
breathing of some mighty monster slumbering in the depths
below. The sun went down in a dim, blood-red haze, and,
where it had sunk, a long, low band of grey cloud began to
creep upward along the darkening sky.
"Are we going to have a storm, Graves?" asked Wyvil
of the old steward, feeling vaguely uneasy at these sinister
omens, and still more so at the look of unwonted gravity
on the bold, handsome features of his iron-nerved father.
" Well, Mr. Marmydook, that depends on what you calls
a storm," replied the veteran with calm disdain. "What
we had t'other day in the Mediterranean, as you and Mr.
h' Alfred thought so wonderful, was just what we calls a
good stiff breeze; but if there was to git up sitch a wind
that it 'ud blow a turnip flat, mayhap we'd call that a
storm!"
At the dinner-table that night Lord Heathermoor was
just as pleasant and genial as ever, but almost before the
meal was over he went hastily on deck again, and did not
return. Mr. Thurraboy speedily followed him, and the
two boys were left alone.
Our heroes scarcely missed their companions, however,
so completely were they taken up with their new studies in
Malay. For a whole hour they continued to ask each other,
in the Ollendorf style, for every possible article from a
cannon to a cockroach; and Wyvil was delighted to learn
that the Malays appropriately called a ghost " haunt us ",
while Huntley vowed he should never forget that the Malay
word for a stick was " tom-cat ".
At length, having laid in a good stock of Malay sub-
stantives, and feeling rather tired after their exertions,
they voted that enough had been done for one evening,
and betook themselves to the books of adventure in which
they delighted, till the steward summarily cut short their
reading by the simple process of putting their lights out.
72 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
A little after midnight Marmaduke Wyvil had a strange
and troubled dream. He seemed to be in the midst of a
great battle, with smoke rolling thickly around him, bullets
flying and men falling on every side, and the very earth
trembling with the thunder of cannon, the shouts of
charging thousands, and the din of drum, fife, and bugle.
Then he found himself, without knowing how, leading a
charge; but the sword with which he waved his men on
suddenly turned into a stick of barley-sugar, and broke
short off in his hand, while all the ground in front of
him was heaped with Malay dictionaries, over which he
tumbled at every step. On he went, however, and was
just scrambling up the face of a huge earth-work when a
tall, dark-visaged soldier, whose face seemed strangely
familiar to him, though he had never seen it before, dealt
him a crushing blow on the head with a clubbed musket,
and down he fell, head-over-heels, down, down and
awoke.
For a moment or two, however, he could hardly tell
whether he really was awake or still dreaming, for he
found himself sprawling on his back in utter darkness,
with his head aching as if from a heavy blow, and his ears
stunned with a deafening clamour of rolling, clanking,
crashing, and banging, mingled with the rush of trampling
feet and a shrill, bugle-like note that pierced through the
din ever and anon, which represented fairly enough the
uproar of his visionary battle.
Hardly knowing what he did, or where he was, our hero
scrambled confusedly to his feet, but only to be instantly
knocked down by a shock like that of an earthquake, while
a tremendous crash just over his head, like twenty muskets
fired at once, made every nerve in his body tingle.
" Alfred ! " he roared with the full power of his lungs.
"Hullo!" responded a stifled voice from the berth next
door, which sounded as if it came from the bottom of a
coal-pit.
IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT 73
"I say, what's all this about, d'ye think?" cried Wyvil.
" Have we struck upon a rock?"
"More likely we've been struck by a squall," said
Huntley, "for I've just been chucked slap out of bed, and
every mortal thing in the room has come tumbling right
atop of me."
" Well, I vote we go right up and see what's going on,"
cried Marmaduke, who could never, when awake, be still
for five minutes together. " If the ship's sinking, or any-
thing like that, we oughtn't to miss all the fun!"
"All right! stick on your clothes and come along,"
answered Huntley's voice, faintly audible through his
struggles to free himself from the avalanche of blankets,
books, portmanteaus, cushions, boots, and camp-stools
which had so suddenly overwhelmed him.
Wyvil " stuck on his clothes " accordingly with all pos-
sible speed. But to dress in the dark under such cir-
cumstances as anyone knows who, like myself, has been
wrecked in the middle of the night is no easy matter, and
not until he had thrust his right arm into the left sleeve of
his shirt, put on his trousers hind-side in front, like King
Dagobert in the song, and forced all his waistcoat buttons
into the wrong holes, did our hero at length complete his
toilet and join his friend in the saloon.
Wyvil's first proceeding, on arriving there, was lo run
his head like a battering-ram into the side of a book-case,
while Alfred caught his knee such an excruciating knock
against the corner of a settee that he roared like a bull.
"Hollo, Duke! where on earth are you?" shouted he,
rubbing his leg.
"I'll be shot if I know!" cried Wyvil bitterly; "I seem
to be walking slap into a cupboard. Where the dickens
are you?"
"Why, here, to be sure can't you hear me?" halloed
Huntley.
"I can feet you anyhow," growled Wyvil, as his com-
74 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
rade, floundering about with the roll of the vessel, dealt
him a kick on the shins worthy of a school match. "Con-
found it, do you think I'm a football 1 "
"Hurrah! I've got to the table at last!" cried Alfred
suddenly. "It's all right now; just you stick close to me,
and keep a tight hold of the table, and we'll get to the door
in no time."
And sure enough they did get to it at length, though
not without difficulty, for they heard beneath their feet, at
every step, the crunching and jingling of the broken glass
and crockery with which the floor was strewn, and they
were more than once all but torn from their hold of the
cabin table by the furious pitching and rolling of the yacht,
which kept plunging and leaping like a wild horse.
"Here's the stair!" called out Alfred gleefully; "and
now, out we go!"
But out they didn't go, for a very sufficient reason; for,
when they had stumbled up the companion-way, they found
both the doors which opened on to the deck fast shut and
locked.
" Well, I do call that a shame," cried Wyvil indignantly;
"keeping it all to themselves like that!"
" After all, though, I dare say we should only be in the
way," said the more philosophic Huntley, " for I've heard
your father say that in a heavy gale and this is a pretty
tidy one, or I'll eat my hat the passengers are always sent
below till it's over. And besides," he added, as a tre-
mendous sea came thundering over the deck just outside,
bursting with a splash and a vicious hiss right against the
door behind which they were standing, " I don't know that
we should have a very snug berth of it out there."
" No, I suppose not," assented Wyvil reluctantly. " Well,
if we can't get out, the best thing we can do is to go below
and get to sleep again."
To anyone but a British school-boy this would have
appeared to be easier said than done, for the frantic
IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT 75
plunging of the storm-tossed vessel seemed as if it would
loosen the very teeth in their heads, and the noise above
and around them might almost have awakened the dead.
But an English boy's power of sleep is as astounding as his
power of digestion, and our two imperturbable heroes, half
an hour later, were sleeping peacefully (with their heels
higher than their heads) just as if they had been at home
in England.
CHAPTER VIII
SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM
BUT there was no sleep that night for Heathermoor him-
self, or for any of his hard-pressed crew. As Huntley
had guessed, the yacht had been struck and thrown on her
beam-ends by a squall; and although the brave little craft
recovered herself admirably, her splendid sea-worthiness
was tasked to the utmost to make head against such a
storm as only the tropical seas can produce.
Not a glimpse of moon or star relieved the pitchy black-
ness of that terrible night, which remained unbroken save
when a sudden blaze of lightning, which seemed to tear
open the whole sky, threw out in ghastly distinctness for
one moment the tall tapering masts, the skeleton rigging,
the flooded deck, the dark forms and bearded faces of the
crew, and the wide waste of leaping waves around, only to
vanish again instantly as if they had never been, while
earth arid sky seemed to tremble at a thunder-clap like the
crash of a score of brass cannon all fired at once.
All through the long dark hours of a night that appeared
to have no end, the great gulf of blackness around them
was haunted by all manner of ghostly sounds. The groan-
ing of the strained timbers was like one in mortal pain.
Unearthly voices seemed to mingle with the howling and
shrieking of the gale through the bare framework of spars
and cordage overhead, and with the deep crashing cannonade
of the furious waves against the planking below; and the
ghostly hiss and patter of the torrent-rain shaped them-
selves into the tread of unseen feet and the rustle of view-
less wings.
76
SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM 77
Not once during the night did Heathermoor quit the
deck for a moment, and his stout blue-jackets, though
knowing well that it was more than doubtful whether one
man of them would see another sunrise, flinched as little as
their captain. But neither he nor they could keep their
footing for an instant upon the rocking, reeling, flooded
deck without clinging to the "life-lines" which crossed
each other from side to side; and even thus they were
again and again all but torn from their hold by the terrific
pressure of the roaring cataract of rushing, foaming water
which came thundering over the deck almost every other
minute.
" It's just as the old riddle says," cried the gallant first
officer, Mr. Walters, with a cheery laugh ; " sometimes you
see a ship, and sometimes you ship a sea!"
Hardly had the brave man spoken when he was struck
by a mighty wave which tore him from his hold and swept
him away like a straw. He felt himself whirled up against
the quarter-rail, and carried half over it, and another second
would have plunged him headlong into the boiling sea,
when an iron grasp clutched him and held him back.
"Thank you, my man," said Walters to his invisible
rescuer, sputtering out a huge mouthful of salt water as
he spoke; "I shall remember you for this. What's your
name?"
But the other made no reply, and vanished as suddenly
as he had come.
Mr. Walters was somewhat surprised, but, concluding
that the man had not heard his question (which, indeed,
might well have been drowned by such an uproar), he
made up his mind to enquire into the matter when day-
light came, and troubled himself no more about it.
He was not the only man on board, however, who was
similarly puzzled, for, during that whole night, the deck
was haunted by a phantom in dripping oilskins, who
appeared to turn up just whenever help was needed
78 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
now holding up a man who was about to be swept off
his feet, now handing a biscuit or a flask to some drenched
and benumbed sailor, and now putting forth a strength
that seemed more than human to aid the worn-out crew
in "hauling taut the weather-brace" or obeying some
other order.
At length the first faint gleam of daylight broke through
the gloom, and then it was discovered that this mysterious
personage was no other than Ashley Thurraboy himself.
"What, Mr. Thurraboy! is this you?" cried one of the
men with a broad grin. " Well, if all other trades fail,
you can 'arn a decent livin' as a fo'-mast hand, that's
sartin!"
" It must have been you, then, who saved me from going
overboard," said Mr. Walters, grasping his wet hand; "and
I can tell you "
"I say, Thurraboy, this won't do!" struck in Lord
Heathermoor, coming up. "You've no business here, you
know passengers are not allowed on deck in a heavy
sea."
"Well, I couldn't stay below like a sneak," urged
Thurraboy, " when the rest of you were up here fighting
for all our lives; and I am a bit of a sailor, you know,
after all"
"It's not that I want to 'come the captain' over you,
my dear fellow," replied his host, drawing him aside. " I
know you're the last man on earth to shirk your share of
any rough work, but you can really be of much more use
to us below just now. Those two boys of ours, if there's
no one to look after them, will manage to slip on deck
somehow, as sure as a gun which would simply mean
certain death to both of them, as things are now; so, if
you wouldn't mind going down and amusing them a bit,
and keeping 'em employed till the gale blows over, I should
be ever so much obliged to you."
"I'm your man," said the author; "but mind you shut
SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM 79
the companion-door sharp after me, or we shall have a wave
walking in too."
" Three cheers for Mr. Thurraboy!" cried a sailor, as the
hero of the night darted in through the half-open doorway
like a clown springing through a hoop; and the call was
answered with an energy that made itself heard above all
the roar of the storm. -
The two lads below (who were just beginning to wake
up from their second nap) were fully aroused by these
hurrahs, and sprang up at once having lain down in
their clothes" just in time to be startled by a tremendous
rumble-tumble down the companion-way, as if someone
were falling downstairs.
"Hollo!" cried out Marmaduke Wyvil, "what's the
matter?"
'"Fragments of an Author', as the advertisers say,"
answered Thurraboy's voice. ** You'd better get a basket
and a coal-shovel, and pick up what's left of me!"
"Why, have you really come a cropper down the com-
panion-way?" cried Wyvil, hurrying to the spot. "I say,
I hope you're not hurt, are you? Hollo! what's this?
Here, Alf! fetch some rag and cold water quick! he's
bleeding like one o'clock!"
" Am I ?" said Thurraboy, putting his hand to his cheek,
and drawing it away all bloody. "Well, do you know, I
never felt it a bit. Take my handkerchief, and tie it up
for me, there's a good fellow!"
The hurt was speedily bandaged, and then Mr. Thurra-
boy, giving the boys no time to question him about the
state of things on deck, said promptly:
"Now, I'll just tell you what we'll do: we'll all three go
to work and make some hot coffee for breakfast; for I doubt
very much if we shall get any from the cook's galley to-
day. They'll never be able to light the fire in such weather
as this. You know, don't you, Marmaduke, where your
father keeps his spirit-lamp and his store-chest? Well,
80 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
then, while I get into some dry clothes, you and Alfred
can be rummaging out what things we want; and then I'll
come and help you to make the brew. And when our friend,
Mr. Graves, comes in with a glum face to tell us we can't
have any coffee, we'll just astonish him with a steaming
pot of it under his very nose!"
Never was any diversion more timely. The boys, de-
lighted with the suggestion, forgot everything else in their
eagerness to carry it out, and had just (under Mr. Thurra-
boy's skilful direction) completed their task without any
mishap despite the terrific pitching and rolling of the
vessel when old Graves showed his lean, brown visage
in the doorway, and announced in a tone of gloomy
satisfaction :
" No coffee for you this mornin', gen'l'men fire can't be
lit!"
"No coffee, eh? What do you call that, then, you old
croaker?" chuckled Wyvil, swinging the steaming coffee-
pot, like a censer, round Graves's head.
"Well, I am blowed!" growled the old fellow in amaze-
ment. "This is some o' your doin', Muster Thurraboy;
them two young whipper-snappers 'ud never ha' had the
gumption to do it their own selves!"
"Why not, Mr. Graves?" cried Huntley; "we should
need nothing but your temper to make the water hot, and
we couldn't have a better thing to stir it with than your
long tongue!"
Graves answered only with the hoarse grunt that was
his nearest approach to a laugh, and proceeded to make
what preparations he could for a breakfast which seemed
likely to be a very make-shift affair at best.
But Ashley Thurraboy, after being on deck all night in
the rain, was in no mood to be particular. He fell to with
a will, and his young companions seconded him most man-
fully.
The meal was a pretty lively one, as may be supposed.
"NO COFFEE, EH?"
Page So
SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM 81
Alfred was fain to drink his boiling coffee at one gulp, lest
it should be sent spouting over him like a fountain-jet; and
Marmaduke had an exciting race all across the saloon after
a piece of cold meat, which was ambling nimbly away to
leeward. But this only made it "all the better fun"; and
when breakfast was over, the two lads found ample amuse-
ment in watching the rage of the sea through the ports,
against which a huge billow dashed up ever and anon with
a noise as if all the glass-work of a hot-house had been
shattered at one blow.
" Well, it's a good deal snugger here than on deck," art-
fully observed Thurraboy, "and one can get a far better
view of the sea down here than up there, where you can't
open your eyes for the rain and the spray."
Finding their chosen hero so well satisfied to remain
below, the boys became much more resigned to their own
imprisonment; and when they began to tire of watching
the waves, Mr. Thurraboy opened the piano and sang them
several of his best songs, and then set them to sing like-
wise. Finally, having entertained them for the best part
of the morning, he settled them down quietly to a couple
of books, and then went off to get a snatch of sleep, which
he very much needed.
Meanwhile the storm was beginning to abate; and, toward
lunch-tirne, down came Lord Heathermoor in turn for a
brief nap after sixteen hours on deck, leaving strict orders
to call him the moment there was any fresh sign of danger.
Mr. Thurraboy, being now completely rested, went on deck
again, and the two lads, to their great delight, were per-
mitted to go with him.
"I say, it must have blown pretty stiff while it lasted!"
cried Wyvil, staring wonderingly at the swimming decks,
the splinters of wood that strewed them, the torn covers of
the boats, and the bent iron staunchions of the quarter-rail.
" However, it's soon over, at any rate."
"It's not over yet, my boy," said the author gravely.
(B533) F
82 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" I don't want to be always croaking, like your old steward
yonder, but I must tell you that in my opinion (and I
know something of these seas) the worst of it is still to
come ! "
It was, as they soon learned to their cost. Toward
nightfall the wind rose again as suddenly as it had fallen,
and blew harder than ever; and poor Heath ermoor (who
had barely had time to swallow a few mouthfuls of dinner)
was forced to hurry on deck again, having with some diffi-
culty persuaded his guest to remain below in charge of the
boys.
The latter had gone to sleep as tisual for neither din
nor danger seemed to have any effect upon theiif slumbers
when a sound was heard which awakened"eveu them, a,,,
sound which even the hardiest seaman can seldom hear un-
moved. Mingling with the ceaseless thump, thump, thump
of the great waves against the trembling hull came the
harsh, ripping, rending sound of broken timber, coming
apparently from the direction of the forecastle.
" There goes something f or'ard ! " cried Thurraboy, spring-
ing nimbly out of his berth ; " and "
But, ere he could finish, there came a crash right over-
head, like the explosion of a bomb-shell, followed by a noise
of shivering glass and splintering wood, and down came a
perfect cataract of water into the saloon, the skylight-
scuttle of which (despite its strong wooden framework and
casing of brass rods) had been smashed in like pie-crust,
leaving the cabin below as completely exposed as a house
with the roof blown off. At the same instant, the hanging
lamp, which had been left lighted at the far end of it, flew
in pieces with a crash and a jingle, plunging everything
into utter darkness, while the yacht heeled over as if she
were going down bodily.
In the depth of the blackness our two young travellers
(who were now thoroughly aroused) could see little
SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM 83
glimmering spots of light, not unlike glow-worms, glancing
hither and thither amid the gloom; and they knew at once
that these were the phosphorescent fish, swimming about
the saloon, which was now flooded from one end to
another.
In a moment more, Wyvil saw these tiny stars come
flashing and surging over the sill of his door, while a plash
and gurgle of unseen waters told him that his room was
"all awash". It was undoubtedly a pretty sight; but
our hero felt that had he witnessed it in someone else's
room he would have appreciated its beauty a great deal
more.
"My portmanteau 1 ! " cried Marmaduke, aghast; "it's
right down on_the floor!"
"So's mine," answered Alfred, from next door, in tones
of equal distnay, "and all my things in it too!"
" Well, now, wotever's the good o' fussin' about your
clothes now?" chimed in old Graves's hoarse voice re-
provingly. "You won't need none at the bottom o' the
sea, and that's where we're a-going to, every man Jack of
us!"
" I don't think so, Mr. Graves," replied Huntley in a tone
of profound conviction; "people say one can't be drowned
in the company of a man who is born to be hanged, and so
we're all right so long as we have you on board. Besides,
I fancy you can be careful of your things too, at the last
moment; for I've heard that you once let one of your
messmates drown while you were saving your tobacco-
box."
The old croaker's indignant mutterings were drowned by
the ceaseless hammering of the sailors overhead, who were
nailing planks over the broken scuttle to keep the sea out.
Meanwhile the two lads, splashing to and fro ankle-deep in
water, were groping out the various " properties " which
were floating about their rooms, and enlivening this new
form of blind-man's buff with an impromptu parody of
84 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
their favourite sea-song "I'm Afloat, I'm Afloat O'er
the Billows I Koam":
" I'm afloat, I'm afloat ! all my berth 's full of foam ;
My boots are both gone, and I can't find my comb ;
My clothes are all swimming, as wet as can be
I'm afloat, I'm afloat, flooded up to the knee ! "
This done, they joined Graves and Mr. Thurraboy in
baling out the water, which the four accomplished at last,
though not without a long and weary struggle, which left
the boys so tired and stiff that they could hardly move.
When morning came it revealed a spectacle worthy of
one of Vereshtchagin's delightful pictures of a bombarded
town. The floor was (as Graves poetically phrased it)
" reg'larly buttered with broken glass ". Splinters of wood,
strips of canvas, twisted brass rods, and what not lay
strewn on every side. The fall of the scuttle had smashed
a mirror and knocked off one entire corner of the piano.
The stout cover of the book-case had been torn away like a
rag, and the glass beneath it smashed to pieces; and Lord
Heathermoor's cherished books torn, soaked, with their
rich covers half off lay scattered broadcast upon the wet
and dirty floor.
"Won't my father be in a way when he sees all this 1 ?"
cried Marmaduke, as they sat amid this chaos over such a
breakfast as could be scraped up for them. " He always
says he can't bear to see books hurt, because it seems to
him just as if they could feel what's done to 'em."
But poor Heathermoor had something very different to
think of at that moment, for just about nine o'clock (the
gale being still as furious as ever) there came faintly
through the roar of wind and wave an ominous cry from
the "look-out" at the bow:
"Land ahead!"
As he heard the ill-boding call, Heathermoor's bold face
seemed to harden all at once, like metal suddenly congealed,
SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM 85
for he needed no one to tell him what land this might be,
or what he and his crew had to expect there.
Picking his way warily along the wet and sloping deck,
he planted himself beside the foremast, and, somewhat
sheltered from the blinding spray, turned his glass toward
the eastern horizon.
There, sure enough, looming darkly far away to the east-
ward against the pale grey light of the sunless sky, stood
out a huge shadowy headland the fatal promontory of
Acheen Head, which forms the westernmost point of Su-
matra. The brave man looked at it long and earnestly, and
shook his head meaningly as he gazed, for he well knew
how many stout seamen had perished among its deadly
rocks and boiling waves, or had escaped them only to die
by the yet more pitiless cruelty of the savages who haunted
the gloomy mountains overhead.
Most of his men were familiar with these waters, and
knew the doom that threatened them as well as he knew it
himself; but neither he nor they had any thought of
flinching. With death in its worst form gaping to devour
them all, the captain gave his orders, and the crew obeyed
them, as coolly and steadily as if they were only sailing
a match in the Solent.
Plainly and more plainly, as they flew onward to de-
struction, loomed the stern outline of the terrible cape,
upon which wind and sea were driving them headlong.
With good management and the help of her engines, in-
deed, the staunch little craft might possibly weather the
point itself, but from the front of it jutted out into the
sea like the snout of a sword-fish, just beneath the water, a
long line of jagged black reefs, around which raged unceas-
ingly a foaming ring of white-lipped breakers; and, as
things were now, nothing short of a miracle could save the
yacht from being dashed full upon them.
The wind now began to fall again, though the sea was
higher than ever, and, the engines having "slowed down",
86 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
their lessening speed seemed to give them just space
enough to count the few remaining minutes which lay
between them and destruction. There they stood, those
bold, fearless men, brimming over with strength and energy,
still in the prime of life, yet doomed to die as surely as if
smitten with a mortal disease. And, moment by moment,
before their very eyes, Death came creeping nearer, and
nearer, and nearer.
Half an hour later they had come so near to the fatal
headland that every feature of its grand outline stood clear
before them; for, as if to add bitterness to death itself, the
sun had suddenly broken through the clouds in all its
glory, revealing the full magnificence of one of the noblest
panoramas in the whole range of the Eastern seas.
Far to right and left endless ranges of wooded hills
surged up, wave beyond wave, against the brightening sky,
one mass of clustering foliage from base to summit. But
right in front this veil of leaves was rent in twain, and
through the gap thrust itself a mighty precipice of dark-
purple cliff hundreds of feet in height, gaunt and bare in
all the grimness of eternal desolation amid the sea of
luxuriant growth around it. A narrow band of greyish-
yellow beach lay between the cliff and the sea, the great
waves of which, as they broke in spouts of flying spray,
flashed back the brightening sunlight in a thousand glanc-
ing rainbows. Beyond it, brilliantly white against the
deep, rich blue of the sea, the snowy foam of the destroy-
ing breakers danced and sparkled in the sunshine, and
Nature seemed to pour forth all the fulness of her life
before the eyes of the men who were about to die.
Beside Heathermoor stood the two lads, with life-buoys
securely fastened round them, and on the other side of
them was Mr. Thurraboy.
The wind was now falling fast, but the fury of the sea
was unabated ; and, although the engines had been reversed,
SWEPT TO THEIR DOOM 87
even this availed nothing against the terrific force by
which the yacht was whirled onward like a leaf down a
torrent. And just then as if to destroy their last hope of
escape, even should they reach the shore alive several
wild figures were seen to break from the thickets and come
rushing down to the beach, quickly followed by others, and
others still, until the whole shore was black with armed
savages, whose shout, or rather scream, of ferocious joy at
sight of the doomed vessel sounded in the ears of her for-
lorn crew like a death-knell.
" Our only chance now," muttered Heathermoor through
his set teeth, as he glanced from the seething foam of the
rock -tormented breakers to the howling swarm of mur-
derers beyond, "is for her to stick fast among the rocks
without breaking up; but there's not much hope of that
with such a sea on. God have mercy upon us all!"
Then, turning to the two lads beside him, he added
quietly :
" Now, boys, stick close to me till you hear me sing out
'Jump!' and then overboard you go!"
"All right, Daddy!" answered Wyvil as cheerily as ever.
"Good-bye, Thurraboy!" added the captain, grasping the
hand of his guest. " If you live through this business, you
know what to do."
" I won't forget," replied the other, returning the grasp
with interest. "Good-bye God bless you!"
Not a word more was spoken. Side by side, in grim
silence, they went onward to their doom
CHAPTER IX
THE ISLAND CITY
ALL at once the set, stern face of the captain (who had
gone forward as if to see his death ere it came)
underwent a startling change. His glass was at his eye in
a moment, and as he glanced through it he muttered:
" There is a cross-current that would carry us clear but
how to reach it? There's only one chance, but it's worth
trying. Mr. Walters!"
The few brief, clear orders that followed were obeyed
with an alacrity that showed that the mere feeling of doing
something (whatever the issue might be) was a reviving
cordial to the sturdy Englishmen. In a trice the anchor
was ready for letting go, and old Graves (who had come on
deck with the rest) grunted to himself:
"He's a-goin' to club-haul her, then, he is! Well, that
means that we may be drowned if the anchor holds, and
we must be drowned if it don't."
Meanwhile two fresh men had been sent to the wheel to
assist the two already there, whose whole strength barely
sufficed to hold it firm against the tremendous pressure of
the sea.
"Helm hard down!" came the shout; and the whole
four, exerting their full strength, jammed the wheel down
and brought the yacht up into the wind.
" Stand by your anchor! Let go!"
The anchor splashed into the water, and all held their
breath as they watched the result, knowing well that upon
it hung the life of every man on board. Happily it caught
THE ISLAND CITY 89
and held, but so terrific was the force of the sea that in an
instant the cable was as taut as a bow-string.
"Cut away!" roared Heathermoor with the full force of
his voice.
One stroke of an axe severed the cable, and the released
yacht bounded forward like a freed stag -hound. But,
though the well-handled wheel above and the reversed
engines below did their utmost, the result was still doubtful
for one terrible moment, during which every heart seemed
to stand still.
All at once, however, the yacht was felt to give a quick
swing to port, as if suddenly acted upon by some new force.
She had caught the cross-current marked by Heathermoor,
and, just as the boiling foam of the breakers was so close
under her starboard bow that her doom appeared certain,
she was borne past the edge of the reef and glided out into
the open sea once more, followed by a yell of impotent
rage from the baffled savages who crowded the beach.
"Sold again, chickabiddies no catchee, no habbee!"
shouted Wyvil, snapping his fingers at them. "We've
seen the last of you, at any rate."
Our hero was mistaken. He had not seen the last of
the Acheenese yet by any means.
For the present, however, their troubles seemed to have
ended with this last and most-unhoped-for escape. Three
hours later, just as the sun was beginning to sink, they got
under the lee of Pulo Brass (Rice Island), where Lord
Heathermoor, finding himself sheltered and comparatively
safe, wisely decided to anchor for the night.
Then, having seen everything "snug", the brave captain,
fairly worn out with the superhuman exertions of the last
two days, turned in and slept soundly till dawn. Thurra-
boy did the same; but the two lads were far too much
excited to follow their example, and lay awake half the
night, talking to each other through the partition; nor was
90 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
it until the morning that they at length fell into a sleep
which lasted till breakfast-time.
When they did come on deck at last the sun was already
high in a cloudless heaven; the huge, round, shining
"swells" that heaved on every side were the only traces of
the recent storm ; the yacht was going briskly along under
a full press of sail, and around them lay outspread in all its
splendour a panorama to which no words can do justice,
though every man who passes it seems to think himself
bound in honour to try.
They were by this time well into the far-famed Strait of
Malacca, and, as they advanced, the leafy shores of Malacca
on the port side, and the wood-crowned hills of Sumatra to
starboard, stood . out plainer and plainer every moment,
giving to the whole scene the aspect of some mighty park
in the fulness of its midsummer glory, enclosing a great
lake studded with floating gardens in which all the mag-
nificent luxuriance of tropical vegetation ran riot without
a check.
No lake, indeed, could have been calmer, brighter, or
more beautiful than this land-locked sea, into the clear,
smooth, shining waters of which the wooded mountains
and bush-clad islets sloped down on every side. These
slopes displayed every gradation of colour the pale yellow
of the sugar-cane, the deep, rich green of the cocoa-palm
and banana, the lighter verdure of the upland grass, and
the raw, bare red of the exposed clay, laid open by a sudden
landslip all framed in the bright summer blue of the sunlit
sea. And through the masses of dark, glossy foliage peeped
out every here and there the trim white colonnade of a
European country-house, the tall, gaunt outline of a factory
chimney, or the tapering mast of an anchored vessel.
The boys were in raptures, for, as the channel grew
narrower, every turn of it revealed to them some new and
genuinely Eastern wonder.
" Here's a Malay canoe, Alf ain't it a queer one? For
THE ISLAND CITY 91
all the world like Robinson Crusoe's first attempt at a water-
trough!"
"And a couple of bronze statues aboard, life-size, eh?
Don't it seem as if one could stick the pair of 'em on a
mantel-piece and put matches inside 'em?"
"Hullo! they're talking English!" cried Wyvil. "Do
you hear 'em singing out, ' Do it, do it ! ' But what on earth
do they want us to do?"
"I know!" exclaimed Huntley. " Duit is a penny in
Malay, and this'll be the Oriental version of the Thames
boy's ' Chuck us a ha'penny to dive for!' Let's chuck 'em
one and see 'em fish it up."
But ere they could do so, the canoe was left far astern.
A wide-winged sea-bird swept over their heads, on its
way southward to Coney Island (for Singapore has its
Coney Island as well as New York), and almost as swiftly
came swimming over the shining sea a large Malay prahu
(boat) with a bamboo mast, cordage of coir (twisted grass),
and one huge sail of brown matting, which (as Huntley
truly said) looked just like a monster tobacco-leaf.
"Do you remember, Alf," cried Marmaduke, "that bit
in old Marryat (in The King's Ovm, I think) where they
board a Malay prahu, and take her; and then the Malays
jump down below and set her on fire, and burn themselves
and all 1 ? This must be one of the very things!"
" And I should think such an old rattle-trap would burn
pretty easily," said Alfred, eyeing the uncouth craft with
a grin. " Hullo! what on earth's that?"
" That " was a strange-looking object standing up out of
the shallow water just beyond one of the smaller islets. At
first sight it looked exactly like a gigantic H (possibly
dropped by some passing British tourist), but a nearer view
showed it to be merely a large stake-net.
Turning round from looking at it, the boys caught sight
of a Siamese man-of-war in the offing, with the famous
" White Elephant " conspicuous on her fluttering crimson
92 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
flag; and, a few moments later, they passed a Chinese fish-
ing-boat, with a two-horned prow suggestive of a monster
stag-beetle, and a huge staring eye painted on either side;
it being the rooted conviction of the pig -tailed boatmen
that "suppose boatee no have eye, no can see go".
But what was this nondescript object starting up from
the water's edge on an island upon their starboard bow?
An unfinished pier, or a half-destroyed palisade?
" Now, Duke," cried Heathermoor's voice, " here's a real
Malay village for you at last."
"That a village!" said his son, staring; "why, it looks
more like a lot of hampers left behind by a big picnic!"
Such as it was, however, this quaint little cluster of tiny
grass-thatched hovels of bamboo which, raised upon long
slender piles, looked as if they were wading into the sea on
stilts preserved in the nineteenth century the exact like-
ness of those strange dwellings in which the Malay of the
ninth entrenched himself amid his native swamps and
lagoons. A thousand years ago this unchangeable man
used to come down that rude bamboo ladder, just as he
does now, to the roughly-hollowed log that served him for
a canoe. Then, as now, he stood on this ledge-like platform
above the water to throw out his fishing-lines, or to watch
for the coming of his enemies. When they came, the canoe
was stowed away and the ladder drawn up, and he defended
his little dove-cot-on-stilts with the same heavy cleaver-
shaped parang, and the same short, crooked-bladed, dagger-
like kriss, which he handles so artistically to-day.
" That's what all the native villages, and towns too, are
like in these parts, my boys," said Heathermoor, smiling at
their amazement. " In fact, this style of house-building is
so thoroughly traditional with the Malays that their way
of telling you that any man has married and settled down
is to say : Dia ada rumah-tangga (he has got a house with a
ladder)."
Through these and other wonders they at length made
THE ISLAND CITY 93
their way up to the island-city of Singapore, though, from
the extreme flatness of its site, the boys could see little or
nothing of it till they were quite close to the landing-place
of Tanjong Pagar, and almost alongside the wharf itself.
Alfred Huntley, in his eagerness to meet his father after so
long a separation, wholly forgot that the latter could not
possibly tell what day they would arrive, and was quite
disappointed at not seeing him amid the crowd assembled
on the shore.
But if he did not see him, he saw plenty to look at in-
stead; for the whole landing-place was (as the cautious
reporter said of the London riots) " a scene of considerable
bustle ". On one side a couple of lean, rat-faced Portuguese
half-castes were shrieking and jabbering over a disputed
fare. On the other, an unlucky Chinaman, who had just
had his straw hat knocked into the dirt by the rush of a
hurrying sailor, was relieving his feelings with a screaming
burst of Chinese adjectives worthy of a scalded parrot.
In the foreground a brawny English sea-captain was acting
" Hercules among the Pygmies " in the midst of a howling
swarm of native cabmen, who seemed bent upon tearing him
in pieces and portioning him out among them. A little
farther on some Hindoo coolies, who had just succeeded in
overturning a truck-load of luggage, stood gravely contem-
plating the result, as if expecting the upset packages to get
up again and walk away of their own accord.
" Now, Heathermoor," said Ashley Thurraboy, when the
necessary formalities had been got through, and all was
ready for their landing, " I know you'll have plenty to do
this evening on your own account; so I think you had
better just let me go up to the hotel in a trap with the
luggage and these two young men of yours, and then
you can come after us when you've got through your
business."
" Well, really, I shall be very much obliged to you ;
for, as you say, I've plenty to attend to. If you don't find
94 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Colonel Huntley at the hotel, there's safe to be a letter
from him addressed to me, and you're quite welcome to
open it if you think fit."
" Do you think there's any chance that he won't be there,
then ?" asked Alfred Huntley ruefully.
" Well, you see, he couldn't possibly know, within a week,
when we should arrive; so very likely he may have gone off
on a visit to somebody, or on a run up the coast to Perak
or Penang. But you'll find some news of him at the hotel,
never fear ! Off you go, and I'll follow as soon as I've got
everything ship-shape."
Our heroes had reason to pronounce their transit "as
good as a London pantomime ", for to them this first drive
through an East Indian town was one constant succession
of marvels. Not the least of these wonders was the appear-
ance of their native driver himself; and they both laughed
not a little at the thought of the impression likely to be
produced in a London street by the sudden apparition of
a chocolate-coloured cabman in a blazing crimson turban
and short blue drawers, with limbs bare below the knee.
In this region of palms and sugar-canes, white robes and
black faces, it was quite a new (sensation for the boys to
see an English table of fares and distances pasted up inside
their carriage; but they soon perceived that the fares them-
selves had been so carefully obliterated either by the
prudent cabman himself, or by some obliging friend that
even Sir Henry Rawlinson could have made nothing of them.
Scarcely had they gone twenty yards when they passed
through a crowd, assembled, not round a Punch-show or a
barrel-organ, but round a real live " sloth bear " from Borneo
a lazy, good-humoured looking beast, with a white muzzle
and brownish-black body, very much like a short, ill-made
boy in an overcoat three sizes too large for him. Then, in
the very next street, they met a tall Hindoo leading along
(just as a man at home might lead an Italian greyhound)
a black-and-white Java tapir a kind of pocket - hippo-
THE ISLAND CITY 95
potamus, with the size and build of an overgrown pig, and
a flexible upper lip, hanging several inches below its mouth,
like a gutta-percha pipe.
And now a sudden turn brought them right into the
" Chinese quarter", with its cobweb of narrow dingy lanes;
its eddying crowds of doll-faced, narrow-eyed, pig-tailed men
in short blue pinafores, and straw hats as big as an umbrella;
its yellow-skinned matrons (with two crossed skewers in
their clubbed-up black hair) nursing cream-coloured babies,
whose solemn little faces never laughed or moved ; its flying
dragons of red paper or gilt tinsel; its tiny rat-trap-like
shops, covered with strange, black, long-legged characters,
suggestive of crushed beetles; and its deep, tunnel -like
gateways, surmounted by huge cornices of coloured porce-
lain, several feet in height, adorned with a medley of pranc-
ing horses and round-faced men, long-legged birds, cabbage-
shaped trees, top-heavy towers, and convulsed monsters with
gaping jaws and tails as long as the " one word in con-
clusion " of a political speaker.
Marmaduke eyed this strange jumble with an appreciative
grin, and struck up (lustily seconded by Huntley) a very
appropriate though far from courteous song, to the tune of
"John Highlandman " :
" With their little pig-eyes and their large pig-tails,
And their diet of rats, dogs, worms, and snails,
Which are all fair game in the frying-pan
Of that curious feeder, John Chinaman !
" Sing lie-tea, my cheating John Chinaman !
No fightee, my coward John Chinaman !
Not Cobden himself can take off the ban
By humanity laid on John Chinaman."
A few minutes later they turned into a wider and
straighter thoroughfare, where they went along more
rapidly ; and the two lads, one at each side of the carriage,
kept up an incessant shouting to each other to announce
some fresh local marvel.
96 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" Hurrah!" cried Wyvil suddenly, " here at last is a real
jirwik-sha (man go-cart). You remember the models of
them, don't you, Alf, at the Oriental Exhib.? I've always
wanted to see one, and here they are at last!"
There, sure enough, was a queer little Orientalized
" hansom ", drawn not by a horse but by a Chinaman, while
another Chinaman, seated in it, looked down upon him with
solemn dignity.
"Bravo! that would be the right sort of trap for the
'Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' people," cried Alfred;
"the only kind of cab, I should think, where there never is
any fear of the horse being overworked!"
Just then a temporary "block" in the roadway gave
them time to watch the Chinese passenger get out and feel
in his pockets for money to pay the fare, but seemingly
without finding any. Then followed a brief but very
spirited dialogue between him and the human horse that
had drawn him, which ended in the " horse " getting into
the cab, while the fare took his place between the shafts,
and gravely proceeded to work his passage.
" Well," cried Wyvil, chuckling, " that's one way to
settle it! I say, Alf, what a job it would be in England
if, when a fellow hadn't money enough to pay his fare, the
cabby could harness him to the trap and drive him along
till he'd worked out the balance! Hollo! if here isn't a
Johnny on a bicycle!"
The next moment, in fact, they passed a young China-
man trundling leisurely along the road on a " patent
safety", with a face so perfectly immovable that he might
have been taken for an enlarged edition of one of those
clock-work cyclists which are the delight of children. The
two English boys were very merry over such unwarrantable
presumption on the part of a foreigner.
But they soon had something else to think of. By this
time they were rattling through the "European quarter",
and a sharp turn suddenly brought them out upon the
THE ISLAND CITY 97
beautiful esplanade, extending its smooth green belt of
level sward between the trim white houses of the fashion-
able district on one side and the boundless expanse of
blue, shining sea on the other. To the left, in the midst
of a vast enclosed green wide enough for a parade-ground,
St. Andrew's Cathedral flaunted in the glory of the sunset
its daring and not wholly unsuccessful parody of ^the won-
derful architecture of Netley Abbey; and, high upon the
hill above it commanding a seemingly endless panorama
of red-tiled roofs, and broad-leaved palm-trees, and tall
church-spires, and black-hulled steamers lying motionless
upon the smooth bright sea rose the grassy earth-works and
low white wall of Fort Canning, the citadel of Singapore.
All this, however, was but slightly noticed by our two
young athletes, who were instantly absorbed in the con-
templation of another feature of the scene which was far
more interesting to them. A little way to the right, two
or three well-contested combats of lawn-tennis were being
fought out beneath the wondering stares of a throng of
natives, who were evidently quite at a loss to understand
what could be the object of knocking a ball over the net
just to have it instantly knocked back again; and, full in
front of them as they drove along the esplanade toward
the sea-fronting hotel, a number of sturdy figures in white
flannel were playing (glorious spectacle !) real English cricket
a match, as our travellers learned from the shouts of the
bystanders of " Soldiers v. Civilians ", i.e. the officers of the
garrison against the English officials of the town.
"Well hit!" roared Wyvil, as one of the "Civilian"
champions, a tall, good-looking young fellow with light
curly hair, made a splendid " forward drive ".
"Well hit! run again!" echoed Huntley with the full
power of his lungs.
"Only seven to make now, and one wicket still to go
down," called out a voice from the crowd of spectators.
"They'll do it yet, no fear!"
( B 533 ) G
98 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"Do you hear, Alf?" cried Marmaduke eagerly, "only
seven to make ! Oh, I do hope they'll win ! "
A few moments later their carriage drew up at the door
of the hotel, and Alfred Huntley was out of it in an
instant, looking eagerly for his father's tall upright figure
and heavy moustache among the groups on the veranda.
But a grievous disappointment awaited him. Colonel
Huntley was nowhere to be seen, and when Thurraboy
(having sent off the two lads to see their luggage bestowed
in the rooms assigned to them) went to make enquiries at
the office, he was startled to learn that the Colonel had not
been there at all that season, that he had left neither letter
nor message of any kind, and that, in a word, no one knew
anything about him!
CHAPTER X
TIDINGS OF EVIL
TTP to that moment Mr. Thurraboy had never thought
U of feeling the slightest anxiety as to the famous
colonel's safety. Randolph Huntley's past life was a suffi-
cient warrant of his being proof against every form of hard-
ship or danger; and, moreover, North Borneo (in which, of
late, he had been officially stationed) was now a well-ordered
British colony, where he could have nothing to fear from
the natives. Hence, though not surprised to see nothing
of Alfred's father at the landing-place or on the veranda,
Thurraboy had fully expected to find either the colonel
himself, or some message from him, at the hotel.
But now, for the first time, he began to feel uneasy.
Heathermoor had expressly told him that the colonel had
been informed, many months before, of their probable
arrival about this time to carry him home with them, and
that Huntley himself had distinctly named this hotel as the
place where he was to be found or heard of; yet, now that
they were there, nobody could give them any news of him
whatever. It was probable enough, of course, that some of
the countless matters that had to be attended to, ere Huntley
could turn his back on the East after so long a term of
duty there, might have taken him away from Singapore for
a time; but was it credible that, in such a case, he should
have left no message whatever for his expected friends, and
more especially for his own son, whom he had not seen for
years ?
The more Thurraboy thought of all this, the less he liked
it; and he was just renewing his enquiries, in the faint
100 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
hope that there might, after all, be some mistake in the
matter, when he was interrupted by a deafening burst of
cheering outside, and in tramped the victorious cricketers,
carrying in triumph, shoulder-high, the tall, fair -haired
young man already mentioned.
They happened to set down their hero close to the door
of the office, and Mr. Thurraboy, while parleying with the
hotel-clerk, heard a voice saying behind him:
"Excuse me, did you ask for Colonel Huntley?"
"Yes," said Thurraboy, turning, to find himself face to
face with the light-haired champion. " Some friends of his
have come out here in their yacht to take him home with
them, and we expected to meet him or hear of him at this
hotel; but we can't find out anything about him."
"I'm afraid not," said the other gravely; "and I wish
with all my heart that I could give you any news of him,
for, to tell you the truth, I'm beginning to be rather anxious
about him myself."
"Indeed!" cried Thurraboy with a sudden cloud on his
firm, manly face. " I'm sorry to hear you say that, for
we've got the colonel's son with us, and he is quite expect-
ing to see his father turn up at any moment. If there
really should be anything wrong, I had rather the boy
didn't know it just at first."
"I understand," replied the cricketer; "and if I can help
you in any way, pray consider me quite at your service.
I'm the governor's under-secretary, Hubert Pennaline."
"You are very kind," said Thurraboy, holding out his
hand cordially. "Will you give us the pleasure of your
company at dinner? My name is Ashley Thurraboy."
" What 1 ? the author of Alone upon the Oceanl" cried Pen-
naline, warmly grasping the proffered hand. "This is an
unexpected pleasure indeed. There will be quite an excite-
ment among our fellows when they know you're here. I
can tell you that your name is a household word among
them. As for dining with you, I should like nothing better ;
TIDINGS OF EVIL 101
but the fact is, you see, our team are expecting me to dine
with them to-night, and so Come, I'll tell you what; won't
you and your friends come and join us? I can promise
you an English welcome, even if you don't get a very grand
dinner."
There was no resisting the young fellow's hearty tone
and manner, and Mr. Thurraboy, not at all sorry to have
something to divert his mind from the gloomy apprehen-
sions that were beginning to darken it, readily assented.
An hour later, the great author, seated in the place of
honour, was as much at home with the young cricketers as
if he had known them all his life, while Marmaduke and
Alfred, still ignorant of the prevailing fears for Colonel
Huntley's safety, having swallowed with eagerness every
detail of the recent match, were joining with a will in the
chorus of a comic song sung by Mr. Pennaline himself:
"THE RAIN OF TERROR
" 'T is sad to mark affliction's storm
Burst o'er the fenceless head ;
'T is sad to see the once-loved form
Lie pale, and cold, and dead ;
'T is sad to hear, when no aid is near,
The moan of restless pain ;
But saddest of all to pay a call
In a villainous shower of rain !
" We mourn the brave whom battle smote,
Yet soon our grief is o'er ;
But who shall wail the mud-splashed coat,
The shrunken vest deplore ?
And the faultless tie, which low and high
To equal strive in vain
Their course is run all, all undone
By a pitiless shower of rain !
" The vanished hope, the blasted name,
May yet return to men ;
The dead in deathless scrolls of fame
Arise and live again ;
102 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
The leech's art may ease the heart,
And cool the fevered brain
But who shall repair the garments fair
Defiled by a shower of rain I
" Ha ! while I speak, upon my chest
The deadly Cold doth lie ;
The fierce Sore-Throat, in vapours dressed,
Swoops from the lowering sky ;
Rheumatics stand, a ghastly band,
And howl this dire refrain :
' The best thing alive to make us thrive
Is a jolly good shower of rain ! '
" Ugh ! ugh ! my throat ! that warning note
Dooms me to draught and pill,
And flannelled feet, and doubled sheet,
And a swingeing doctor's bill.
Ugh ! ugh ! a-tchew ! attend me, you
Who would your health retain
With strictest care henceforth beware
Of a treacherous shower of rain ! "
But, just as the general merriment was at its height,
a native servant stepped up to Thurraboy and whispered
to him that "Tuan Heathermoor" had arrived, and was
asking to see him. Mr. Pennaline followed his guest out
of the room, and the three men held a private conference,
which, judging from the time that it occupied, must have
dealt with very important matters indeed.
When the two boys awoke the next morning, they began
to realize for the first time (this being their first day ashore
since leaving Egypt) the full significance of being "really
in the tropics, you know". Along the table beside them,
three or four athletic black ants were having a foot-race
worthy of the Oxford and Cambridge Sports. Underneath
it a Siamese cat with blue eyes, coloured like a cup of
weak cocoa with one blob of cream in it, and wearing a
trowel-shaped tail, barely an inch long, was purring con-
TIDINGS OF EVIL 103
tentedly on Wyvil's shirt, which had fallen to the floor, as
she probably supposed, for her express convenience. On
the ceiling, just above their heads, a "tokey" lizard, so
enormous that it might almost have been mistaken for a
new-born crocodile, was catching mosquitoes upside down, at
a rate suggestive of its having just signed a contract to
extirpate them at sixpence the dozen.
Just outside the window a magnificent "traveller's palm"
towered high into the air, exactly like a monster feather-
fan, with green feathers three fathoms in length, and a
handle of forty feet. A little farther on, a gorgeous
butterfly, as large as an ordinary sparrow, was just alight-
ing upon a leaf that would make an ample carpet for any
dining-room; while the road below them displayed an
endless procession of coloured paper lanterns and painted
umbrellas, shaven crowns and trailing pig -tails, dusky
women with rings through their noses as big as a door-
knocker, coffee-coloured babies with nothing on but half a
dozen silver anklets, and slim, sharp-featured "Klings" from
Madras, almost as lightly clad as the Kaffir chief whose
full dress consisted of an eye-glass and a pair of spurs.
Fresh as they were from sober England, our heroes
thought this sudden plunge amid the marvels of the torrid
zone "the finest fun in the world". But they might have
felt somewhat more serious if they had overheard the talk
that Lord Heathermoor and Mr. Thurraboy were having
next door at that moment, over their chota-hazree (little
breakfast) of bread-and-butter, Ceylon tea, and bananas
the regular East Indian preface to the "big breakfast"
later on.
"Our boys had better know nothing of all this for the
present," said Heathermoor, cautiously lowering his voice
in deference to the thinness of the partition. "After all,
it's not certain yet that there is anything wrong; and if
there is, they'll know it quite soon enough."
" I quite agree with you," replied Thurraboy in the same
104 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
tone. "Now, just let me see if I have the story clear.
Colonel Huntley came back here from Borneo last October,
intending to remain in Singapore till you came to fetch
him; and at that time he got your letter telling him to
expect you towards the end of April, and he wrote you one
in reply, which must have been lost on the way. Is that
correct, so far 1 ?"
" Right to a T," answered his friend.
"Then, about Christmas-time, the governor asked him
as a special favour (he being the only man at hand at that
moment with experience enough for the job) to go and
'take over' one of the smaller Malay islands, which had
just put itself under British protection. So he went, and
remained there till the end of January, when he was
relieved by a young fellow sent out from here to take
charge of the place. Isn't that ( sol"
" Quite correct."
"A despatch from the young fellow was received here
early in February, reporting his arrival, and the finding of
'everything in perfect order, thanks to Colonel Huntley's
excellent arrangements'. But he didn't state whether the
colonel had left or was still there; and since that despatch
that is to say, for nearly three months nothing more has
been seen or heard of Huntley. That's how the case stands
up to date, eh?"
"Point for point; and whether poor Huntley has left
that island, or whether anything has happened to him
there, it's plain enough what we have to do. To write and
enquire would be hopeless, for a letter would take weeks
and weeks to get to an out-of-the-way place like that, and
I don't suppose the governor could spare us his despatch-
boat. We must just go over there ourselves, and find out
what has become of him."
"Just what I think," cried Thurraboy; "and the sooner
we do it the better. But, by the bye, didn't you say last
night that the yacht was crippled?"
TIDINGS OF EVIL 105
" So she is, worse luck ! She's leaking, beyond a doubt
I suppose that storm must have strained her timbers
and then that bit of machinery that we tinkered up in the
Eed Sea has come to grief again, and must be thoroughly
repaired. In fact, I should say it'll be nearer five weeks
than four before she's fit for sea again; and you don't
suppose I'm going to sit doing nothing all that time, while
my best friend may be dying for what I know."
"Then there's nothing for it, I suppose, but just to get
there by one of these coasting traders?"
"That's the only thing we can do; and I'm going down
to the docks directly to see if I can find anything outward-
bound through the islands."
"No, I've got a better plan than that. You go down
and look after the yacht, and let me send a note to this
young Pennaline. He seems to be a good sort of fellow,
and he's offered to help us any way he can; and besides,
being an official, he's bound to know everything that comes
into the port or goes out of it. I'll just tell him what we
want, and ask him to let us know if he hears of anything
going that way."
Mr. Thurraboy did so; and their two o'clock tiffin (lunch)
was hardly over when back came the following reply:
"Dear Sir,
"I would have come to see you myself, but this
is rather a busy day with us, the English mail having just
come in. Immediately on receiving your note I sent down
my chuprassie (native lackey) to the port, and he has just
brought me word that there is a light trading schooner
(the Sultana John Earshot, master) expected to sail in
about five days' time for some of the lesser Spice Islands,
passing close enough to the place that you wish to reach,
to be able to land you there without any difficulty.
Captain Earshot will call upon you at the hotel some time
106 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
this afternoon. If I can be of any further use to you in
any way, pray command me. I enclose a short note of
recommendation to the English resident at present in
charge of the island.
"Yours sincerely,
"H. PENNALINE."
CHAPTER XI
A NEW WAY OF BEING PRESENTED AT COURT
MEANWHILE the boys were enjoying themselves to
the full, happily innocent of all these forebodings.
All that they knew about the matter was that, as Colonel
Huntley had not been able to meet them here, they were
to go and meet him somewhere else (where, neither of
them ever thought of asking), and, the yacht being
crippled, they would have to go in a trading coaster, which
struck them as rather amusing than otherwise.
Heathermoor and Thurraboy being fully taken up with
their preparations, the two lads were thrown pretty much
upon themselves for the disposal of their time; and they
certainly made good use of it.
They tramped all over the citadel, addressing with
boyish heartiness (to the visible horror of the soldiers) a
prim and rather stern -looking old gentleman that they
encountered on the way, who turned out to be no other
than the commandant himself. They raced each other at
full speed along the whole front of the Esplanade, to the
unbounded astonishment of the grave Asiatics who wit-
nessed the performance. They examined every nook of
the town museum, being especially delighted with the
skeletons of the Borneo orang-outangs. They took a row
in the open roadstead all by themselves, and, when a
sudden squall capsized their boat, they coolly got astride
the keel, held up their coats for sails, and drifted back into
the harbour, with the help of wind and current, before the
eyes of an amazed crowd many hundreds strong. They
marched out to the public garden outside the town, and,
107
108 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
being attracted by the sight of a strange-looking bunch-like
object perched on the lowest bough of one of the trees,
they poked at it with their sticks till the whole concern
(which proved to be a nest of particularly ferocious red
ants) came plump down upon a passing group of natives,
with a result more easily imagined than described.
" I'll tell you what, Alf," said Marmaduke on the second
evening of their energetic sight-seeing, " this sort of thing's
all very fine, you know, but I don't call this seeing a
foreign country properly. We've hardly been outside the
town yet, barring that once to the public garden; and we
haven't much time left now, for that jolly old ship of ours
is by way of sailing the day after to-morrow. Now, I'll
just tell you what we'll do: we'll go out the first thing
to-morrow morning, and take a kreta (carriage), and carry
some lunch with us, and go slap across the island to the
other side, and see what there is to be seen there."
"Right you are!" cried Huntley; "and when we get
there we'll send the carriage back, and walk home in the
cool of the day, after we've seen all we want it's only
fourteen miles, they say."
The motion was carried nem. con., and by half-past six
on the following morning our heroes, having hastily
swallowed their early breakfast, and left word at the office
whither they had gone, were rolling off through the town
on their new expedition.
Away, away they went, past the wide, smooth green
from the midst of which rose the Gothic arches and stately
tower of St. Andrew's Church past the Alexandra Hotel
round the base of the hill from which the guns of Fort
Canning look watchfully down over their trim breastwork
of green turf upon the sleeping town below and then out
at last into the far-extending vista of leafy Orchard Road,
along which the glory of the sunrise was streaming as if
through the aisle of some vast cathedral.
"This is something like!" cried Wyvil, drinking in the
A NEW WAY OF BEING PRESENTED AT COURT 109
fresh, pure air with as keen a relish as if he had just come
out of the Black Hole of Calcutta. " After all, the tropics
aren't as bad as some people make 'em out."
"Mr. Thurraboy wouldn't agree with you there," said
Huntley. "Do you remember that song he sang us the
other day, where some romantic young lady was ' gushing '
about the East, and her travelled cousin was chaffing her?
Let's see, how did it go ?
"SHE
" ' How sweet to rove 'mid balmy skies
Where Eden's fragrance lingers,
Where fairest flowers delight the eyes,
And brightest gems the fingers ! '
"HE
" ' Well, don't be quite so sure of that !
You 'd find those climes a do, love
The Ganges' banks are awful flat,
The plague 's at Hang-choo-foo, love ;
The ' balmy skies ' of fair Cashmere
Do nought but patter, patter,
And ' fingers ' are employed, my dear,
Mosquito foes to batter!'"
"Ah, that's only chaff!" replied Marmaduke with an air
of superior authority. "But, talking of Mr. Thurraboy,
what do you think I heard him say to my father last night ?
He said he meant to make a story out of this voyage, and
that he was going to put both of us into it. Won't it be
stunning 1 ?"
"Well, I'm not quite so clear about that, do you know?"
said Huntley. " How would you like, for example, to have
him tell everybody how we got stuck on that old coral reef
in the Eed Sea, with a shark mounting guard over the pair
of us?"
"Hang it all, I'd forgot that!" cried Wyvil in dismay.
"Well, we must just ask him to leave that bit out, that's
all."
110 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
And now, as the houses of the town sank away behind
them, long green lines of indigo and tapioca began to
spring up along either side, alternating with dark masses
of foliage, in the midst of which our heroes caught a pass-
ing glimpse every now and then of a big white gateway,
with a ridge-topped roof inlaid with coloured porcelain,
showing where some rich Chinese trader had established
his country-house and "garden of ease".
Little by little the clustering trees fell away on either
hand, and wide green uplands, flecked with dark clumps
of undergrowth, began to rise on the left. Our heroes
passed one or t\vo white-jacketed Englishmen in huge
umbrella-like "sun-hats", cantering home to breakfast
from their morning ride, and at a sharp turn of the road
they narrowly escaped bumping into a queer-looking native
omnibus, in which a score of unlucky Chinamen were
jammed together like sardines, so tightly that when the
door was opened the first man was blown out into the
road as if fired from a gun.
The thirteenth milestone was at length left behind
then the fourteenth and now a sudden glitter through
the bushes that overhung the road in front of them told
our quick-eyed lads that they had fairly crossed the island,
and were close to the strait dividing it from the mainland
of Malacca. Sweeping round a sudden bend of the high-
way, they pulled up in front of a neat little whitewashed
police-station close to the water's edge, and, having paid
and dismissed their driver, discovered, to their no small
satisfaction, that it was not yet nine o'clock, and that they
still had the whole day before them.
Their first proceeding, when left to themselves, was to
run furiously along the level shore for half a mile or so,
and then back to their starting-point, three or four times
over, by way of "taking the knots out of their legs", as
Wyvil poetically phrased it, after sitting still so long. But
this being an amusement which is apt to pall upon one after
A NEW WAY OF BEING PRESENTED AT COURT 111
a while, beneath a tropical sun (for, early as it was, the
heat was by this time beginning to make itself felt in
earnest), our heroes at length ceased their exercises, and,
wiping their streaming faces, sat down in the shade to
"cool off" and to look about them.
" Look there, Duke ! " cried Huntley, pointing to a large
white building of Eastern aspect which showed itself through
the trees of the opposite shore, "that must be the place
they told us about at the hotel, the Maharajah of Johore's
palace, you know."
"And a grand place it is!" cried Wyvil; "if the inside's
as good as the outside, it ought to be worth seeing. I say,
wouldn't it be a lark to go across and pay the old swell a
morning call ? I dare say we could get a boat at the station-
house yonder. What do you say 1 Shall we try it?"
" I don't think we could very well do that," objected his
cooler comrade. "They say he's a very hospitable old
fellow, and I know plenty of people do go to see him, but
I believe you've got to arrange it all beforehand, and to
let him know just what time you're coming, so that he can
have all ready for you; it don't do to pop in upon him
happy-go-lucky. Perhaps when we come back here after
picking up my father we might go and call upon the
Maharajah in a body."
" Well," cried Marmaduke with a grin, " I shall do like
that Frenchman in Jules Verne's yarn of From Hie Earth to
the Moon, who, whenever they were puzzled what to do,
used always to sing out: 'Let us have breakfast'. I feel
as if I could do some, don't you?"
"Well," chuckled Alfred, "I agree with Mr. Thurraboy
that 'an Englishman's meal-time is whenever he can get
anything to eat'."
In fact, their six-o'clock meal had been a pretty light
one, and it was now between nine and ten, so they
opened their provision-bag and ate as only English school-
boys can.
112 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"I say," cried Wyvil, as the meal ended, "it's getting
jolly warm here. I vote we go in and have a swim."
" Hadn't we better hold on a bit 1 ? They say it's not good
to bathe directly after a meal."
" Oh, bother ! you'd never let a fellow do anything, with
all those objections of yours. I'm going in, anyhow."
Huntley yielded, and in a trice the two lads (who were
both excellent swimmers) were cleaving their way through
the clear, cool water with an intensity of enjoyment only to
be appreciated by those who have made trial for themselves
of tropical heat and dust.
"Look here, that channel's not much of a breadth after
all," cried Marmaduke suddenly, glancing across the strait,
which, with that fatal deceptiveness of distance so common
in the Eastern seas, appeared barely half its real breadth of
three-quarters of a mile. "I could swim across and back
as easy as look at it. Here goes ! "
And ere Alfred had time to remonstrate, his adventurous
chum skimmed away like a dolphin.
Huntley was not a little disturbed, for he had a better
eye for distances than his reckless comrade, and he saw at
once all the peril of the undertaking, even apart from the
worse danger of sharks. But it was now too late to inter-
fere, and he had to content himself with keeping well out
toward the mid-channel, in order to come at once to his
friend's assistance in case of any mishap.
Well was it, indeed, that he did so, for all at once he
heard a hoarse cry from Wyvil, and saw the latter stop
swimming and begin to struggle violently.
" Keep up ! I'm coming ! " hallooed Alfred, darting toward
him like an arrow.
Quick as he was, however, the struggling swimmer's head
disappeared under water ere Huntley could reach him,
though only to rise again instantly; but he was just sink-
ing a second time when Alfred clutched him by the hair
with one hand, while paddling strongly with the other.
A NEW WAY OF BEING PRESENTED AT COURT 113
Twice Huntley shouted for help with all his might, and
then turned toward the shore with his helpless burden, who
was luckily too much exhausted to cling to him, or even to
struggle.
But all other chances seemed against the brave lad in
this unequal match with death. He was several hundred
yards from the nearest point of land, burdened with a help-
less comrade, and himself sorely spent with the desperate
rush that he had made, and now, to his horror, he suddenly
perceived that the current was carrying him, not toward
the shore, but away from it, right out into the middle
channel !
Again he shouted with the full power of his voice, while
fighting his way against the fatal eddy with all the strength
of desperation. His cries had evidently been heard at the
police-station, where two or three men were hurriedly un-
mooring a boat; but it seemed only too probable that this
succour, distant as it was, would come too late to save him.
But just as he felt himself about to sink though he
never for an instant relaxed his hold of his powerless com-
panion a loud shout from behind made him turn his head.
Through the salt water that filled his smarting eyes he saw
dimly a huge gilded barge bearing down upon him a con-
fused vision of dark faces, bare arms, embroidered robes,
and painted oars hovered above him for a moment and
then everything seemed to swim before his eyes, a hollow
roaring sounded in his ears, the waters closed over his head,
and (as tenth-rate novelists say when they wish to be im-
pressive) "all was a blank".
(B5S3)
CHAPTER XII
A MALAY KING AT HOME
THE blank, however, was not so complete but that Alfred
had a vague consciousness of being seized and dragged
up out of the water by several strong hands; and when he
was able to open his eyes, and to collect his scattered senses
(which kept swimming some time longer than himself), he
found that he was lying, wrapped in a thick shawl, on the
deck of a nondescript-looking craft, something between an
overgrown gondola and a model of the Venetian doge's state
galley. Beside him, similarly shawled, lay Wyvil, still
unconscious; and a slim, good-looking young man in
European dress, but with unmistakably Asiatic features
was bending anxiously over them both.
"Well, how do you feel now?" asked the young Malay in
excellent English, assisting our hero to sit up. " None the
worse, I hope 1 ?"
"No, I think I'm all right, thank you," replied Huntley,
looking round him, and seeing to his relief that Wyvil was
beginning to stir likewise. "But where on earth are we?"
" On board of his highness's state barge," replied his new
friend.
"And who is his highness, then?" asked Alfred with a
puzzled air.
" The Maharajah of Johore," said the other with a slight
smile.
"The Maharajah of Johore!" echoed Huntley in dismay,
for indeed he might well be scandalized at the thought of
presenting himself before " a real live king " in the costume
of the Fighting Gladiator or the Apollo Belvidere. " Con-
in
A MALAY KING AT HOME 115
found it all, I can't go before him without a rag to my back!
What the dickens has become of our clothes?"
"Here they are, all right," answered the Malay, smiling
again, as two of the native crew came wading through the
shallow water with the missing " properties " in their arms,
the barge having run close inshore to enable them to do so.
Alfred resumed his long-lost clothes with marked satis-
faction, and then helped to dress Marmaduke, who had by
this time come to himself, and was beginning to understand
the situation.
Huntley had just had time to explain to him, in a few
whispered words, how they had both been saved, when the
barge ran alongside the landing-place of Johore Bharu
(New Johore), and the crowd of natives assembled there
drew back respectfully to make way for the stepping ashore
of a portly, dignified, elderly gentleman all in white but
for the short coloured sarong (skirt) worn by all Malays
whom Alfred rightly guessed to be the Maharajah himself.
The moment Wyvil caught sight of the prince, he went
straight up to him, and, holding out his hand with boyish
frankness, said unceremoniously:
" Thank you very much, Mr. Maharajah, for coming to
help us; it would have been a bad job for us if you
hadn't."
"From what I saw of the affair," answered "Mr.
Maharajah " in perfectly good English, grasping the offered
hand with a smile of quiet amusement, " you should thank
your friend rather than me; for you would have been
drowned if he had not held you up."
" But we should both have been drowned if your highness
had not kindly come to our assistance," said Huntley, whose
natural quickness had already begun to pick up the ways of
the East, " and I'm extremely sorry that we should have
given you so much trouble."
" No trouble at all," said the Maharajah courteously;
" on the contrary, I am very glad that I had the good
116 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
fortune to come up so opportunely. But now that you
have come so close to my house, you really must not go
away again without paying me a visit; my secretary will
show you the way. Abd'ul Rahman, will you take charge
of these gentlemen, and see that they have eyerything they
require. I must ask you to excuse me for the present,
gentlemen, as I have some business to attend to; but I
shall hope for the pleasure of your company at breakfast
later on."
And with a graceful Eastern bow the hospitable prince
turned away.
" Well," said Marmaduke, looking after him with a
school-boy grin, " I think the ' uncivilized East ' takes the
shine out of the civilized West in manners, anyhow ! Here
we come tumbling, without a rag to our backs, right into
the private boat of a man we've never seen before (and
a king into the bargain), and all he does is to invite us
to breakfast! It strikes me that if we'd played the same
game with some of these jolly old kings in Europe, they'd
have been much more likely to ask for the pleasure of our
company at the nearest prison !"
And then, leaving the Maharajah to confer with a small,
slight, keen-eyed man in English dress, who had just landed
from a tiny steam-launch no less a personage, in fact, than
a British commissioner, who had come to speak with him
on some public business our heroes moved away toward
the palace, escorted by the young Malay who had attended
them on the barge.
" Where did you learn English so well, Mr. Abd'ul-
Rahman?" asked Wyvil as they walked along. "I suppose
you've been in India."
"I've been in England," said the Malay quietly; "in
fact I was educated there, and that was where I learned to
play cricket."
" Oho! you can play cricket, can you?" cried Marmaduke
with sparkling eyes. " That's your style! When we come
A MALAY KING AT HOME 117
back this way we must get up a match, and have you in it.
I suppose, then, the Maharajah has been in England too?"
" Indeed he has he has been all over it, and likes it
very well."
"What is the Maharajah's name, by the bye?" asked
Huntley.
"Abu-Bekr" (Father of the Virgin), replied Abd'ul-
Rahman.
"Abu-Bekr!" echoed Alfred; "wasn't that the name of
your first caliph the one that came after the Prophet
himself, you know 1 !"
"Aha! you know our history, then?" said the Mussul-
man, visibly pleased to find a "Western unbeliever" so
well posted in the records of the faithful.
" We had to get it up at school, you know," answered
Huntley, with whom Washington Irving's Successors of
Mahomet had been quite a favourite study. "And, now
I think of it, your namesake was a famous man too the
Emir Abd'ul-Rahman (Servant of the Merciful), who invaded
France, and got licked by Charles Martel."
" Come, I say, Alf, what on earth's the good of remind-
ing him of that?" whispered Wyvil reprovingly, evidently
apprehensive of the young Moslem's feelings being hurt
by this allusion to the defeat inflicted on his co-religionists
only eleven hundred years before.
But just then their attention was seasonably diverted to
the scene around them, which was certainly well worth
looking at.
Beneath the shade of stately palms, and broad -leaved
tropical growths of every kind, they came up to a wide,
red-tiled stair, by which they ascended to the spacious
terrace that ran along the whole front of the palace. Thence
they reached a magnificent archway ("fit for one of the
gates of Troy", as Alfred justly remarked) in the ample
shade of which, between two huge Chinese vases filled with
choice exotics, stood three or four light cane chairs and a
118 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
small round table, showing that the possessor of this para-
dise fully appreciated that charming retreat, which must
indeed have been a delightful resting-place in the freshness
of some glorious summer morning, with the first rays of
sunrise streaming over the green leaves and gorgeous flowers
all around, or sparkling on the countless ripples of the blue
tropical sea.
As our heroes entered, half a dozen dusky Malay lackeys,
in dark blue braided with gold, came forward with a low
salaam to take charge of their sun-hats. Passing on into
a vast many-pillared hall (which subdued the burning sun-
shine into a rich purple twilight worthy of the Alhambra
itself), they ascended to the upper floor by a splendid marble
stair, half-way up which a strange sight indeed among the
portrait-hating followers of Mohammed was an excellent
full-length likeness of Mr. Gladstone.
The bed-room into which they were shown was neatly
furnished in the English style, and had a lofty, arched
entrance, admitting a free current of air both above and
below the swinging half -doors of light lattice-work that
closed it. The only unusual feature about it was the
presence of two narrow, spiral stairs, which seemed to go
right down through the middle of the floor.
" Well, Alf," said Wy vil, as they washed off the remains
of the salt water, and did their best to arrange their wet
and disordered hair, " how about the Arabian Nights now ?
Isn't this just like one of those yarns where a fellow loses
his way, and turns up in an enchanted palace, and has a
high old time there, just as if the whole place belonged to
him?"
" Only, if I recollect right, the adventure usually ended
with the hero being turned into a frog, or a cockroach, or
a costermonger's donkey, for seven years and I shouldn't
quite relish that sort of wind-up. I say, I wonder where
these two stairs lead down to?"
A MALAY KING AT HOME 119
"The best way to find out is to go and see," quoth
Marmaduke coolly, suiting the action to the word. " What
a lark if we were to find a treasure-vault jam-full of dia-
monds, or a ' loathsome dungeon ' containing a select party
of skeletons, neatly fitted up with 'blood-rusted fetters'!"
" Or somebody walled up in a niche, like what's-her-name
in Marmion."
" Or a thumping big helmet with a lot of black feathers
on it, like that old thing in The Castle of Otranto"
" Or an old boy in rusty armour, with his own head
tucked neatly under his arm like an opera-hat or anything
else in a small way! Whichever you please, my little dears;
you pays your money, and you takes your choice!"
But none of these romantic visions were realized; for the
mysterious stairs led only to a couple of bath-rooms on the
floor beneath.
" Well," said Marmaduke, " I think the bath we've just
had is about enough for one morning; I don't feel like
wanting any more just now. After all, though, this job has
been worth twice the drowning, if only for the fun of it!"
" I would not have thought so at the time, though," said
Alfred gravely ; " for, upon my word, I thought once that
it was all up with us both!"
" Well, old fellow," cried Wyvil, clapping him on the
shoulder, " you know it's not my style to strike attitudes or
make a big fuss, but I sha'n't forget that you saved my life,
and nearly got drowned yourself in doing it!"
" Yes, it was a close shave," admitted Huntley. " It
would have been a blue look-out for us if our friend the
Maharajah hadn't turned up when he did. But come, let's
be going downstairs; it won't do to keep the old swell
waiting for breakfast."
" Or to keep ourselves waiting either," chuckled Wyvil.
" I don't know if drowning generally gives one an appetite,
but I feel as if I'd eaten nothing for a week ! "
They found breakfast laid in the pillared hall below, the
120 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
party consisting of the Maharajah, the English commis-
sioner, Abd'ul-Rahman, and themselves; and now, for the
first time, they were able to take a good view of their royal
host.
The Maharajah Abu - Bekr was already advanced in
years, but his stately figure had hitherto remained unspoiled
by that tendency to " flesh " so unfortunately general among
Eastern potentates. The appearance of age given to him
by his long white moustache, and by the snowy hair that
escaped from beneath the round, flat -topped cap which
covered his head, was amply belied by the firm lines of his
swarthy face, regular and massive as a bronze statue; and,
altogether, he looked the very model -of a civilized Mo-
hammedan prince of the nineteenth., century, -]or was the
background unworthy of this splendid central figure, to
which the graceful pillars of the great hall, its tessellated
pavement of black-and-white marble, and the tall, blue-
frocked, crimson-turbaned Malay soldier, who was pacing
up and down with shouldered musket at the far end of the
room, formed very appropriate accessories.
To the great satisfaction of the boys, the prince talked
freely enough about his travels, the extent and variety of
which amazed our heroes, who had not themselves seen one
in twenty of the places he described.
" I think of going to America next," said he. " It will
be a change after Japan (which was my last tour), and
there must be a great deal to see in New York. I liked
England very well, only the large towns are so terribly
smoky. Do you know what one of my people said the
first time he saw Liverpool? He pointed to the masts
standing up all along the river, and said they looked like
dead trees left standing in a burned jungle; and when we
got to Manchester, and he saw the tall factory chimneys,
they reminded him of cocoa-palms with the tops cut off."
"He wasn't far wrong either," put in the commissioner
with a chuckle.
A MALAY KING AT HOME 121
* I was very well pleased with London, though, and
with Edinburgh too," resumed the Maharajah; "and I was
lucky enough to meet Mr. Gladstone and several more of
your leading men, who were all very kind to me. Mr.
Gladstone told me I ought to go and see Australia, and
I hope to do so one of these days after I come back from
America."
Breakfast over, the commissioner took his leave, and the
Maharajah withdrew, after again amazing our heroes by
politely enquiring "at what time it would suit them to
have lunch ", just as if the palace belonged to them instead
of to himself. The indefatigable Abd'ul-Rahman, thus left
once more in charge of the pair, at once marched them oft
on a tour of inspection/through the palace.
First came 1 the great "drawing-room, the magnificent size
of which was an >apt symbol of its owner's hospitality. Its
walls were hung with admirable portraits of the present
royal family of England, supplemented by the hatchet face
and long curled wig of James II, the hooked nose, massive
forehead, and keen grey eye of his son-in-law and successor,
William III, and the broad, heavy features of that royal
glutton whom his enemies justly styled " Gorge the First ".
The profusion of ornaments in this marvellous room was
as striking as their perfect taste. Tall, slender, convol-
vulus-shaped glasses of rich purple, as high as a full-grown
man, springing up from white marble slabs; dainty little
French chairs and tables, that might have served Louis XV;
soft Eastern carpets, on which the heaviest tread would
sink as noiselessly as a shadow; marble statuettes worthy
of the drawing-room in which the Due de Richelieu received
Count Cagliostro; specimens of Satsuma ware, from Japan,
such as would make a china-fancier's mouth water; and
a Collard piano, which, though somewhat marred by long
disuse, was still able to fill the whole room with its tones.
The farther side of the room was shut off by a row of
closed doors from the apartments of " her highness the
122 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Maharanee ", the prince having (unlike most Oriental
sovereigns) only one wife. But though this part of the
palace was forbidden ground, there was nothing to prevent
the boys exploring the opposite wing; and thither they
went accordingly, encountering fresh marvels at every
step.
In one room they came upon a beautiful ebony cabinet,
inlaid with small squares of superb porcelain, each of which
represented a different kind of ware. Beside it stood an
excellent photograph of the Maharajah himself, in a neat
wooden frame; and a little farther on they found a sou-
venir of his highness's recent visit to Japan, in a row of
enormous porcelain vases, so like the monster oil-jars in
which the captain of the "Forty Thieves" concealed his
murderous gang that it was easy to imagine a grim, black-
bearded visage peering cautiously out of the nearest vase,
and whispering: "Is it time?"
Then their untiring guide led them forth into the palace
garden, which seemed to hang upon the side of a steep
ridge just above the house itself. On the left stood a
smaller building with a line of pillars, formerly used by
the Maharajah as an audience-hall. On the right a broad
carriage - drive curved downward to the little town of
Johore, and behind them glittered in the sun the great
staircase of the palace, with its polished balustrades and
marble steps surmounted by the monogram M.J. (Maha-
rajah of Johore) wrought in coloured stones.
The garden itself, with its splendid tropical plants and
flowers, its picturesque ascents and descents, its trim little
band-stand on the summit of the ridge, and the magnificent
height and breadth of its trees, formed as perfect a picture
as could well be imagined; and Abd'ul-Rahman did not fail
to point out to them, just beyond, a small but extremely
well-kept plantation, in which had been grown (so he told
them) the very tea that had regaled them at breakfast.
But iust then UD came a richly-dressed native lackey to
A MALAY KING AT HOME 123
call them to lunch, which they found laid in a spacious
front room on the ground-floor, the two vast open windows
of which, looking down upon the garden and the sea below
it, disclosed a panorama of gorgeous flowers and dazzling
sunshine worthy of a fairy tale.
The Maharajah listened very good-naturedly to their
eager account of what they had seen, and answered their
praises of his china by telling them that he had a far finer
collection in his brother's palace at Tyersall, on the Singa-
pore side, which he had just connected with his own house
by a telephone !
"What! have yoa got a telephone too? Why, you seem
to have everything!" cried Wyvil, letting his admiration
somewhat outrun his politeness.
The prince smiled pleasantly, and offered them some
wine for although, as an orthodox Mussulman, he never
touched it himself, he always had it on the table for his
European guests, and when the boys declined (for both
were staunch water-drinkers, as all healthy boys should be)
he said, with a good-humoured laugh, that they seemed to
be in some points quite as good Moslems as himself.
" When I was in Scotland," said he, " a waiter at one of
the hotels looked so unhappy on hearing that I never
touched any kind of liquor, that I had to comfort him
by telling him to charge it upon something else. By the
bye, there's one thing that I had almost forgotten. If you
should go across to Sumatra while you are here, I can give
you a letter to a friend of mine there, the Rajah of Medan,
who will, I am sure, make you very welcome if you like to
visit him. And now let me ask how you intend to go home
this evening?"
" Walk," replied Wyvil, as coolly as if a tramp of over
fourteen miles along a dusty road, beneath the scorching
sun of the Equator were hardly worth mentioning.
" You English are always full of energy," said his high-
ness, smiling. "But that will take you three hours at
124 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
least, and perhaps more; so I think it will save you some
time if you will allow me to send you home by water in
that little steam-launch of mine, which is lying down
yonder at the landing.
" While she is getting her steam up, I shall have time to
get ready that letter which I promised you ; and if you care
to have a drive round the town in the meantime, Abd'ul-
Rahman will go with you and show you all there is to see."
In a trice a handsome carriage was standing ready for
them at the foot of the slope for in this wonderful place
everything seemed to be done as quickly as if the hospitable
Maharajah had possessed Aladdin's lamp and away they
went down the one long straggling street of Johore, which,
like every other town in those parts, appeared to be literally
swarming with Chinese.
Here, too, the boys found plenty to look at, for, apart
from the picturesque medley of Malays, Chinamen, Hindoos,
Burmans, and Siamese, the curious mingling of East and
West in the aspect of the town itself was sufficiently strik-
ing. A pretty little mosque stood side by side with a low,
whitewashed, red-tiled building which the buzz of voices
through its open windows proclaimed to be the village
school. A graceful cluster of tall palm-trees overshadowed
a smart red-brick "medical dispensary" of genuinely Eng-
lish appearance, and from the midst of a group of Malay
hovels, thatched with dried grass, peeped forth a trim little
white cottage, bearing on its low front, in neatly-painted
black letters, the magic words " POST-OFFICE ".
"Did the Maharajah really do all this himself?" asked
Marmaduke.
"Indeed he did," replied Abd'ul-Eahman ; "and every
bit of it at his own expense."
"Well, he must be a brick!" cried Wyvil; and Huntley
cordially assente/i.
Then Abd'ul-Rahman proceeded to tell them about the
visits of General Grant, and the Duke of Edinburgh, to
A MALAY KING AT HOME 125
Johore, after the latter of whom the landing-place itself
was named; and, just as the story ended, they came down
to the landing, and found all ready for their departure.
Taking a cordial leave of their friendly guide, and
charging him with their best thanks to the Maharajah,
the two boys went aboard the steam-launch, over which
his highness's private ensign fluttered jauntily. Away
flew the brisk little craft like a sea-bird, and, less than
an hour later, our heroes were safely landed in the "Euro-
pean quarter" at Singapore, very well satisfied with their
day's work.
CHAPTER XIII
THE DEADLY CALM
AH, this is something like ! What a treat it is to feel a
regular sea-breeze again, after that sweltering atmos-
phere on shore! People may say what they like about
' the glories of cloudless tropical skies ', but they forget the
miseries of airless tropical nights. I agree with the Yankee
captain : ' I guess, if all thein tropics are like the two that
I've seen, I don't want any more of 'em!' "
So spoke Lord Heathermoor, expanding his broad chest
in a long breath of enjoyment, as he stood upon the Sultana's
deck at sunrise on the morning after their departure from
Singapore, having left his yacht behind for repairs, under
the charge of her trusty first officer, Mr. Walters.
"Why, what's set you against the tropics so, Daddy 1"
cried Wyvil. " They're a jolly place enough, so far as we've
seen them!"
"Ah, my dear fellow, you haven't half seen them yet!"
struck in Mr. Thurraboy. "You'll know more about them
when you wake up from your night's rest (!) with an arm
like raw beef from ' prickly heat ', and a face so disfigured
with mosquito-bites that your own shadow wouldn't know
you, to shake a scorpion out of one boot and a poisonous
snake out of the other, unearth half a dozen cockroaches as
big as young lobsters from among your clothes, and then
find a bandicoot-rat breakfasting upon your two-dollar
photographs, and a swarm of white-ants making copious
extracts from your last batch of new books!"
"True enough; and I'm much mistaken, boys, if this
very trip don't give you such a taste of the tropics as you
126
THE DEADLY CALM 127
haven't bargained for," said Heathermoor, little thinking
how terribly prophetic those words were to be.
For a time, however, the much-abused tropics seemed
determined to give no cause for fault-finding. The fair
wind that had followed them from Singapore kept with
them all that day and all the next; and, having crossed
the Equator (on which occasion Mr. Thurraboy revived
the good old joke of stretching a hair across the telescope,
and showing Wyvil the Line), they ran gallantly down the
coast of Sumatra, and stood ihto the Sunda Strait just as
the sun was beginning to sink^ on the third evening.
" Hollo! there's Mount Cockatoo lightin' another cigar!"
cried Captain Earshot, as a 'light breath of bluish -white
smoke was seen to hover above the gloomy crest of Kra-
katoa, the huge dark pyranafcl of which now rose gauntly
up from the smooth, sunlit sea right ahead of them. " He's
been a-playin' that game pretty often of late."
"Has he indeed?" exclaimed Mr. Thurraboy quickly.
"What's the reason of that?"
"Oh, I don't know it's no consarn o' mine!" replied
Captain Earshot, who was a worthy representative of that
large class of people who never take the trouble to under-
stand or enquire into anything lying one inch beyond their
own regular beat. " Every time I've come this way of late,
he's been a-puffin' away like that that's all I know about
it!" And the worthy captain uttered the last words in a
tone which suggested that what he did not know about it
could not be worth knowing at all.
"Heathermoor," whispered the author, with ominous
significance, " do you remember that grim sunset that we
saw off the coast of Ceylon?"
"What?" cried Lord Heathermoor with a slight start,
"do you think "
"I think," rejoined the author emphatically, "that the
sooner we're away from here the better!"
Meanwhile the two lads who had heard nothing of this
128 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
ominous by-play were enjoying the beautiful panorama
of the famous strait, and admiring the pretty little Dutch
towns, which, bathed in all the splendour of a tropical sun-
set, sentinelled the passage on either hand Teluk Betong
on the Sumatra side, and Anjer upon the Java shore.
"Aren't they pretty?" cried Wyvil; "I should like
nothing better than to have a day or two here. If we
come back this way, we must try and get the captain to
let us go ashore."
Poor lads! no foreboding came to warn them that they
would never see that fair scene again, and that, less than
four months later, old seamen who knew that strait by
heart would grope their way* through it in bewilderment,
without seeing one familiar feature amid the league-broad
chaos of ruin left by the adrful catastrophe which had
blotted from the earth those doomed towns and their ill-
fated inhabitants.
It was almost dark when they glided past the base of
Mount Krakatoa, planted like a fort in the midst of the
narrowing channel, and the keen-eyed Thurraboy, as he
looked up at that vast black pyramid, fancied (was it only
fancy?) that he could see a pale, ghostly glow playing
around its shadowy summit. But the light, if it really was
there, was so faint that he could hardly be sure whether he
actually saw it or not.
By sunrise next morning they were well out of the strait
into the open sea, and the sinister omens that had haunted
their passage through it were almost forgotten.
But, prosperous as this new voyage had been hitherto,
our travellers found it anything but a pleasant one. Even
for the seasoned Heathermoor and his equally hardened
guest their present quarters were a woeful change from the
clean and well-kept little yacht. The Sultana, like most of
her class, was dirty to a degree, and literally creeping with
cockroaches, which came out in such swarms after dark
THE DEADLY CALM 129
that, as Wyvil truly said, " you couldn't walk across the
cabin at night without hearing 'em go scrunch at every
step, just as if you were treading on eggs."
The berths were scrupulously uncomfortable, and the
stifling closeness of the atmosphere was splendidly height-
ened by the fact that a large part of the cargo consisted of
ghee, a peculiarly atrocious kind of "cooking-butter", which,
though seemingly a priceless essential in every native kitchen
from Borneo to Bombay, would suffice to knock down any
ordinary European with the mere smell of it. On first
making its acquaintance, Wyvil parodied the carter's cry by
calling out " Ghee woe!" And Huntley kept him in coun
tenance by remarking that he quite understood now why
the Hindoostanee word for " take care " was " butter-'em ".
The Sultana's bill of fare was such that our heroes ceased
to wonder why a sailor's worst term of insult should be
"son of a sea-cook"; and Captain Barshot, who had been
recommended to them as a "rough diamond ", proved to be
such a very rough one that the hot-blooded Heathermoor
required all his self-command to keep him from an open
quarrel. In fact, the master of the Sultana seemed to pride
himself on thinking solely of his own personal interest, or,
as he phrased it, "going in for what pays", and on being
as insensible as a hog to everything beyond that limit.
" What on earth's the use," he would growl, with a
deeper flush on his broad, heavy face, which combined the
hues of a tropical sunrise with those of a raw beef-steak
" what on earth's the use, I say, of bothering one's head
about what people used to do three or four thousand years
ago 1 ? It's what people are doing now that one wants to
know. I don't eat my dinner a bit better after somebody's
told me that this stone was stuck up by Pharaoh, or Julius
Caesar, and that that 'un was knocked down by Nebuchad-
nezzar. I'd a deal sooner have you tell me if I'll get any
cargo at Singapore or Bombay. Talking of Nebuchadnezzar,
why ever do folks go making all this fuss about Nineveh
(B533) I
130 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
and Babylon? I wouldn't give a rotten rope-yarn to see
the pair of 'em this minute! Why, when all's said and
done, I'll be bound Babylon wasn't anything like as big as
London, and hadn't as many people in it neither!"
"But in point of architecture, perhaps " Thurraboy
was beginning, when the unAremonious captain indignantly
cut him short.
"Architecture indeed! architecture be blowed! Does
anybody want to stick up such buildings as them nowadays 1
Why, o' course not! Well, then, what the dickens is the
good of goin' and starin' at them for nothing? I'll tell you
what; I'm just sick and tired of the row that people make
about foreign places that's wfyat I am ! They go and read
a pack o' nonsense that's Jjgen written about them parts by
other fools like themselves, and then go out there and work
themselves up to believejt all, and come home and go on
about it till they drive everybody stark mad. The only
description I ever read of those rubbishing old places that
was worth twopence was that book of Mark Twain's, The
Innocents Abroad."
"Yes, I can easily believe that that sort of description
would just suit you, Captain," said Lord Heathermoor
with a sarcasm so delicate that it was wholly lost upon the
bull-hided captain, though the two boys fully appreciated
it, and inwardly chuckled.
"There's Jerusalem now," pursued this self-appointed
lecturer, with a more uncompromising emphasis than ever;
"the row that people keep on making over that place,
calling it ' a sacred spot ', ' a home of the past ', and all that
sort o' rubbish why, it's downright disgusting, that's what
it is! I'll tell you just what I call it a dirty hole!"
And here the honest skipper, warmed by his own
eloquence, paused to nod his huge shaggy head in approval
of this concluding definition, which he evidently considered
to have summed up the matter very neatly indeed.
"Well done, Captain! I had really no idea that you
THE DEADLY CALM 131
possessed such a talent for description," said Mr. Thurraboy
with perfect gravity. "Upon my word, you ought to
write a book yourself, and save us poor travellers the
trouble of going abroad at all, by proving to us conclusively
that there is nothing worth seeing upon the face of the
earth except warehouses, slfipping-offices, and cargo-boats,
and that anyone who may be fool enough to waste his time
upon such trash as art, science, or history is unworthy to
call himself an Englishman ! "
Heathermoor gallantly choked down a laugh, and the
worthy captain, whose narrow intellect could never take in
the possibility of anyone presuming to chaff him, looked
somewhat puzzled, and relapsed into silence.
Well would it have been had this been the worst, but
Captain Earshot's obstinate and arrogant self-confidence
was fated to work far deeper harm in another way.
Ere he had been twenty-four hours aboard the Sultana,
Lord Heathermoor had discovered, to his no small dismay
(for he had taken for granted that any vessel would be
well-armed and equipped when bound on a cruise through
an endless maze of islands swarming with fierce and treacher-
ous savages), that there was not a single cannon or musket
in the whole ship.
" This is what comes of taking things on trust," said he
bitterly to Thurraboy. "If I had only had the sense to
find this out before we sailed, I could have brought my
three rifles and my revolver along with me; it would have
been always better than nothing. But who could have
thought that any man could be such a suicidal fool? and in
the Malay Archipelago too, where, as everyone knows, you
may make twenty-nine voyages without a sign of danger,
and then be robbed and murdered on the thirtieth ! "
His friend was quite as much disturbed by this discovery
as himself, and they lost no time in broaching the subject
to the captain, who received their remonstrances with his
usual politeness.
132 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"Guns be hanged! what should we want with them?
I've sailed these seas in this here craft these ten years and
more, and I've never had no bother that a belaying-pin or a
capstan-bar couldn't settle d'rectly. We used to carry three
or four carronades at first, but we never needed 'em, and all
they did was just to lumber up the deck when I wanted
more storage-room for cargo; so I just got rid of the lot. I
ain't afraid of these niggers I don't know if you are!"
Lord Heathermoor's eyes shot fire, and he made one
stride forward, with a look so ominous that Thurraboy
clutched him hastily by the arm, and whispered:
"Leave him to me; whatever's the use of quarrelling
with a fellow like that?"
Then, turning to Earshot, the author said as courteously
as ever: "We never thought of supposing that you were
afraid, Captain, I assure you; but still, there's no harm in
being on the safe side, and if I were in your place, I
think I should lay in a few muskets at the first Dutch
port we touch at just in case of need, you know."
An angry glow deepened the skipper's raw-beef com-
plexion, and, facing sharp round upon them, he said, in a
voice that might have matched the growl of a bear over-
looked by its keeper at feeding-time:
"Look ye here, gentlemen both; I'm the master of this
here craft, and I don't need nobody to teach me my business.
You've took your passage aboard o' me for Pulo Bintang,
and I'm a-goin' to carry you there; but as for h'offering me
advice what to do on the way why, thank ye kindly, but
when I want it, I can ask for it ! " And away strutted the
offended autocrat, ruffling up like an enraged turkey-cock.
" Nothing to be done there," said Thurraboy, shrugging
his shoulders. "As my late friends the Somaulis used to
be always saying, 'it's our destiny, and who can avert it?'"
From that time forth, however, a nameless foreboding
of evil weighed down the two brave men like a nightmare,
and lay doubly heavy upon Heathermoor, to whose anxiety
THE DEADLY CALM 133
about the fate of his old friend, Colonel Huntley, was now
superadded a far more pressing apprehension for the lives
of himself and his whole party. Strive as they might to
hide their secret fears, both men grew more silent and
thoughtful day by day, till even the careless and light-
hearted boys noticed and wondered at the change.
It was the eighth day of the voyage, and on the morrow,
if all went well, they might hope to sight Pulo Bintang
(Star Island), where they expected to find either Colonel
Huntley himself or some news of him. This was no small
satisfaction to all four of the passengers, for, to crown their
other discomforts, the weather was now becoming oppres-
sively sultry, and the heat, cockroaches, and rancid-butter
perfume of the cabin had fairly driven them to sleep on
deck, and, in fact, to remain there altogether, never going
below except to meals.
That day happened to be more than usually hot, and a
little after noon the whole four, sitting on deck in the shade,
fairly dozed off to sleep.
But even in their slumber they were vaguely conscious
of a sudden ceasing of the motion that had lulled them to
sleep, and a marked increase in the heavy closeness of the
air. One and all began to be restless, and at length
Heathermoor, whose adventurous life had made him a
habitually light sleeper, awoke with a start.
The vessel was lying perfectly motionless on the
water !
Could she have run aground, or was she becalmed
which was almost as bad in those perilous waters! He
sprang to his feet and looked keenly around him. One
glance told him the whole story. Far as the eye could
reach, not a ripple stirred the lifeless surface of the glassy
sea, upon which the Sultana lay
" As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean ".
134 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
The favouring breeze, which had been falling ever since
sunrise, had now died away altogether, and all was dead
calm. This of itself would have been bad enough; but this
was not the worst. They were barely half a mile from the
shore of a small, low, thickly-wooded islet, on either side of
which two smaller ones lay at short distances from each
other, the whole five forming a large crescent which seemed
to extend itself on either side of the doomed vessel, as if to
enclose and cut her off.
Heathermoor's face changed visibly as he swept with his
spy-glass the far-extending chain of islands. It was plain
that he knew them and that, too, in no pleasant way. In
fact, any veteran of these seas would have recognized them
at a glance as one of those wild spots still unappropriated
by Holland or Britain, where the lawlessness of the fierce
island pirates was still unrestrained, and where, if report
spoke truly, more than one ill-fated crew had escaped the
fury of wind and wave only to be destroyed by the more
merciless ferocity of man.
Just then Captain Earshot, who had also been roused
from a mid-day nap, came tramping along the deck and
halted beside him. For some days past not a word had
been exchanged between the skipper and his passengers
beyond what was absolutely necessary ; and this uncomfort-
able state of things secretly galled our honest captain, who,
with all his roughness, was by no means so black as many
people painted him. Dimly conscious that he might per-
haps have been, as he would have phrased it, "a trifle too
sharp with 'em", and sincerely anxious, in his own clumsy
way, to re-establish friendly relations with his two famous
guests, he now thought he saw an opening to do so.
"Are you expecting letters from the shore, that you
keep a-lookin' at it so hard?" he called out to Lord Heather-
moor, with a would-be knowing laugh.
" No," said Heathermoor, turning upon him and looking
him full in the face, "I am expecting murderers from it!"
CHAPTER XIV
A BEWITCHED VESSEL
QTUBBORN and unimpressionable as he was, Earshot
kJ was visibly startled, not so much by the ominous
words themselves, as the tone and look with which they
were spoken.
"Murderers! what d'ye mean?" cried he, with a very
unsuccessful assumption of his wonted confidence.
"I mean just what I say, as you'll see before long,"
replied Heathermoor in a tone of bitterness very unusual
with him. "You would have your own way, and you've
had it; and now that you've destroyed us all, and your-
self too, I hope you're satisfied!"
And, turning abruptly away, he began to speak in a low
voice to Mr. Thurraboy, who had just come up.
At any other time these hard words would have been
more than enough to make the gruff seaman furiously
angry, but now his rising rage was chilled by a secret and
terrible foreboding, growing stronger every moment, that
this prophet of evil was right.
For now came crowding upon his memory, with un-
welcome distinctness, all the many tales he had heard of
becalmed crews, which, entangled in this fatal labyrinth of
islets, had been attacked, plundered, and then slaughtered
to the last man; and these stories at which he had so
often laughed scornfully when safe ashore did not seem
half so improbable now.
True, no living thing had yet shown itself upon the
shore of the nearest island, which lay as voiceless and life-
less as if utterly deserted; but who could tell what might
136
136 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
be lurking behind that impenetrable mass of green leaves,
which hid everything right down to the border of the
narrow streak of firm white sand that fringed the water's
edge ? And if the Malays did fall upon them in earnest
what then?
Earshot's whole ship's company, including himself and
his officers, numbered only sixteen men eighteen with the
two elder passengers, and these eighteen were to face,
with no weapons save knives, hatchets, capstan-bars, and
belaying-pins, scores, or perhaps even hundreds, of ferocious
savages, a good many of whom would certainly have fire-
arms, while every man of the rest would be armed with
the long spear and deadly dagger which he had handled
from his childhood.
To scale the Sultana's low sides upon each other's
shoulders would be child's play for men as supple and
agile as the monkeys of their native forests; and though
the first who tried it would be met in true English style,
yet when the odds were eight or ten to one, it was not
hard to guess how the struggle must end. Into what a
dilemma had he brought himself by his own headstrong self-
confidence !
" Well, perhaps they mayn't come after all," he muttered
in a tone of dejection that plainly showed how little faith
he himself had in this would-be encouraging suggestion.
Hardly had he spoken, when, looking toward the shore
again, he beheld a light native boat, with half a dozen men
in her, coming creeping out from behind a low, thickly-
wooded point which broke the curve of the bay not far
from its western extremity, evidently flanking the mouth
of an inlet or small river.
At that very moment as if to increase the horror of the
situation, which certainly needed no heightening the gay
voice of Marmaduke Wyvil (who had been gazing admir-
ingly at the fatal island) was heard to say with a gleeful
laugh :
A BEWITCHED VESSEL 137
"That's the sort of place to go for the Midsummer holi-
days eh, Alf 1 If I had been Robinson Crusoe, that's just
the island I'd have chosen to be chucked ashore on!"
" And when he was there," added Huntley, who, having
just awoke from his nap, had not yet noticed the gloomy
looks of his companions, " he'd have had plenty of society,
for here are a whole lot of aboriginal Sambos coming off
in a boat!"
"So they are!" cried Wyvil, "and coming to trade, of
course hurrah! I say, Alf, let's offer 'em our pocket-
knives for some native curios; I've heard they're awfully
fond of anything in the way of iron or steel!"
And, springing to the bulwarks, he waved his hand to
the distant boat, and shouted, in English modified after the
unimpeachable standard of Kobinson Crusoe:
"Hollo, Johnny! you makee boatee come dis way me
habbee someting for show you!"
" Mari do-sini, orang lekassJ" (Come here, man quick!)
hallooed Alfred, in such Malay as he could muster.
But neither the English salutation nor the Malay one
seemed to have any effect upon the unsociable islanders,
who, after hovering about in the offing for some time in a
purposeless kind of way (probably in order to watch the
English ship, and see what she was going to do), turned and
darted away across the slumbering sea toward the nearest
of the smaller islets.
"Don't like that!" growled the captain with a meaning
shake of his head.
And a few moments later he saw something else that he
liked still less.
Through his telescope (which was an unusually powerful
one) Earshot had made out that, close to the wooded point
from behind which the Malay boat had issued, the great
veil of clustering leaves that seemed to hide the whole
island was somewhat thinner than elsewhere; and he now
remarked that there flickered over this spot ever and anon,
138 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
through the tangled boughs, a keen, bright glitter unmis-
takably the glitter of steel. The destroyers were gathering
to the slaughter, and the brave man's heart sank as he gazed.
Then suddenly he faced round as if with a violent effort,
and, going hurriedly up to Mr. Thurraboy, held out his
hand, and said hastily:
"Look here, sir; you was right, and I was wrong. I've
been a precious fool, and that's all about it; but if we're all
a-goin' to git our throats cut, that's surely enough without
havin' hard words among ourselves into the bargain!"
"I quite agree with you, Captain," replied Thurraboy,
grasping the proffered hand heartily. "Let bygones be
bygones, and let us try to think how we can escape now!"
"Hullo!" laughed Wyvil at that instant, "the niggers
have all cut and run ! I suppose it was your bad grammar,
Alf, that frightened 'em away ! "
"This is no laughing matter, Duke," said his father
gravely. " I don't want to scare you, but you may as well
know now as later on. We're going to be attacked, my boy."
"Attacked!" echoed Wyvil with a somewhat startled
look; "why, we haven't done anything to them! But
surely they'd never have the cheek to try and board us ? or,
if they did, a few bullets would soon send them flying."
"We haven't a single gun on board," said Heathennoor
in his ear. "But, weapons or no weapons, we must just
fight it out to the bitter end; for if these fellows get the
best of it, they'll murder every man of us!"
In the midst of the gloomy silence that followed this
cheering announcement the cabin-boy's shrill voice was
suddenly heard:
"Dinner's ready, please sir!"
The effect of this prosaic summons, addressed to the
doomed men in the crisis of that black tragedy, with their
lives swaying in the balance and the shadow of death
deepening over them all, was so unspeakably absurd that
Heathermoor and his comrade laughed in spite of them-
A BEWITCHED VESSEL 139
selves. But the captain only looked doubly stern, and
answered grimly:
" I don't leave this deck till this job's over, one way or
another. Bring us up something here, Tom, and look
sharp ! "
The meal, however, was a miserable pretence on the part
of everyone but Thurraboy, who seemed to play as good a
knife and fork as ever, and again and again one or other of
the doomed band stood up to strain his weary eyes over
the smooth, bright, merciless sea, in the faint hope of espy-
ing some token of the welcome breeze whose coming was
apparently the only thing that could save them now. But
there was no wind, nor any sign of it.
Turning impatiently from the untasted food, Earshot
cried to the first mate :
"Mr. Reed, call the men aft!"
The men came a scanty band, rough, ragged, and
almost slovenly in appearance, but with a look of stubborn
English hardihood on their weather-beaten faces which
showed that they could be depended on to the very last.
"My lads," said the captain, pointing to three large
boats filled with Malays, which were seen just then coming
off from the smaller islands, " those fellows yonder mean to
attack us, and I expect their game will be to hang about
till they see whether we carry guns, or have many hands
on board, and then make a dash at us all of a sudden; so
you had better scatter yourselves about the deck, and make
as big a show as you can, to look as if there were more of
you than there are. When they do come on, we must
fight it out to the last, for they'll show us no mercy!"
He spoke very quietly, but, at the last words, Huntley
and Wyvil, who stood near him, saw his face harden
suddenly, and his hands clench themselves till the muscles
stood out like cords; and they now began to realize, for
the first time, the full magnitude of the peril.
It is always difficult for any man to tell beforehand what
140 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
his feelings are likely to be on his first encounter with
imminent danger and death. The uppermost sensation
in the minds of our two heroes, as they watched the
approaching savages, was a feeling of absolute rage a
kind of angry disgust at the thought that these wretched
scarecrows should dare to molest Englishmen at all. The
Malays were now near enough to be plainly visible, and
their gaunt, ill -shaped figures, their lean, dark faces and
grinning teeth, their uncouth gestures, and their discordant
cries were all inexpressibly revolting.
But, as the captain had foretold, the savages made no
attempt to come alongside, and contented themselves with
circling round the Sultana at a respectful distance, making
a pretence of fishing, which, however, wholly failed to
impose upon the wary Englishmen.
"Fishing!" growled the veteran first mate, eyeing them
grimly; "fine fishing, indeed! That's all very nice and
innocent, but I know enough o' them niggers to be sartain
that they don't come out twelve or fifteen in a boat just to
fish. And then, too, Mr. Thurraboy, d'ye see that every
man-Jack of 'em has got a bit o' mattin' round his neck?
If there ain't a dagger under every one of them mats, I'll
eat my head!"
Meanwhile the crew had followed out Earshot's orders
by showing themselves at different points of the deck in
such a way as to make their number appear much greater
than it really was, and by skilfully rigging several
"dummies", which conveyed to the watching savages an
impression of other men standing behind deck-houses or
leaning against the masts. Altogether, what with these
figures, and what with the eighteen men and three boys
who were actually on board, the Malays felt convinced
that they had upward of thirty Europeans to deal with;
and this being at least twice as much as they had expected
(for most of the local merchantmen were lightly manned),
they seemed inclined to defer their attack till night, espe-
A BEWITCHED VESSEL 141
cially as they could not be quite sure that the vessel might
not have one or two guns on board, though none were to
be seen along her sides.
"It's my belief," said the captain, who was watching
them keenly, " that they won't try it now till after dark."
" It's mine too," said Lord Heathermoor, forcing a laugh,
" and as it's only half-past three yet, and it won't be quite
dark till half -past seven, we have just four hours to live."
This respite, however, so far from bringing any relief
to the forlorn band, only intensified the horror of their
impending doom. Now that there was nothing to do but
to sit idly awaiting their inevitable fate, the horrible sus-
pense of this weary watching for death was so fearful a
strain upon their already overtasked nerves that the coming
of death itself would have been mercy to it. Many a time
during the slow, weary, endless hours of that terrible after-
noon, as they sat looking up at the clear bright sky that
seemed to mock their misery, and watching in vain for any
sign of the long-prayed-for breeze which was their only
hope of life, did Heathermoor bitterly realize the tre-
mendous truth of those few graphic words in which an
English soldier had once described to him the last assault
at Sebastopol:
" The worst part o' the whole job, to my mind, was the
last five minutes afore it begun; and I tell you, sir, when I
heerd the word given to go for'ard, 'twas just as if some-
body had rolled a big stone right off my heart ! "
And all this while the sun was shining gloriously in a
cloudless sky, and the tiny ripples along the beach danced
and sparkled in the golden light, and the green leaves
seemed to hover dreamily on the warm, slumbrous air, and
beyond them the infinite sea lay sleeping as if no storm
had ever ruffled it, and all was calm and beautiful and
bright. But in the very midst of all this peace and still-
ness and beauty the carnival of murder was just about to
142 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
begin, and from behind the wooded point that lay abeam
(evidently masking some large native village) came a
ceaseless din of hoarse shouts and barbaric music, show-
ing that the murderers were on the alert and eager for
the slaughter.
More boats had come over from the adjacent islets, and
vanished one by one behind the trees of the fatal promon-
tory; but two of them were still hovering about in the
offing, as if to watch the movements of the English.
"Is there nothing that we can do to help ourselves?"
cried Heathermoor vehemently. " It won't do for English-
men to let themselves be butchered like sheep!"
"We won't do that!" growled the captain with grim sig-
nificance; "but as for helping ourselves, what can we do?
Our only way would be to tow her out of this with boats,
and we haven't half enough hands for that let alone that
afore we'd gone a mile the niggers 'ud catch us up and kill
the lot of us. If the wind don't get up afore nightfall, we're
dished, and that's all about it!"
" But even if we could just hold the deck against them
for only half an hour it might make all the difference,"
cried Heathermoor; "for what we want is to gain time for
a breeze to spring up and carry us away. Now, if we could
only rig up something in the way of boarding-nets along the
bulwarks."
"No good! we haven't a yard of netting on board,"
grunted the captain, who seemed to be as despondent now
as he had been presumptuously confident before.
" Well, I'll tell you what we might do," resumed Heather-
moor suddenly, " and in fact a friend of mine did do it not
so long ago, when he was attacked by the Papuans, eastward
a bit from where we are now. He smashed all the empty
bottles and jugs in the ship, and strewed the whole deck
with the pieces; and then, when the niggers boarded, they
cut their bare feet all to bits, while the crew, who were all
right in their sea-boots, knocked 'em over like nine-pins."
A BEWITCHED VESSEL 143
The captain lifted his head quickly, as if somewhat taken
with this new idea, but the next moment he let it fall again
despondingly.
" That would be a tiptop dodge if we could try it," said
he; "but, bless you, there ain't bottles enough aboard to
cover the main-hatch, let alone the whole deck. No, no; if
the wind don't get up, the only thing for us to do is to sell
our lives as dear as we can."
And here the talk ended, for Heathermoor made no reply,
and Thurraboy who seemed to be deep in thought had
taken no part in the dialogue from first to last. In gloomy
silence, the desperate men sat sternly awaiting their doom.
Afternoon waned into evening evening was fading into
night and still they were there. The western sky was
all aflame the sun sank lower and lower but still that
deadly calm endured unchangingly; and, as the doomed
band lifted their haggard eyes to watch the last sunset
they were ever to see, it seemed to them as if the light
of their own life were going down along with it into
darkness.
As the red sun sank toward the sea, the uproar of savage
rejoicing from the black shadow of the woods grew louder
and fiercer. Plainly the last moment was drawing nigh,
and the beleaguered English clenched their hands and set
their teeth as they listened.
"I should not mind so much if it were only myself,"
muttered Heathermoor, "but "
And a glance at the two boys, which said more than any
words, completed the unfinished sentence.
Just then there broke from Ashley Thurraboy's lips a
short, sharp laugh, which sounded so hideously incongruous
in that moment of utter gloom and despair that it startled
his companions like a sudden shriek.
"I have it!" cried he, meeting their wondering glances
with a look so bright and hopeful that they were doubly
144 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
amazed. "When you told that broken-glass story just
now, Heathennoor, I felt as if it reminded me of some-
thing, only I couldn't think what; but now I have it pat.
Come, there's a chance for us after all ! "
"And what is your idea, then?" asked the captain and
Heathermoor eagerly, both at once.
The idea was told in a few words; but, brief as they
were, they seemed to astonish his hearers beyond measure.
"Well," cried Captain Earshot at length, "that is a
dodge, and no mistake! I shouldn't wonder if it got us
out of the scrape after all ; and, anyhow, it's worth while
to try. You say it has been done before, then?"
"Yes; old De Ruyter, the great Dutch admiral, when he
was out in these seas as a merchant-captain, tried it once
against some savages who attacked him, and saved himself
and his vessel. Besides, you can see for yourself what an
advantage it will give us, not only because we should have
them at our mercy in a fight, but because there would most
likely be no fight at all; the Malays would fancy the ship
bewitched, and run away in a panic without striking a blow.
That, in fact, was just what did happen in De Euyter's
case."
"Come along," cried the captain, springing to his feet,
"we'll set about it this very minute!"
"And I'll make good the logs, you know, Captain," put
in Lord Heathermoor.
" That be blowed ! " retorted Earshot indignantly. " Why,
you don't suppose I'm agoin' to make you pay for helping
to save all our lives? I got you into this mess by being
too pig-headed to listen to reason, and so it's me that
ought to pay and I will, too! Now, then, let's all git
to work."
The two lads, who were seated at a little distance, had
only caught a few fragments of this talk, and what they
did catch puzzled them not a little. But they were more
puzzled still when they saw the hatches of the main-hold
"HE JUST TOOK HOLD OF MY HAND AND
PRESSED IT TO HIS FOREHEAD"
Page 154
A BEWITCHED VESSEL 145
taken off, and several casks of the detested ghee hoisted
up and broken open.
" What on earth are they bringing out that horrid rancid
butter for?" cried Wyvil. " Do they mean to leave it about
for the niggers to eat, and then knock 'em on the head
while they're at it?"
" More likely they mean to poison 'em with the smell of
it," said Alfred, " and it's quite strong enough to do it, I'm
sure."
But when they saw lump after lump of this greasy com-
pound scooped out and smeared over the deck, till not only
the planking itself, but also the edge of the bulwarks all
along either side, was as slippery as a skating-rink, our
heroes began to understand, and their delight knew no
bounds.
"First rate!" shouted Wyvil; "they're making slides all
over the deck, to send the niggers sprawling on their noses
the minute they set foot on it. Hurrah! Come On, Alf;
let's go and help."
Heathermoor, Thurraboy, and the captain were equally
active, and ere long the whole deck was so slippery that
even the crew (though wearing their sea-boots, with the
soles well sanded) could hardly keep their feet. As for
our two lads and the cabin-boy, they all three made them-
selves in such a mess with the vile stuff that they might
have been scented a hundred yards away.
"And now, Captain," said Thurraboy, "if I may venture
to advise you, the men had better lie down and keep out
of sight, though all ready to jump up, of course, if these
fellows succeed in gaining the deck; for it will frighten the
Malays far more, and make them more certain that there's
witchcraft in the business, if they see no living soul to
oppose them."
The order was given, and in a trice the Sultana lay voice-
less and lifeless as a ship of the dead upon the darkening
waters. Night came down over sea and sky, and the wolfish
( B 633 ) K
146 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
yells of the unseen murderers on shore suddenly ceased,
giving place to a silence more terrible still.
" They're coming!" whispered a voice in Captain Earshot's
ear.
"Where away 1 ?" asked the captain in the same cautious
tone, as he strained his eyes in vain through the gloom;
for, the ship's lanterns not being lighted, and the moon
having not yet risen, nothing could be seen amid that utter
darkness.
" Eight astern," replied Heathermoor. "Listen! Don't
you hear 'em?"
Both men held their breath, and bent forward to listen.
There was no noise of oar or paddle the savages had been
too cunning for that, but the slight sound made by the
heavy boats in forcing their way through the still water,
almost imperceptible though it was, could not escape the
quick ears of the two practised seamen.
Both were as utterly fearless as any man alive, but all
their courage could not wholly repress the thrill that
quivered through their strong nerves as they heard that
faint and far-off sound which, feeble as it was, heralded
the approach of death in its worst form.
Suddenly it ceased, and there was a terrible pause,
through which came a whisper from the dark waters
below, sharp and sinister as the hiss of a snake:
" Orang-orang puti tidor" (the white men are asleep).
"Ada bai" (it is well), said a second voice, somewhat
farther off.
And then the same voice added, in a tone of command:
"Ismail, ka-kanum/ Ishak, ka-keri/" (Ishmael, to starboard!
Isaac, to port!)
The men to whom the order was addressed promptly
obeyed it, and their boats came up, one on each side of
the English vessel, almost at the same moment, while half
a dozen nimble savages, clambering over the shoulders of
A BEWITCHED VESSEL 147
their comrades, made a clutch at the edge of the starboard
bulwarks.
Instantly the solid wood seemed to melt away in their
grasp, and down they fell with a wild cry, which was
hoarsely echoed by their companions, and certainly not
without reason; for not merely did the falling men knock
four or five of their comrades overboard, but the shock of
their fall capsized the boat herself, and in a moment her
whole crew were struggling in the water.
At the same instant a terrible hubbub from the port side
told that there, too, the assailants had fared no better. In
fact, they had, if anything, fared rather worse.
Three of them had actually succeeded in gaining the
deck; but they did so to their cost. The first who leaped
down upon the slippery planks shot forward like a skater,
and fell head-over-heels down into the main hold, which
the wary captain had craftily left open for that very
purpose. The second, unable to stop himself, tumbled
after him with a howl of terror; while the third flew, head-
foremost, from the top to the bottom of the cabin stair, and
was apparently either killed or stunned by the fall, the
crash of his descent being followed by a dead silence.
All this while no living thing was to be seen upon the
Sultana's deck, as if this vessel were herself hurling back
her presumptuous foes without any human aid; and this
(as Thurraboy had foreseen) intensified a hundred-fold the
panic of these superstitious savages, who were already
sufficiently terrified by the seeming miracle of their un-
accountable defeat, as well as by the mysterious fate of
their three missing comrades, whose wild cries, with the
utter silence which had succeeded, showed that no good
had befallen them.
" Ada koppal hanius!" (it is a ghost-ship) screamed Ismail's
followers in chorus.
"Ada koppal Shaitaunl" (it is the ship of the Evil One)
howled Ishak's men from the other side.
148 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" Ilmu/ ilmut" (witchcraft, witchcraft) yelled a score oJ
voices at once out of the darkness, in tones tremulous with
horror.
Even the crews of the hindmost boats which had not
yet been engaged at all seemed to have caught the infec
tion of this universal terror. As if by tacit consent, the
Malay barks, one and all, drew off from the fatal vessel,
while the discomfited pirates busied themselves with picking
up such of their comrades as were still floundering in the
sea; but they did so in such a flurried and nervous manner
that it was abundantly evident that it needed only one boat
to set the example of flight for all the rest to follow as fast
as their oars could carry them.
Meanwhile the dreaded vessel lay dark and silent as
a burial-vault; but it was only by a violent effort of self-
control that that silence could be maintained, for the
captain and his two elder passengers were literally choking
with suppressed laughter, while Huntley and Wyvil felt as
if they must burst on the spot.
" It's the turn of a hair now," whispered Earshot with
a stifled chuckle. " Let just one of these niggers start to
run away, and you'll see the whole kit of 'em go after him
like so many frightened sheep. It's been a tight fit, and no
mistake, but I think we've got out of the mess at last ! "
The worthy captain was exulting too soon. They were
not out of it yet, by any means.
Scarcely were the words uttered when, as he cautiously
raised his head above the bulwarks, the first pale gleam
of the rising moon showed him, to the eastward, three more
boats flitting ghost-like athwart the long, narrow, wavering
streak of light cast by it across the dark waters. Evidently
these were the warriors of the two remoter islets, who, not
having arrived in time to witness the prodigy that had ap-
palled their fellows, were coming on like hungry wolves to
join in the fight which, from these distant shouts and yells,
they supposed to be at its hottest.
A BEWITCHED VESSEL 149
" It was the turn of a hair, and the hair's turned the
wrong way ! " growled Earshot under his breath. " These
niggers follow each other like sheep, and when they see
this new lot come up, and go at us without being afraid,
they'll pluck up heart too, and we shall be just as badly
off as ever. Blow them h'ignorant savages ! They haven't
even the sense to run away when they ought to!"
And the captain, as he spoke, took a tighter grasp of the
iron belaying-pin that he clutched in his brawny hand,
while Heathermoor, who was crouching beside him, loosened
his long dirk in its sheath with a business-like air.
But just then Thurraboy (who, hidden by the companion-
hatch, had risen to his feet to watch the advance of these
new enemies) started, held up his hand, and turned his face
slightly to one side. Then he drew a long, deep breath of
overwhelming relief, and two words came forth as if heaved
up from the very depths of his chest:
"Thank God!"
" What is it?" asked Earshot in an eager whisper.
"Breeze!" replied the other with an emphasis which
told how much was contained in that one word.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, one of the sails that
hung drooping overhead gave a long, lazy heave, flapped
back against the mast, heaved again, and then began slowly
to fill out.
A yell of fury came rolling across the silent sea from the
new band of assailants, who had already noted and under-
stood the signs of the coming breeze, and on they flew with
redoubled speed. But it was all in vain. Sail after sail
filled out, and the spell-bound hull lived again, and moved
onward, the beleaguering canoes scattering before her like
shadows. One last howl of baffled rage from the second
group of boats, a few dropping shots, fired harmlessly
and at random, and then the rescued ship left death and
danger behind her, and swept forth into the open sea once
more.
CHAPTER XV
THE TIGER OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN
TTTELL, I never want to see so close a shave as that
V Y again!" said Captain Earshot, drawing a long breath
as he looked back in the moonlight at the islands which
had so nearly become their grave. " Mr. Thurraboy, you've
been best man of us all this bout, and I heartily beg your
pardon for roughing you up the way I did t'other day."
"Don't say another word about it, Captain," rejoined
the author in his most genial tone. " I'm sure we ought
rather to be thanking God for our deliverance than be
casting up every hasty word that we may have said to each
other."
But it seemed that the excitements of this eventful night
were not over yet; for all at once Alfred Huntley (who
had suddenly missed his friend Wyvil, and was looking
about in search of him) heard a voice call, wildly and
urgently, his own name. Its tones were shrill and strained,
like those of one in mortal pain or peril; and the voice was
that of Marmaduke.
" Where are you, old boy ? " shouted Alfred, springing
like a wild cat toward the cabin hatchway, out of which the
cry seemed to issue.
" Here quick this fellow's trying to knife me!" replied
a half-stifled voice from below.
Huntley leaped rather than ran down the steep, ladder-
like, pitch-dark stair, and, alighting headlong upon a writh-
ing heap of intertwined arms and limbs at the foot of it,
clutched instinctively, amid the gloom, at the first thing
that came to hand, viz. a bare, sinewy arm, which struggled
and twisted in his grasp like a serpent.
160
THB TIGER OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN 151
Just then the cabin-boy appeared with a light, revealing
a very startling tableau.
Amid a chaos of overturned boxes, sacks, and canisters,
Wyvil, lying all his length upon his back, was struggling
in a mortal grapple with a half -seen something, of which
the only part clearly visible was the glitter of two fiery
eyes, which appeared to gleam through the darkness like
those of a snake or panther. But when the light was held
nearer, this phantom took the form of a slender Malay boy
no older than Wyvil himself, who was fighting fiercely to
wrench from Marmaduke's clutch the hand that grasped his
short curved dagger.
"Don't hurt him!" panted the English boy; "just take
the knife from him."
This, however, was no easy matter ; for, young and slight
as this boy-savage was, so amazing was his strength, and so
fierce the energy of his struggles, that, though he had but
one hand to fight with for his right arm seemed to be dis-
abled, the combined efforts of all three were fully tasked
to disarm and secure him.
This done, Alfred helped up his friend, and, starting as
he caught a full view of him for the first time, called out
anxiously :
" I say, old fellow, did he manage to stick you after all?
you're all over blood ! "
"Am I?" said Wyvil, stretching and shaking himself
experimentally. " It must be my nose bleeding, then, for
I don't feel as if I'd got a cut anywhere, though I'm jolly
stiff and sore all over."
Just then Heathermoor and Mr. Thurraboy appeared on
the scene.
The former hastily drew his son into the cabin, and ex-
amined the boy's hurt, finding, to his great relief, that,
though much bruised and scratched, Wyvil had no actual
wound anywhere.
"You've had a very narrow escape, my boy," said he
152 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
gravely; "that fellow's kriss (dagger) was very likely
poisoned, as most of them are, and if you had got a stab
from it, you wouldn't have had much chance. Where is
the kriss, by the bye? It had better be thrown overboard
at once."
"I'll do that!" cried Tom Bates, the cabin-boy, darting
off.
But he didn't, for the very sufficient reason that he could
not find it, having let it fall among the sacks and boxes
while helping to bind the Malay.
" Never mind," said Thurraboy, " we'll hunt it up in the
morning. Now, then, let's have a look at our prisoner."
The young savage (who had been laid on the cabin-table)
had ceased his useless struggles, and lay as motionless as
a statue; but when they gathered round him, he shot a
fiery glance at them from his fierce black eyes, and mut-
tered a few emphatic words in his own tongue.
" He is telling us to kill him at once, for he would rather
die than be kept prisoner," explained Heathermoor.
" Well, if he chooses to amuse himself by sticking knives
into people, what can we do but keep him prisoner?" urged
Wyvil with some show of reason. " He's a plucky fellow,
though, for all that. Just fancy! he's got a broken arm,
and an awful cut on his head as well just see how it's
bleeding, and yet he flew at me the minute I came near
him, and then fought us all three with one hand ! He must
be a brick, and no mistake ! "
"It was he, then, who tumbled down the hatchway
during the scrimmage?" said Thurraboy. "Well, if so,
he may thank his stars to have got off so cheap!"
(In fact, as it afterwards appeared, the young islander
had been fortunate as compared with his two fellow-savages,
who had fallen down into the main-hold; for one of them
had been killed on the spot, and the other so badly hurt
that he died a few hours later.)
At that instant Huntley, who had slipped out unper-
THE TIGER OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN 153
ceived, came back with a handful of rags, and a jug of
warm water from the cook's galley (that worthy man
having kept a huge kettle boiling during the affray, with
the humane purpose of "scaldin* them blackamoors' hides
for 'em"), and coolly proceeded to bathe the wounded
head of the prisoner, who, after a momentary show of
reluctance, submitted passively, while the sudden change
in his face showed plainly how intense the relief must
have been.
Meanwhile, Heathermoor and Thurraboy whose experi-
ence of hurts and bruises was of a large and varied range
were examining the lad's injured arm, and soon satisfied
themselves that it was not broken, but only severely bruised
and strained. Having applied to it such remedies as he
could command, Heathermoor said a few words to the
sufferer in his own language; to which the latter, after
eyeing him wonderingly for a moment, replied by mutter-
ing faintly:
"Ayerl ayer!" (water! water!).
Marmaduke promptly gave him some, which the captive
drank greedily, casting at our hero a look of gratitude more
expressive than any words.
"He'll do now," said Heathermoor, "and I think we'll
just stow him for the night in that store-hutch outside the
cabin door, and lock him in; for if he takes it into his head
that we're going to torture him or make a slave of him (as
he very likely may, poor wretch!) he'll think nothing of
jumping overboard and drowning himself. And after that
as it's getting late, and I dare say we're all pretty tired
I think we had better have a mouthful of supper, and
turn in."
Next morning Lord Heathermoor was up betimes, and
his first move was to go straight to the foot of the cabin
stair, hoping to find and throw away the poisoned kriss;
but, early as he was, his son was there before him.
154 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" Have you seen anything of that fellow's dagger, Duke?"
cried his father.
"Oh, that's all square!" said Wyvil cheerily; "he's got
it again, all right and jolly!"
"Who's got it the Malay?" cried Mr. Thurraboy, who
had just come up.
" Of course; it's his, you know," said the boy, with per-
fect composure. " He seemed to want it, so I gave it him."
" Then you've been to see him already ?" asked Heather-
moor, laughing in spite of himself at the coolness with
which his hopeful son spoke of having put a poisoned
dagger into the hands of a ferocious savage because he
"seemed to want it".
" To be sure we have Alf 's in there now, having a yarn
with him; he's quicker than me at the fellow's lingo, you
know. I'll just tell you how it was. When we went in
just now to see how he was, we found him pretty brisk
for a fellow with a broken head and a scrunched arm; but
he kept looking about him as if he'd lost something, and he
kept on singing out: 'Kriss! kriss!' just as if he were cry-
ing water-cresses. Luckily Alf made out what he wanted,
and told me, and I went and hunted up his pig-sticker, and
brought it in and gave it him, and he was as pleased as
Punch!"
"And didn't he offer to stab you, then?" enquired his
father, who, during this edifying recital, had exchanged
with Mr. Thurraboy more than one glance of comic
despair.
" No, not he ! He just took hold of my hand and pressed
it to his forehead, and then to his chest (I suppose that's
how they shake hands here), saying something that sounded
like 'Trim my glass eye!' whatever he meant by that." 1
"Oh, he did, did he?" said Heathermoor, looking greatly
relieved. "That's all right, then, for by doing that he
i Probably Trima kasi (literally, " I receive a favour "), the Malay form of " I
thank you ".
THE TIGER OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN 156
meant that you're his friend, and now he'll neither hurt
you himself nor let anyone else do it."
"Well, I call that very civil of him!" cried Marmaduke;
"and I'll be bound he and I will be no end good friends
when we come to know a bit more of each other. Now,
then, I'll just go in again and see how he's getting on, and
what he'd like for breakfast!"
And away ran our impetuous hero to take another look
at his new pirate chum, while his father, with a meaning
shrug of his broad shoulders, followed Mr. Thurraboy on
deck.
Half an hour later Thurraboy was leaning over the stern
to watch the eddying ripples in the vessel's wake, and calcu-
lating that they must be running full ten knots an hour,
when the two boys came racing up to him, and began to
speak eagerly and excitedly, both at once.
" What do you think, Mr. T hurraboy ! this Malay chap's
the son of a chief a Sumatcan chief quite a sort of prince
in a small way!"
"And he says his name's Harimau of Bukit-Mas (that's
' The Tiger of the Golden Mountain ', you know), and we're
going to call him ' Harry ' for short."
"Ay, isn't it a fine name, The Tiger of the Golden
Mountain ? just the right sort of title for a book ! I'll tell
you what, Mr. Thurraboy; if you do make a story out of
this cruise of ours, do call it that it'll be first rate!"
"And we're going to teach him English, and get him to
teach us Malay isn't it stunning? just as if he'd come
aboard on purpose to help us with it."
"Won't it seem funny to call a black fellow 'Harry'?
just like acting a play, you know."
" And we're going to ask my father to let us take Harry
along with us, and have him for our Man Friday."
"For your Boy Friday, you mean," said TLurraboy,
breaking in at length upon this queer duet, "for he's
hardly old enough for a man yet."
156 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" Well, what of that?" cried Wyvil. " As old Billy Pitt
said : ' The crime of being young mends itself day by day '.
He's old enough to fight like a man anyhow no mistake
about that!"
"Ay, that he is!" chimed in Huntley; "and, for that
matter, if there's not enough of him to make a whole
Friday, we can call him 'Friday Evening'."
"So we can!" shouted Marmaduke; "just like Thursday
October Christian in The Mutiny of the Bounty, because
he was born on a Thursday in October. Just the very
thing!"
"And now I think of, it," said Alfred, "yesterday was
Friday; so it was on a Friday evening that we got him,
sure enough."
"That's settled, thenr cried Mannadlike with the air
of one who had got a great weight off his .mind. "There's
his name, all square Harry Friday Evening ! Come along,
Alf, let's go and tell him all about Robinson Crusoe and
his Man Friday. What's Friday in. Malay ? Juma'at, isn't
itr
And away ran our boys, leaving Thurraboy to chuckle
over the cool way in which they disposed of their new
acquaintance without consulting the latter at all. But
neither the author nor his boy-comrades had the slightest
forewarning of the strange manner in which this young
barbarian was yet to influence the fortunes of their whole
party.
CHAPTER XVI
OAST UP BY THE SEA
" Marmaduke Wy vil, Padang, Sumatra,
" To George Stone, Charterhouse, England.
DEAR GEORDIE,
" By this you'll have seqn, all about our scrimmage
with the Malay pirates, and how we buttered the deck and
sent 'em sprawling on their noses,, and carried off a real live
black prince by way of a trophy. That's to say, you'll have
seen it if by any miracle you got my last letter from Tan-
jong Biru (Blue Point), for which consult your atlas, old
fellow, unless you've traded it away for jam-tarts since I
left. It's long odds if you did get it, though; for in these
parts the posts are- (as old Dryasdust said of my cousin,
Dick Doveton) ' only consistent in inconsistency, and only
regular in irregularity '.
" I've got such a lot to tell you this time that I hardly
know where to start, so perhaps I'd better just begin at the
beginning. It'll be a change anyhow, for you used always
to say I began my stories in the middle, and then went
on to the beginning, and never gave you the end at all.
" First and foremost, then, about Harry that's our black
prince, you know, short for Harimau (Tiger). When he
first turned up, the captain was rather puzzled what to do
with him; so my father (who always seems to do just the
right thing) said that, as Harry was something of a sailor,
the best way would be to ship him as one of the crew.
Well, Harry agreed to it at once, and he's a regular pet
with the whole crew already, and out-and-out the smartest
of the lot, now that he's got to know the ropes; and he did
167
158 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
that in less than no time, for there never was such a fellow
to pick things up quick. Ton my word, I believe he could
learn any mortal thing on earth even Euclid if he gave
his mind to it.
" As for English, he really seemed to learn it all at one
go. He called me and A.lf by our names, as pat as could be,
the very first day ; and in less than a week he could ask for
whatever he wanted, just as easy as I can. It's a good job
for me that he wasn't at the old Charterhouse in our time,
or I'd never have got the modern language prize, that's
certain.
"But before I say any more about him I must tell you
about our voyage, and how we came to get here; for, as
you'll see by the map, we're clean on the wrong side of
Sumatra for getting back to Singapore.
"On the morning after our set-to with the savages, the
wind, after helping us along famously all night, chopped
round suddenly, and blew slap in our teeth; and after that
it was nothing but head-winds all the time, so that, instead
of getting to Pulo Bintang (the place where we were to
enquire for Alf's father, you know) in two days, it took us
very nearly five. And, even when we did get there at last,
we found that we'd come all the way for nothing, for the
young fellow who was in charge of the island a very good
sort of chap, who was as civil as if he had known us all his
life could tell us no more than that Colonel Huntley had
left for Singapore in a trading schooner more than two
months before, and he'd heard nothing of him since then.
" I saw poor Alf begin to look queer (as well he might),
and though my father and Mr. Thurraboy didn't say any-
thing, I could see by their faces what they thought,
although they did their best to look as if there was
nothing the matter.
" But just then the old captain must go and shove in his
oar. 'Do you happen to remember, Mr. Watson,' says
he, 'what that there schooner's name was?'
CAST UP BY THE SEA 159
"'Yes,' says Mr. Watson, 'I remember the name well,
because it was such a queer one; she was the Go-along, of
Liverpool.'
"'The Go-along V sings out the captain; 'what! that
rotten old tub of Bob Shaw's? The Go-along, indeed!
The ' Go-to-the-bottom ' I'd call her! If the colonel's took
his passage in that old coffin, I wouldn't give much for
his chance!'
"Can you imagine such a blundering fool? and right
before poor old Alf, too! My father looked as if he were
going to hit him, and no wonder; and even Mr. Watson
seemed rather put out.
" Alf stepped forward, and said, in a voice as if someone
were choking him:
" 'Do you think, then, Captain, that my father is lost?'
"'Lost? not a bit of it!' sings out Mr. Thurraboy,
cutting in before the captain, who, beginning to see that
he had let out more than he ought, was looking rather
foolish. 'The schooner may be lost very likely she is
but you may take my word for it that he's not. Why,
just see how many escapes we've had ourselves in this one
voyage, and yet here we are, all right! I knew a man
once myself, who was cast away in these very seas, and he
came home again all right and jolly after everyone had
given him up for dead. We'll enquire for your father at
every port we touch on our way back, and no fear but we'll
light upon him, somewhere or other, not a pin the worse!'
"Old Alf began to brighten up agam at once, for there's
no one like Mr. Thurraboy for that sort of thing; he has
such a jolly way with him, he'd make you feel as if you
enjoyed a toothache, almost. If he'd been with Napoleon
at Waterloo, I'll be bound he'd have made him think that
losing the battle was rather a good thing for him than not.
" Then Mr. Watson said to us, very politely :
" ' I'm extremely sorry not to be able to give you any
better news of your friend; but I quite agree with you
160 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
that Colonel Huntley is not the sort of man to be so easily
lost, and I've not the least doubt that, sooner or later,
you'll find he's all right, especially as he knows the ways
of these Malay fellows by heart, and could get on with
them where no other man would have a chance.'
"And then he invited us to dine with him, captain and
all; and when he found out who Mr. Thurraboy was, there
was nothing in the whole place half good enough for him,
for he'd read a whole lot of his books, and liked 'em no
end. And so, altogether, we had a very jolly time of it.
"Finding that the Sultana was going farther on, Mr.
Watson actually wanted us to stay with him till she came
back; wasn't it jolly of him? But the captain said he
couldn't be sure of calling at the island on his return
voyage, because he might have to go another way; and
he advised us to stick to the ship. So we thanked Mr.
Watson, and said good-bye to him, and then went aboard
again, and stood out to sea that very same night.
"We touched at two or three more islands after that,
and saw a whole heap of queer outlandish sights, but I
mustn't begin telling you about 'em now, or else I'd never
be done. At one place that we got to, just before dark,
there was a torchlight procession going on that beat any
pantomime I ever saw yet. What with the black faces,
and glittering eyes, and white dresses, and gleaming swords
and daggers, coming and going like so many ghosts in the
glare of the torches, and what with the tall palm-trunks in
the background, blood-red in the firelight, and then the sea
lying dim and vast beyond it all, and the shouting and
singing, and playing of wild music well, I tell you,
Geordie, my boy, all the books of travel in the world
wouldn't give you a notion of it, not even Mr. Thurraboy's,
if you hadn't seen it your own self !
"Well, by and by we got to the last of the ports that
the old craft had to touch at, and then it was "bout ship
for Singapore'; and I can tell you we were all very glad
CAST UP BY THE SEA 161
of it, for, as you may be sure, we wanted to get as quick as
we could to some place where we might have a chance of
getting some news of Alf's father and the ship he'd gone in.
" As it turned out, it was a very good job that we hadn't
stopped off at Pulo Bintang, for the captain didn't go any-
where near it on the way back, having to call at another
island a goodish bit farther to the south ; and there he got
some cargo for Padang, which, as you'll see by the map, is
one of the two big ports on the south-west side of Sumatra
(the side away from Singapore, you know), Bencoolen being
the other.
" ' We'll have to go right round Sumatra this time, then,
to get back to Singapore,' says Alf; 'but that's all the
better, for the more places we call at, the likelier we'll be
to pick up some news of my father.'
"And sure enough we did pick up some news of him,
before long. At the first two ports where we called no
one knew anything of Colonel Huntley, or of the Go-along
either; but when we came to the next place, the Dutch
shipping agents told us that the Go-along had touched there
about seven weeks before (and with an English gentleman
on board, too), bound for Bencoolen and Padang.
"'Padang!' cries the captain; 'why, that's just as pat
as if we'd planned it; for here we're bound for Padang our-
selves, and we're safe to git some news of the colonel there.'
" 'To be sure we are!' says Mr. Thurraboy in his cheery
way ; ' in fact, I should not be surprised if we were to find
him there himself; and if we do, we'll give him a famous
welcome won't we, Alfred?'
" By this time Malay Harry had got to be quite at home
on board, and the men were very good to him, and never
tried to force him to drink grog or anything, for my father
had told 'em that's the biggest insult you can offer to a
Mussulman. Even the captain was getting to like him
better, for he was quite a useful hand now, and had picked
up enough English to make out nearly all the captain's
(B533) L
162 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
orders. And every time Alf and I had a talk with him
(which was whenever he was off duty) he always got us
to speak English, to see how much he could make out; and
he did make out a pretty good lot, I can tell you.
"My father, too, seemed to be very fond of having a
talk with Harry; but he spoke to him in his own lingo,
and he was always asking Harry who he was, and where
he came from, and who was his father, and what sort of
fellows his people were, and how he came to be so far away
from home, and all the rest of it, just as if he were going
to write a life of him. Bit by bit Harry told him the
whole story, and a queer one it was beat the Arabian
Nights all hollow !
" It seems that these people of Bukit-Mas (Golden Moun-
tain), to whom Harry belongs, are one of the hill-tribes of
Acheen the tipmost end of Sumatra, you know whom
the Dutchmen haven't conquered yet, because they keep
right away up among the mountains, where nobody can get
at 'em. Harry's the only son of the chief (penghulu, they
call him here), and when Master Harry got to be old
enough to go out to war along with his father which is a
Malay's way of 'coming of age', I suppose the old pen-
ghulu got an old pow-wow-man, who was the cock magician
of the tribe, to tell his son's fortune, or cast his horrid-scope,
as they call it.
"And very horrid it turned out to be, sure enough; for
what should the old nigger go and say but that a great and
terrible calamity was hanging, not only over the tribe, but
over all Sumatra, and that it would certainly fall unless
poor Harry 'the unlucky one', as he had the cheek to
call him were removed from among the children of the
Golden Mountain.
" Now, it's my belief that this precious prophet was put
up to his little game by Harry's own uncle, who must be
a regular bad lot. This uncle, it seems, would have come
to be penghulu after his brother, the old chief, if Harry
CAST UP BY THE SEA 163
hadn't existed; and so, of course, he was just about as
fond of his dear nephew as King John was of Arthur, or as
the uncle of the Babes in the Wood was of them. Any-
how, up got Mr. Uncle and made a great row, and voted
for having Harry ' removed ' at once, and drew to his side
a whole lot of the big swells of the tribe; and one or two
rather extreme members on that side of the House went so
far as to hint that the simplest way of removing him would
be to kill him outright!
"Luckily for poor old Harry, the majority thought this
rather too strong, and considered it quite enough to banish
him. But banished they insisted that he must be ; and his
father, whether he liked or not, was forced to agree that he
should be sent away till the fatal day was past, which was
rather vague at the best, for the magician hadn't been fool
enough to fix any particular day, and all they knew was
that it would be some day next August.
" Well, then, the next thing to settle was where to banish
him to; and his father bethought himself that, a good
many years ago, a lot of men from their tribe had emi-
grated to that island where Harry and his piratical chums
attacked us. So they sent him off there; and as it might
have seemed suspicious for the only son of a chief to be
packed off like that, the old penghulu kept dark who he
really was, and made as if he'd been only some common
boy going out to seek his fortune.
'"After that, talk of there being no romance nowadays!'
says I to Alf, when my father told us the story. ' Why,
it's just that yarn in the Arabian Nights over again, about
that old king who bottled up his son in an underground
cellar on a desert island, for fear Prince What's-his-name
should come and kill him on a certain day; and Prince
What's-his-name got shipwrecked at that very place on
that very day, and came and did for him, right enough.
Well, it's an ill wind that blows no one good; if Harry
can't go home, he'll be all the more likely to stay with us.'
164 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"You may be sure that after all this we made a bigger
fuss of Harry than ever; and he seemed quite curious to
know all about the English and their ways, and was no
end astonished at what we told him. But what seemed to
puzzle him more than all was our not having killed or
tortured him when we first took him prisoner.
" ' I was thine enemy then, I had done my best to slay
thee, and so I looked for nothing but to be slain in like
manner,' said he to me one day, in his own lingo; for, as
we wanted to learn it, we made him talk to us in Malay,
and answered him in English, and very funny it sounded.
'Can it be true, then, that you Christians love not to
destroy your enemies?'
" ' We never do unless we're forced to it,' says I; ' for, to
begin with, it's not the way of us English to hit a man
when he's down; and then it says in the Bible (that's our
Koran, you know) that we must forgive our enemies, what-
ever they've done to us!'
" ' Forgive your enemies ! ' sings out Harry, staring with all
his might; 'forgive your enemies! why, we always kill ours!'
'"More shame for you, then,' strikes in Alf, 'for that
wasn't how your own prophet Mohammed did. He forgave
his enemies ay, even the very worst of them ! '
"'What?' cries Harry, more amazed than ever, 'dost
thou, an unbeliever, know anything about the acts of our
holy Prophet 1'
" ' I know as much about 'em as you do yourself, Harry
my boy,' answered Alf, as bold as brass.
("And so he did, I'll be bound, for he's got Washington
Irving's Life of Mohamet pretty well by heart. Stunning
book it is, too. Do you remember, Geordie, how you and
I used to read it under our desk in school, and how old
Dryasdust caught us at it, and gave us a hundred lines
apiece 1 ? I didn't think then that I'd be quoting it before
long to a real live Mohammedan savage, thousands of miles
away from England!)
CAST UP BY THE SEA 165
"Well, Alf set to, and reeled off all about Mohammed
and his adventures as glib as a historical lecturer; and
Harry listened with his eyes starting out of his head
partly, no doubt, in astonishment to find a 'Western un-
believer ' so well up in the Prophet's doings, and partly at
the thought of anybody forgiving his enemies, which was
evidently quite a new idea to Master Harry.
" ' Allah ackbar/ ' (God is most great) says he, when
Alf had done. ' In truth, Tuan (master), I have heard from
thee many things of the Prophet (may his name be
exalted!) which I had not heard even from those who
believe in him. But tell me, I pray, how it was that he
forgave his worst enemy.'
" 'Ah, to be sure!' cried Alf; 'I forgot that part of the
story. Well, you see, after the Prophet ran away from
Mecca to Medina what you call the Hejirah (flight), you
know he had two or three fights with the fellows who
drove him out; and in one of these fights his favourite
uncle, Hamza, was killed before his face. And when
Mohammed saw his best friend lying dead, then let him
try as hard as he might to think that the brave man had
gone straight to heaven, and would be happier there than
he could ever be on earth yet, at the thought that this
man who had loved him and been so good to him was
gone, and that he wouid never see him or speak to him
again as long as he lived, he fairly broke down and cried.'
" I could see tears in Harry's eyes while Alf was speaking;
and no wonder, for it was a heart-breaking story.
" ' Well, it happened,' Alf went on, ' that in another
battle, a little later, this man that had killed Hamza was
taken prisoner, and he was a black slave, whose master had
promised to set him free if he killed either Mohammed him-
self or his uncle. So then the Prophet's men who had
been on the look-out for him ever since the day of Hamza's
death shouted for joy, and dragged him away to be tor-
tured to death in Mohammed's presence. And when Mo-
166 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
hammed heard who he was, he came and looked upon the
man that had killed his old friend, and then laid his hand
gently on the prisoner's shoulder, and said:
" ' ' The all-merciful God will remember those who show
mercy, and thou hast done only what seemed to be thy
duty. Go in peace!'
" ' Then the grim soldier's face changed, and he threw
himself at Mohammed's feet, sobbing like a child, and
said to him: 'Truly thou art the Apostle of God, Mo-
hammed! for none else could forgive his worst enemy.'
" ' And from that day forth that man was the best soldier
and the truest servant that the Prophet had; and I think
that was better than killing him eh, Harry?'
"And now, Geordie, I've got something to tell you
which, I dare say, will set you screwing up your eyebrows
and thinking of Baron Munchausen. But I can tell you,
old fellow, there are plenty of things out here which go
a long way ahead of any yarn that the old baron ever spun
in his life; and, as the Irish pilot said when the ship struck
just as he was saying he knew every rock in the Channel,
this is one of them.
" Do you recollect how we used to read about the ' phos-
phorescent sea ' in those old English voyages, and to say
that the old boys had a mind to tell a good 'un when they
got up that story 1 Well, now I've seen it for myself at
last; and I tell you that all they said about it was just
nothing to what it really is!
" I'd been sleeping on deck as usual for down below
you breathe more cockroaches than air, when, all of a
sudden, I was awakened by a blaze of light in my eyes that
made me think the ship must be on fire. But when I
looked about me, it was not the ship but the whole sea
that seemed to be on fire at once. Flames were leaping
up all round us every ripple in our wake was a flash of
lightning, every jet of spray a shower of flying sparks, and
each wave, as it broke, spouted up like a fiery fountain
CAST UP BY THE SEA 167
against the black sky; for, as if on purpose to heighten
the horror of it, the whole sky was black as pitch not a
glimmer of moon or star to be seen anywhere. There we
were, a coal-black ship on a flaming sea underneath an
inky sky!
" You can't think what a grim sight it was; and really,
though I'm not by way of being a coward, yet waking up
suddenly and coming upon all this at once I did feel rather
queer, I don't deny it. The men, as they came and went in
the glare, looked as white and ghastly as a pack of ghosts;
every bit of iron or brass work aboard kept gleaming and
glittering like thousands of fiery eyes all staring at you at
once; and even the very rigging itself seemed like some
great black skeleton towering up overhead. Altogether, it
looked so hideous and unearthly that the Flying Dutchman
itself would have been a joke to it.
" Well, this went on all night long, till at last things
really began to look rather serious. The officer of the
watch had got his eyes so dazzled with the glare that he
was almost as blind as a bat. Most of the crew were not
a bit better off, and we were just wondering what on earth
was to be done, when, all at once, we heard the look-out at
the bow sing out as loud as he could roar: ' Eocks ahead!'
" Instantly there was a trampling and shouting, and brac-
ing round of the yards, and jamming down of the helm to
make the old craft pay off, and such a kick-up as never was.
As for me, I ran for'ard to see if I could make anything
out; and there, sure enough, right ahead of us, there was
something like a great black wall standing sheer up out of
the sea such a thing as I never saw before ! and we seemed
to be driving right upon it!
" But at that moment the second mate who had only
just come on deck to relieve the first, and so hadn't had
time to get his eyes dazzled like the rest of us hallooed
out : ' All right ! It's not a rock at all it's just the dark-
ness where the glare ends!'
168 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"And sure enough that was it, though I could never
have believed such a thing if I hadn't seen it myself. You
see, the flare of the fiery sea was so tremendous, and the
night behind so black, that when the light came to an end
suddenly, and there was nothing but darkness beyond, it
really looked as if there were something regularly solid
there, and I'm sure any man alive would have taken it for
a rock just as we did. For my own part, I shall always,
after this, be of the same opinion as dear old Charley
Kingsley in the PFater Babies : ' You must never say posi-
tively that a thing does not exist until you have actually
seen it not existing'.
"When we had got right past it, and all was over, we
all had a good laugh at the way in which we had been
taken in; but it was no joke while it lasted, I promise you!
" Isn't it too bad, old chap ? I've got to shut up my
letter and send it ashore at once, and I haven't told you
a word about Padang yet and it's well worth describing,
too! However, it can't be helped; I must just give you
all that in my next letter, which I suppose will be posted
at Singapore, as we don't touch anywhere between. Re-
member me to old Dick and all the rest of them, and
believe me,
" Yours truly,
"M. WYVIL."
Marmaduke's correspondent, however, lost much more,
had he known it, than the mere passing description of the
picturesque Dutch seaport from which our hero's letter was
dated ; for that letter, if kept in hand only two days more,
would have added to its list of exciting adventures some
fresh incidents quite as startling as any of those which it
had chronicled.
" Thurraboy," said Lord Heathermoor in a low voice,
as he and his companion paced the after-deck together that
evening, looking back every now and then at the fast-
CAST UP BY THE SEA 169
fading outline of Padang, " I don't like this last piece of
news at all!"
" Nor I either," answered his friend, casting a troubled
glance toward the forecastle, upon which the two unsus-
pecting lads stood side by side, devouring with their eyes
the splendid panorama of the Sumatran coast, which lay so
close on their starboard beam that every point of the shore
was distinctly visible. " Ever since our captain said what
he did, about the unsea worthy state of that vessel, I've been
fearing some disaster; and now there can be no more doubt
about it."
" None indeed, worse luck ! for if (as those fellows told
us to-day) the Go-along, with poor Huntley on board, touched
here five weeks ago on her way to Singapore, and if nothing
has ever been hearcfr of her since then, it's pretty plain what
must have happened to her."
" One of two things has happened to her; either she has
been blown out to sea, and foundered there (they told us
at Padang, you know, that there had been a heavy gale on
this coast just after she left, which would not give much
chance to a crazy vessel like her), or else she's been driven
ashore somewhere in trying to get round Acheen; which,
in my opinion, would be much the worse job of the
two."
" Well, I'm not so sure about that, do you know," cried
Heathermoor, " I dare say the Go-along may have come to
grief, for you could hardly expect such a craft to get safe
round the north of Sumatra in a gale, but I'd venture any
money upon Huntley himself being all right. If ever any
man had a charmed life, he has; and besides, he's been out
here so long, and learned the ways of the East so thoroughly,
that he's more than half a Malay himself, and can get along
with these savages just as if he were one of them. No, no,
if he hasn't been drowned, I've no fear of any harm hap-
pening to him from the natives. Besides, if it comes to
that, who would have given a penny for your life when you
170 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
were chucked ashore among those Somaulis the other day?
And yet here you are!"
" Such luck as that only comes once in a way," said the
other gloomily. " I wish I could feel as confident as you
that all's well; but I can tell you I shiver every time that
poor lad comes near me, for fear he should ask when we're
likely to have more news of his father."
Not the slightest trace of these fears, however, showed
itself in Mr. Thurraboy's cheery look and tone at the
dinner-table an hour later, where he was the brightest and
merriest of all.
"See, Tuan, that my country; there Golden Mountain!"
said Harimau, the Malay, with unconscious pathos, as he
looked up, at sunrise, on the second morning after leaving
Padang, toward the familiar mountains which, close to him
though they were, were made as unattainable to him by the
gloomy superstition of his people as if they had been a
thousand miles away.
Looking where the young savage pointed, the two lads
beheld a picture surpassing all that they had yet seen in
the Eastern seas.
In the glory of the sunrise the highest peaks of the
Acheen mountains were just kindling from dim shadowy
blue into living fire. All along the great purple ridges
of the lower hills the white morning mist lay like a
sheet of new-fallen snow, flecked here and there by the
brightening sunshine with a passing gleam of gold, while
in the dark, narrow glens below, where the jungle grew
black and high, lurked shadows which no sunlight could
penetrate.
Most of the hills were thickly wooded; but ever and
anon the boundless expanse of forest was broken by a vast
black precipice of bare cliff towering up over the blue, shin-
ing sea, in all its untamed savageness, around the base of
which huge dark fragments of fallen rocks, torn away by
CAST UP BY THE SEA 171
some mighty convulsion ages before, stood gauntly up out
of the clear, bright water.
All at once Mr. Thurraboy who had also come up to
admire this wonderful panorama, and was leaning over the
starboard bulwark to enjoy a full view of it was seen to
give a slight start, and to snatch up the spy-glass that lay
beside him, through which he looked long and earnestly at
a particular point of the shore a little way ahead.
" Heathermoor," said he in a low voice, with a quick
glance at the boys, as if fearing lest they should overhear
him, " your eyes are better than mine see what you make
of that thing yonder, between those two rocks."
" It looks to me like a wreck," answered Lord Heather-
moor in the same tone, after carefully examining the distant
object through the glass handed to him by his friend.
It was a wreck, or at least the fragment of one a part
of the stern of a small vessel, which appeared to have been
dashed up by the sea with such violence against these two
projecting rocks that it had forced itself right in between
them, and remained immovable.
The two men exchanged looks of gloomy significance,
though neither spoke. But, a few seconds later, both the
hardy, weather-beaten faces were clouded at once with the
same look of sudden dismay; for there, upon the only un-
injured part of the shattered wood-work, were plainly visible
too terribly distinct to leave any room for doubt the
words: " Go-along, Liverpool ".
CHAPTER XVII
OVER INTO SUMATRA
TT7ELL, Mr. Van Dunck, how have you enjoyed youi
T f holiday in Singapore?"
"Ach, mine vrient, it vas grand! Fourteen days here,
and not von night I vas sober!"
"Well, that is a nice notion of a holiday, and no mis-
take!" said Marmaduke Wyvil with a look of disgust, as
he and his father entered the shipping-office just in time
to hear this edifying remark from a big,- florid, jolly-looking
Dutch planter from Sumatra. "If I were fool enough to
make a beast of myself, I wouldn't brag of it."
Nine days had passed since our hero and his friends
sighted the shattered fragments of the Go-along among the
rocks of Acheen, and many things had happened in the
interval. The Sultana had landed the whole party safely
at Singapore, where Mr. Thurraboy found all the things
that he had left behind at Aden, including two splendid
rifles and an excellent navy revolver, awaiting his arrival.
Harimau, the young Malay, had professed his perfect will-
ingness to remain with the "young white chiefs", at least
till the expiration of the term during which his return
home was forbidden by the fatal prophecy, declaring em-
phatically that "if all Christians were like them, he was
sorry that he had killed so many!"
Even the reckless Marmaduke was somewhat startled to
hear a boy no older than himself talk so coolly of having
taken the lives of many men. But, with all his untamed
fierceness, the young savage was too valuable an ally to be
let slip, and Lord Heathermoor, foreseeing how useful he
172
OVER INTO SUMATRA 173
was likely to be to them, at once assented to the proposed
arrangement.
One great disappointment, however, met them on their
arrival. The yacht, which they had fully expected to find
already fit for sea, was still under repair, the thorough
overhauling to which she had been subjected having
brought to light several very serious injuries which had
till then been quite unsuspected.
This was doubly unfortunate at that particular time,
their one wish being to go over to Sumatra as quickly as
possible, in order to pursue their enquiries about the fate
of Colonel Huntley. Though his ship had been lost, there
was as yet no proof whatever, direct or indirect, of his
having perished along with her, and Harimau, when ques-
tioned on the subject, had asserted positively, once and again,
that none of the Acheen mountaineers, whether belonging
to his own tribe or to any other, would ever be so foolish
as to kill any captive for whom they might expect to obtain
a high ransom, and that if the colonel had escaped the s^a,
he was in all probability still alive among the mountains.
Such an authority was not to be gainsaid, and Harimau's
assurances gave no small encouragement to the anxious
Englishmen. But as it was now of the last importance to
lose no more time, Lord Heathennoor, as soon as he had
satisfied himself that his yacht was really unfit for service
started off with his son to find out when there would be
another steamer for the north coast of Sumatra.
By good fortune there happened to be an English steamer
sailing for Deli that very afternoon, and, more luckily still,
the boat, small as she was, could find room for them all,
the only other cabin passenger being the convivial Mynheei
van Dunck.
This last discovery did not wholly please Heathermoor,
who anticipated no great pleasure from the society of such
a hard drinker. But, to his great relief, the planter turned
out to be a very pleasant and well-behaved man, who showed
174 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
no traces of the excesses that he had so frankly owned, and
gave them some valuable hints as to the best way of pro-
ceeding when they landed.
" And if you zall vant to know how dey do grow de tabak
(tobacco), he ended, " I vill tell you vat you zall do. My-
self I know not ze tabak, for it is coffee zat I do plant; also
mine house it is far away, else would I gladly make zat you
should komm to me. But ven you do komm in Medan,
you zall ask vere is Mynheer van der Haagen, vat live in
Willemsdal. Every man know him dere, and he know every-
sing; he tell you all you vant."
During the voyage, short as it was, our young heroes
had plenty to entertain the^v The motley crew of Malays
and Malabar Hindoos would; alone have sufficed to engross
their attention, but the deck passengers were a stranger
sight still. On the upper deck, a little abaft the funnel,
squatted a spare, keen-eyed, half-clad fellow, whose beer-
coloured skin and peculiar fashion of dressing his wiry
black hair showed that he came from some remote district
of Northern Burmah, far up toward the head-waters of the
Irrawaddy, where even the restless pioneers of British com-
merce have not yet penetrated. A few paces beyond him,
rapidly emptying a bowl of rice with successive whisks of
the two long knitting-needles that he called chop -sticks,
sat a greasy, flat-faced, omelette-coloured Mongol from the
border of the Gobi Desert, speaking a queer dialect of his
own, which was quite as unintelligible to the Nankin China-
men in the steerage as to our English boys themselves.
To the left of this worthy, Alfred's quick eye noted a
short, stumpy, heavy-looking Siamese, who at first attracted
the boy's attention by the display of a wonderful pair of
trousers, apparently made of the finest blue gauze; but a
nearer view showed our astounded hero that the man's
lower limbs were in reality quite bare, and that the seem-
ing gauze was merely an illusion produced by the wonder-
fully fine tracery of the skilful tattooing which covered the
OVER INTO SUMATRA 175
exposed skin. Not far beyond him a Malay Mohammedan,
with his lean, dark, high-cheeked face turned in the direc-
tion where he supposed Mecca to lie, was muttering the
ancient Arabic formula which has worked its way into
every language of Southern Asia: "La Allah illah Allah,
Mahmoudah rasul Allah" (God is God, and Mohammed is
the apostle of God).
The boys were still in the height of their enjoyment of
this museum of strange figures when their attention was
suddenly diverted by a burst of laughter from Mr. Thurra-
boy, who, seated just outside the queer little deck-cabin
that served them as a dining-room, was examining a batch
of letters just forwarded to him from England, which in his
hurry he had brought on board .unopened.
The letter that he had just read seemed to amuse vastly
both him and Heathermoor, who sat beside him, and as the
two lads came up, the author called out in a voice tremulous
with laughter:
"Now, boys, here's something for you! You asked me
if I often got letters begging for my portrait or my auto-
graph, and you'll see that I'm continually besieged with
much queerer requests than that. Just listen here:
"'999 WEST PRY STREET,
"'NEW YORK, March 1.
'"Dear Sir,
" ' I have written to the juvenile authors of the
day, asking the following questions, with the expectation
of having them published: Are the characters of your
stories real? If so, how and where did you make their
acquaintance ? Of what type were they 1 Do you at times
draw upon your own personal experience and history? If
you will kindly answer these queries, so as to make my
article more interesting and complete, I shall ever remain,
" ' Yours very truly,
"' EVERMORE A. MEDLAR.'
176 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"By juvenile authors I suppose he means authors for
juveniles," commented Thurraboy, " but it is rather a
queer way to express it. As for the characters of my
stories, considering that the last two were Charles the
Twelfth and Peter the Great, there is not much doubt of
their being real; but how and where I made their acquaint-
ance I should be rather puzzled to say; probably the first
time I opened a school history of Europe."
"Pretty tidy cheek, and no mistake!" cried Wyvil.
" The fellow must think your time's not very valuable if
he expects you to answer all that nonsense."
" Oh, that's nothing, bless you ! " said the author with a
rueful smile. " Why, only last year a fellow wrote to me
from Chicago, asking me to answej^ a string of questions as
long as an examination paper. ATnong other things, he
was anxious to know whether I composed my works in a
dressing-gown or in full morning-dress, if I used a writing-
desk, if I employed a secretary, what kind of pen I used,
and whether I drank beer, while I was at work, or only
coffee and tea!"
"You don't mean that he really put all that?" exclaimed
"Wyvil with a grin of half-incredulous amusement.
" Indeed I do; I have the letter still, somewhere or other,
along with a lot more trash of the same kind, and I can
assure you that when I'm at home I get such things, and
worse too, almost every week. So the next time you feel
inclined to envy me my reputation, just remember what
consequences it brings with it."
That night the boys "turned in" early, so as to be astir
betimes fcr a good look at Sumatra; but Thurraboy and
Heathermoor sat up talking on deck till midnight.
"It's really very kind of you to have come with us,
my dear fellow," said the latter. " It is just what I would
have begged you to do if you had not proposed it your-
self, for, in such a job as we have in hand now, one man
like yourself, who is used to difficulties and dangers
OVER INTO SUMATRA 177
and outlandish ways of every kind, is worth a dozen
raw hands."
" You're welcome to all I can do for you," said the author
heartily. "To begin with, I owe you my life, and, how-
ever little it may be worth, I should be sorry to lose it.
But it strikes me that your new retainer, Harimau, will
be far more useful than I can be, and it's very lucky you
managed to persuade him that that prophecy didn't forbid
his going back to Sumatra, but only his returning to his
own particular district."
" Well, I'll tell you what we had better do to start with :
try and get hold of that Mr. Van der Haagen, of whom our
friend, Van Dunck, was talking to-day; for if he lives so
near the Acheen borderJie must be the likeliest man to
know what's going tufti there."
"You couldn't do better. Good-night!"
The boys were on aeck by daylight, but they were poorly
rewarded, for the morning was wet and gloomy, with fre-
quent squalls of heavy rain, and not till long after sunrise
did the bold blue ridges of the Sumatran mountains begin
to loom shadow-like through rolling clouds of mist against
a background of dark, slaty sky.
Little by little the ghostly mist- clouds melted away,
revealing an endless line of matted leaves of a dull and
sombre green, so thickly massed together that not the
slightest break was to be seen, and our travellers could
not even guess at the whereabouts of the river which they
were about to enter.
In fact it was still an open question whether they could
enter it at all, for, like all rivers in those parts, its mouth
was impeded by a bar, and the hour of flood-tide was already
past. But the trim little steamer held her own bravely,
and glided fearlessly in through hovering mist and pelting
rain, beneath which the dark wall of matted boughs and
coiling leaves on either side looked more grim and gloomy
than ever.
( B 533 ) M
178 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Sliding past half a dozen light native boats with sails
of matting and cordage of rattan, the sole visible tokens
of man's presence in this great fortress of untamed nature,
the steamer made a sudden turn to starboard, and glided
into a broad, smooth estuary, the woody banks of which
looked like one gigantic tree, so thick and rank did the
dark, leathery mangroves swarm over their low, flat,
swampy surface. Stream and shore were alike voiceless
and lifeless, as if foot of man had never trodden there since
the world began. The dark woods, the foul, beer-coloured
river, the leaden sky, the fallirmrain, the grey, sullen mist
in the background, heightened the gloom of the scene till its
dreariness became absolutely overwhelming.
"Doesn't this remind you of West Africa, Heathermoor?"
asked Thurraboy, instincti\^ty lowSHfc his voice to a sepul-
chral whisper.
"I should rather think it did!" replied Shk friend in the
same tone. "I need only shut my eyes and open them
again to imagine myself at once back in the mouth of the
Cameroons or the Calabar. These Malay fellows may well
call it Sungei Mattee (Dead River, or River of Death), and
here comes a very appropriate craft to navigate it."
The " appropriate craft " in question was a dead bullock,
which came drifting slowly down the thick, slimy stream,
with four or five carrion -birds hovering around it, and
making sudden pounces at it ever and anon. Bloated to
an enormous size, and almost white from its long immer-
sion, this floating corpse was so unutterably hideous as to
send a thrill of horror through the iron nerves of Heather-
moor himself.
Strangely enough, amid all this gloom and desolation,
the briskest and gayest of our travellers was the very one
who might have been expected to be the most depressed
of all, viz., Alfred Huntley. From first to last the brave
English boy had never for one moment believed his father
to be really dead, and his bold blood was fired by the
OVER INTO SUMATRA 179
thought of helping to rescue him from a galling captivity
among brutal savages. His spirits seemed to rise with
every mile nearer to the distant mountains amid which
the captive was supposed to be; and Harimau, guessing
the boy's thoughts from his glowing face, said with un-
conscious pathos:
" Tuan Huntley, if it please Allah (God), you will soon
see your father again; but they will not let me see mine."
y
CHAPTER XVIH
IN THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND
ALL at once a sharp bend of this charming river (which,
like the Me-Nam, seemed modelled after the favourite
weapon of East-Indian planters a cork-screw) revealed to
our voyagers a dozen tiny bamboo huts thatched with dried
palm-leaves, clinging like frightened children to the skirts
of their great forest mother.
"Those," said the captain, "are the huts of the native
labourers who are at work on the new railway up the
river; and that clearing," pointing to a small open space
just ahead, which had produced as much effect on the
boundless jungle around it as the withdrawal of a single
currant from a Christmas pudding, " represents the railway
itself, so far as it has yet gone."
"What! a railway here!" cried Wyvil. "Why, I
should as soon have thought of running across the Slough
of Despond on a bicycle!"
"Or going down the Styx in an excursion steamer,"
added Huntley.
"Well, perhaps it's not exactly the best place in the
world to make one," admitted the captain with a grin.
"The first sod (or, rather, mud) of this precious railway
was turned last October; but, considering that they've
had to sink forty feet down before they could strike any-
thing solid enough to make a road-bed for the line, it's no
wonder that it doesn't get on very fast. However, I sup-
pose they'll manage to get it done some time or other, if
they choose to spend money enough."
"Yaw, dat is joost it to shpend money!" growled
Mynheer Van Dunck, who had come up just in time to
ISO
IN THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 181
catch the captain's last sentence. " De Government shpend
ze money, but who pay it? Vy, ve, ve, ze planters ve do
pay it all ! De Government leaf us to make dem roads for
ourselfs, and den dey taxes us for dat ve rides and drives
on dem. See you! efery year dey gets out of dis contree
of Sumatra von goot half-million guilders, dat is forty
tousand pounds English; boot how moch shpends dey to
improve it? Not von stiver, as I am honest man! Vere
goes it? It goes to ze war, to kill dem black skellum
(rogue) in Acheen! Ooch!"
Here the orator broke down into Dutch, and relieved
his over-wrought feelings with a burst of emphatic native
interjections too vigorous and pointed for quotation.
Just then another sharp turn brought our heroes in sight
of their anchorage (for the Deli River, like most of its re-
lations, is only navigable near its mouth for vessels of any
draught), alongside of a big, roofed-in hulk such as one
sees at every turn on the west coast of Africa lying in
a deep bend of the river, and looking quite gigantic amid
the tiny sampans (Chinese boats) that hovered round it
like flies.
"But where on earth is the town?" cried Wyvil, looking
round in bewilderment at the bristling masses of pathless
jungle that hemmed him in on every side. " I suppose it's
down at the bottom of the river, and only comes up now
and then to breathe."
"Shouldn't wonder," chuckled Alfred, "for they say
there's a lot of floating capital in the country, as well
there may in a Dutch colony."
"Oh, the town ain't anywhere here, bless you!" said the
first officer, coming up; "it's a good three miles farther up
the river."
"Three miles farther!" echoed Wyvil in dismay. "How
on earth are we going to get there, then ?" Are we supposed
to swim, or paddle our own canoe, or is this old Noah's Ark
here to float us up with the tide?"
182 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" She'll be rotten before she ever gets there if she can't
go a trifle faster than that fellow," cried Huntley, pointing
to a Chinese boatman, who, having rashly taken on board
sixteen of the native steerage passengers at once, was
struggling frantically to propel his overloaded boat against
the current, while, from the extreme slowness of his pro-
gress, and the peculiar way in which he held his oars, it
was hard to tell whether he was going up stream or down.
"Don't let that trouble you," laughed the captain;
"here's our steam-launch coming, and she'll run you up
to Deli in no time."
In fact, the brisk little craft soon left far behind her the
creeping swarm of sampans, with their motley freight of
Chinamen, Boyans, Javanese, and Sumatran Malays; and,
a few minutes later, came snorting and steaming up to a
kind of cross-road in this watery highway, where another
channel, straighter and wider by far than that up which
they had come, forked off to the sea.
This passage, as the native pilot of the steam-launch in-
formed our heroes, had formerly been the one habitually
in use, but it was now so completely choked up with sand-
banks as to be utterly useless, whence its poetical name of
"Dead Eiver", incorrectly, but very appropriately, extended
by its English visitors to the whole estuary of the Deli.
Indeed, the justice of this ominous title was made manifest
before the very eyes of our travellers by a startling and
unexpected proof. Just at the point where the two chan-
nels met, a couple of Malay boatmen were suddenly seen to
jump overboard in the very middle of the river, deliberately
shove their boat along for several yards, and then coolly
get in again and begin paddling as before.
"Hollo!" cried Wyvil; "that's one way to get a boat
along, and no mistake! Do you remember, Alf, the Irish-
man who said that in his country all land travelling was
done by water 1 If he had lived out here, he'd have been
just about right."
IN THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 183
"Oh, that's nothing in these parts!" laughed his father.
"I dare say you would hardly believe that, less than ten
years ago, Dutch men-of-war were sailing over the very
spot where you saw those fellows wading just now; but
it's true for all that."
The boys looked startled, as well they might; for they
could not guess that, behind those high blank walls of dark
foliage that shut them in on either side, a numberless host
of masons inanimate, indeed, but as busy and untiring as
the genii who built the palace of Allah-ed-deen between
sunset and sunrise were at work day and night.
In fact, here as elsewhere, the countless mangrove-roots,
crossing each other in all directions, and constantly shoot-
ing down fresh suckers into the beds of thick black mud
that line the water's edge, catch as in a net the vast de-
posits of soft soil brought down by the muddy river, and
are thus incessantly forming new shoals, while raising the
level of the old ones inch by inch. So rapidly does this
strange work proceed that I have heard some veteran
Sumatra planters declare that the land has gained on
the water nearly two miles in the last ten years; and
thus, while the roads are more than half liquid, the rivers
are fast becoming solid.
A few more twists and turns, and then the port of Deli
burst upon them in all the grandeur of its four houses, its
stately quay, full twenty feet long, and its crowds of two
or three people assembled along the spongy shore, ankle-
deep in the graceful dirt which spreads itself so lovingly
over everything alike.
The first duty of an Englishman in any new place abroad
is, as is well known, to " see what the beggars have got fit
to eat", and then, of course, to denounce it as "a beastly
foreign mess, not fit for a dog". In the case of our tra-
vellers, there was no great difficulty as to the choice of a
hotel, there being only one in the whole place. It was of the
genuine Malay type, raised several feet above the ground
184 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
upon stout wooden piles, with a large kampong (court-yard)
around it, a broad veranda before and behind, and a huge
top-heavy thatch pulled down over its front windows like
an ill-fitting hat.
On the front veranda, a Scotchman, a German, two
Malay half-castes, a Portuguese, a Dutchman, and an
Englishman were all sitting together over a late lunch,
amid a cloud of tobacco smoke; and what with its motley
inhabitants and semi-nautical build, and the pools of water
left around it by the recent rain, the whole structure was
eminently suggestive of Noah's Ark just after its final settle-
ment on what the old dame called " Mount Arrowroot ".
Having snatched a hasty meal, Heathermoor and his
party decided to start at once for Medan, the town of
which Deli is the port; a plan which, like the scheme of
Hannibal's brother for taking Rome, had only one defect,
viz., that it was impossible.
First and foremost, there were not carriages enough for
the whole party, for, thanks to the peculiar size and build
of these objectionable vehicles, two would be required for
the passengers themselves, and a third for their luggage,
while two more were needed to carry the German and the
Portuguese, who were bound in the same direction. Then
it appeared that the custodian of the warehouse in which
the baggage had been deposited had coolly locked up the
place and gone away to his dinner and afternoon nap.
Next, it was found that one of the carriages had been sent
to the wrong place, and must be hunted up; and, by the
time this was done, one of the native drivers had mysteri-
ously vanished in his turn.
"Well," cried Mr. Thurraboy, shrugging his shoulders,
" Mynheer Van Dunck was not far wrong in saying that
the national motto of Sumatra is Nanti dahulu (wait a bit).
" It strikes me we've waited quite long enough already,"
rejoined Lord Heathermoor, "so I shall just go and find
that worthy driver myself."
IN THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 185
And away he went, leaving Thurraboy and the two lads
to mount guard over the carriages, lest they should dis-
appear too.
Just at first the boys had been more amused than annoyed
by these successive mishaps; but, as minute after minute
went by without any sign of the lost driver, they gradually
worked themselves into a perfect fever of impatience,
which was in no way allayed by the placidly contemptuous
stare and derisive comments of a group of native by-
standers, who were looking on with that philosophic com-
posure wherewith men are wont to support the misfortunes
of other people.
At length, however, Heathermoor came back with the
missing man; and Wyvil, skipping into the foremost
carriage at his father's heels, shouted gleefully:
" Off we go ! All right at last ! "
Poor Marmaduke! He was soon to learn, to his cost,
how rashly he had exulted; for, this being his first ex-
perience of carriage-travel in Sumatra, he had not yet
discovered it to be, what it undoubtedly is, the most un-
comfortable mode of travelling in the world.
To form a proper idea of a Sumatran kreta (carriage),
imagine a very dirty packing-case on two rickety wheels,
with the front knocked out, and a Venetian blind stuck in
at an angle of forty-five instead of a back. In fact, but
for its wheels, this admirable conveyance might serve as a
model of Louis XI's famous " cage of little ease ", in which
a prisoner could neither stand up nor lie at full length.
If you lean forward, the first lurch throws you face-fore-
most on your native driver's bare and perspiring shoulders.
If you lean back, off goes your hat at once into the mud
through one or other of the open sides; and if you try to
sit erect, you speedily find yourself trying to knock a hole
in the roof with the top of your head.
Nor is this the worst. The interior of this overgrown
rat-trap being barely large enough to hold two Englishmen,
186 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
or one Dutchman, all your baggage must be corded on to
a kind of wooden step at the back, where, should it be so
lucky as to keep its place, it will be as thoroughly be-
spattered with dirt as a public man who has dared to
surpass his neighbours.
On such a hopeful drive as this the five carriages set
forth at last, strung out in single file; for the narrow,
muddy ditch that its inhabitants facetiously called a street,
would not admit of their going two abreast. In the first
car were Heathermoor and his son; in the next, Thurraboy,
with Alfred and Harimau. The third was freighted with
the luggage of the party, while the Portuguese and the
German, with their belongings, brought up the rear in
the fourth and fifth.
Even before they got clear of the town, the heavy jolts,
that seemed to make the very teeth rattle in their heads,
and the ceaseless "squish" with which the carriages plunged
into quagmire after quagmire, gave our heroes a dismal
foretaste of what was to come; but when they came out
upon the so-called high-road (which, sloppy enough at best,
had been doubly liquefied by that morning's drenching rain)
their troubles began in earnest.
" I say, Daddy," cried Marmaduke, as their car plunged
into its fortieth mud-pool with the rush of a diver, "this
just reverses old John Bunyan it's all Slough of Despond
and no Progress."
" It reminds me," chuckled his father, " of the story of
a man crossing an Irish bog, when he spied a hat lying
on the ground, and, picking it up, saw under it the head
of a sturdy Irishman, just visible above the mud. ' Will
I help ye out?' said he. 'No, thank ye, my boy,' cried
Pat, ' sure, I have a good horse under me, and he'll get me
through if anyone can.' "
Meanwhile Thurraboy and Huntley, in the next car, were
faring no better.
"I think I know now," said the boy, wiping a huge
IN THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 187
splash of black mud from his cheek, " how a man must have
felt when they put him in the pillory. This is just the
same thing to a hair being pinned up so that you can't
move an inch, and pelted with dirt!"
" Happily we authors are used to being pelted with dirt,"
said Thurraboy with a grave smile; "and so we always
shall be, while reviews and newspapers exist."
" Well, I'm going to get out and walk," cried Heather-
moor from the first carriage, suiting the action to the word.
" Get out and wade, you mean, Daddy," laughed his son,
following him.
Thurraboy and Huntley no sooner saw this movement
than they hastened to imitate it; but the young Malay, to
whom the dignity of riding in a carriage like a Rajah was
still quite a novelty, stayed where he was.
Just as the four got out, a Chinese funeral came strug-
gling past through the mire ; and the boys saw with amaze-
ment that two men, who walked just before the bier, clad in
white (the deepest mourning in China), held large sheets of
gold and silver paper, from which they kept tearing small
pieces, and scattering them on the ground as they went.
One of these strips fell close to Wyvil's feet, and he was
about to pick it up as a relic, when his father caught his
arm.
" Don't touch it, whatever you do. Those fellows think
that these scraps of tinsel will serve the deceased as actual
money in the other world; and if you take so much as one
of them, the whole gang will fall upon you for robbing the
dead!"
" But why on earth do they wear white at a funeral 1"
" Well, you know, everything in China is topsy-turvy
according to our ideas. You go into mourning by wearing
white, and keep your hat on in another man's house out
of politeness. When you row a boat, you push the oars
instead of pulling them, and your compass points south
instead of north. Children study philosophy, while their
188 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
innocent grandfathers are flying kites. In addressing a
letter, you put the town first, and the man's name last.
When you are puzzled, you scratch your hip in place of
your head. The ladies wear trousers, while the gentlemen
go about in petticoats."
Here the talk ended, the attention of both speakers being
fully occupied with keeping their footing upon the narrow,
tortuous, and often all but invisible strips of " good road "
(i.e. not more than two or three inches deep in mud), on
either side of which yawned fathomless depths of liquid mire
that might make even an eel turn pale. In truth, this
amphibious highway (what with its half-fluid surface and the
dense masses of rank tropical vegetation that walled it in)
looked far more like the channel of a half-dried river than
the main thoroughfare of a " civilized " region.
" Well, if the Government taxes a road like this," laughed
Heathermoor, " its motto should be : ' Holland expects every
man to pay his duty '."
Just then they were confronted by a vast quagmire,
occupying the whole breadth of the road, seemingly modelled
on a pair of spectacles, for it consisted of two huge round
pools, with a hyphen of nominally solid ground between
them a few inches wide.
They were footing it in single file over this bridge, as
gingerly as if on a tight-rope, when a carriage came dashing
through the mud-pond on the right, while another, coming
from the opposite quarter, splashed into the sister pool on
the left, and in a moment the white clothes of the unlucky
pedestrians assumed the aspect of a well-worn blotting-pad
or a collier's table-cloth.
" Well, now I may consider myself a landed proprietor,"
cried Thurraboy, shaking off a dozen huge mud-clots from
his coat; " I'm sure I've enough real estate on my clothes
to set up a plantation."
" And I may safely call myself a son of the soil," added
Wyvil, as he wiped his mud-plastered face, which was so
IN THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND 189
covered with long black stripes as to give him quite the
look of a zebra.
"A soiled son, you mean," laughed his father, combing
with his smeared fingers a handful of wet mire out of his
dripping beard.
But their wrongs were speedily and amply avenged; for,
just as the carriage that had done the lion's share of the
mischief was vanishing round a sharp bend a few hundred
yards ahead, it was seen to give a violent lurch, and then
to fall right over, with an ominous crash.
"Hollo!" cried Heathermoor, "there's someone come to
grief. Let's go and lend him a hand. He may be hurt."
Their help was certainly needed; for the capsized carriage
had lost its left wheel, the Malay driver was floundering
like a hippopotamus in a deep black puddle, and the pas-
senger, a tall, good-looking young fellow, dressed like a
planter, was leaning against the overturned car, with one
foot drawn up under him as if badly hurt.
"Can we help you?" asked Heathermoor. "You seem
to be going our way, and we could give you a lift in one of
our carriages."
" You are very kind," said the stranger in good English,
though with a foreign accent, "and I will gladly accept
your offer, for I've given my foot such a wrench that it's no
use trying to walk."
" In with you, then," cried Thurraboy, helping him into
the foremost carriage, " and your trunk can be put along
with ours."
" Thank you very much," said the young planter with
a polite bow. " I suppose you are going to Medan ; and if
you care to be burdened with me so far, I dare say I can
find something there to carry me to Willemsdal."
" WillemsdaH" echoed Heathermoor, suddenly recalling
Van Dunck's mention of this name. " I presume, then,
I have the pleasure of speaking to Mynheer Van der
Haagen."
CHAPTER XIX
A MALAY TOWN
THE young Dutchman eyed the speaker with a look of
surprise.
" That is my name, at your service," said he; " but how
do you happen to know it?"
" We have heard a good deal about you," replied Heather-
moor, "from a fellow - passenger of ours, Mynheer Van
Dunck."
"Ah, old Cornelis! did you come over with him?" cried
Van der Haagen, smiling. " Yes, he's an old friend of
mine, and a very good fellow, in spite of his queer ways."
Here their talk was cut short by the starting again of
the carriage, which, plunging, splashing, bumping, and roll-
ing from side to side like a storm-tossed vessel, came so near
capsizing outright, at every turn, that even Heathermoor,
who had wedged himself in along with the hurt man, in the
hope of protecting him to some extent against this unbear-
able jolting, was hard put to it to escape being flung out
head-foremost.
Meanwhile Thurraboy and the two lads were fully em-
ployed in watching the movements of a native coolie, who
was plodding along the road in front of them, and warned
them of the depth of the puddles that awaited them by the
high-water mark of the mud upon his bare limbs, which
kept rising and rising as steadily as a thermometer, till he
was clad from toes to knee-cap in a pair of close-fitting black
stockings worthy of a bishop.
"Happy thought!" cried Wyvil; "let us tip that fellow
190
A MALAY TOWN 191
to keep just ahead of us and show us where the road's
f ordable ! "
" It would be just the thing for a verse in the ' Book of
Nonsense' style," suggested Alfred, "with one of Walter
Crane's illustrations :
" ' There was a wet high-road of Deli,
Just as solid as red-currant jelly ;
We were not half-way,
When our driver did say,
' You must jump out and swim here, I tell ye ! " "
Just at that moment Thurraboy, looking back to see
how Heathermoor's carriage was getting on, saw it plunge
down with a tremendous shock, amid a perfect spray of
mud; then it rebounded, plunged forward again, and stuck
fast.
This mishap occurred just opposite one of those tiny
groups of Chinese thatched huts which broke, at long inter-
vals, the sameness of the flanking walls of matted boughs;
and their yellow-skinned, straw-hatted tenants, seated at
their ease in the shade of a huge tree, surveyed the disaster
without a sign of offering help, evidently thinking the whole
matter a capital joke, as was shown by the twinkle of quiet
amusement that flickered for an instant over the sad serenity
of their flat, doll-like faces.
Not so Thurraboy. Springing to the rescue, he splashed
recklessly through the mire to the stranded vehicle, and
found both wheels fairly embedded in a mud-hole, while
the horse, which had plainly given up the case as hopeless,
stood quite still, taking all his driver's whipping and scream-
ing with philosophic indifference.
The energetic Englishman " put his shoulder to the
wheel " in a literal sense, and heaved with all his might,
while Heathermoor and the driver tugged stoutly in front.
Instantly down went Thurraboy's right foot to a fathomless
depth; and, as he tugged wildly to free it, the other foot
192 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
sank deeper still, and he suddenly felt a gush of cold,
clammy, treacly mire insinuating itself between boot and
foot to the very toes.
" Hollo, Heathermoor," shouted he, " come and pull me
out before I take root, and blossom into steel pens and
sheets of foolscap, as an author should!"
" That will be turning over a new leaf, anyhow," said
Heathermoor, who, exerting his full strength, literally drew
him like a cork out of the clinging mud, with no small risk
of needing to be extracted in the same way himself.
But the valiant author had not sacrificed his clean stock-
ings in vain. His powerful heave, given just at the right
moment, had done its work, and the sunken carriage rose
to the surface once more.
All these mishaps, however, had taken up so much time
that the sun was already sinking, and our travellers began
to fear that night would overtake them ere they could reach
their journey's end. But happily the worst part of the
twelve miles between Deli and Medan was over by this time;
and as the swampy flats of the shore were gradually left
behind, and the road mounted towards the uplands, the
soil grew firmer, the mud-pits less and less frequent, and
both cars and pedestrians advanced much more briskly than
before.
Signs of life, too, now began to multiply on every side.
The grass-thatched hovels of the natives, hitherto few and
far between, presented themselves at every turn. Small
patches of cleared ground broke the dark outline of the
jungle every here and there; and our heroes met more than
one gang of Chinamen or Malays plodding along the high-
road, or issuing from the surrounding thickets.
Finding their work easier, and visibly refreshed by the
coolness of the approaching night, the wearied horses, seem-
ing to feel instinctively that they were nearing the end of
their toilsome journey, mended their pace, and got over
the ground pretty rapidly. Presently the red-tiled roof of
A MALAY TOWN 193
a large country-house was seen rising above the trees, and
the long brown thatches of several " drying-sheds ", cropping
up through the rich green foliage, told them that they had
reached the tobacco - planting region at last. A sudden
vision of trim white villas, half -buried in many -coloured
vegetation a sprinkling of sallow little soldiers in dark-blue
a small-pox of native huts breaking out all at once along
either side of the road a sharp turn to the left, and then,
just as the sun sank behind the distant mountains of
Acheen, our travellers found themselves safe under the
hospitable though not wholly weather - tight roof of the
Medan Hotel.
Here they parted from their new friend, Mynheer Van
der Haagen, who, turning a deaf ear to Lord Heathermoor's
hospitable entreaties to stay and dine with them, declared
that he must go on at once, and started again for his
plantation at Willemsdal (which lay a few miles farther up
the road) as soon as a carriage could be got ready to convey
him. But, before taking his leave of them, he once more
thanked them heartily for their assistance, and made them
promise, twice over, to come and stay with him as soon
as he should be able to get his house in order for their
reception.
Dinner was ready at the hotel a few minutes after the
arrival of our heroes, and the two boys were immensely
amused at the peculiar style of their first Sumatran dinner.
A huge soup-plate was set before each guest, and filled to
the brim with hot boiled rice. On this foundation was
built up a perfect pyramid of curried prawns, dried fish,
sweet omelette, chillie peppers, hashed mutton, French
beans, rissoles, minced beef, preserved ginger, and sliced
sausage all this, be it remembered, on one plate!
"This is what you may call an 'all -nations dish',"
grinned Wyvil; "something to suit everyone, from the
Chinaman to the Yankee. It's as big a jumble as that
Greek pie in Aristophanes, which was by way of being
(B633) W
194 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
the longest word in the world. How did it go, Alf?
You used to reel it off pat enough at the old Charter-
house."
"I'll try," said Alfred. " Lepado-temacho-selacho-galeo-
kranio - leipsano-drim-hupotrimmato - silphio-praso - melito-
katakechumeno - kichl - epi - kossupho - phatto - perister-alek-
truon - opt - enkephalo - peleio - lagoo - siraio - baphe - tragano-
pterugon!"
" Better drink some water after that," laughed Heather-
moor. " What a chance that word would give to a school-
master to play a trick on a boy by letting him off easy
with only one word to write out for an imposition, and
give him that!"
" And wouldn't it be an, awkward dish for some short-
winded old Greek gentleman to order for dinner," added
Thurraboy; "especially if the waiter didn't happen to hear
him the first time ! "
The beds of this strange hostelry were as queer as its
meals; the one allotted to Wyvil and his chum being almost
as big as a cottage garden, and mapped out with bolsters
and cushions into so many small "allotments" as to sug-
gest that its original occupant must have sub-let his extra
space to three or four different families.
The rooms themselves, however, were large, high, and
well aired, thanks to a door (or rather doorway) at each
end, so protected by canvas screens as to leave a guest
tolerably private, even when sitting outside his door. But,
except in the early morning, there was little sitting out of
any kind. Directly after the one o'clock tiffin (lunch), all
the lodgers vanished like rabbits running to earth; doors
and shutters were closed, and the whole place lay voiceless
and lifeless as a tomb for more than three hours. Not till
half-past four did this new version of the Sleeping Beauty's
Palace wake up, aroused by the shouts of the guests to their
respective "boys", as they call native servants older than
themselves.
A MALAY TOWN 195
"Funny kind of place, isn't it?" said Marmaduke, as
they peeped from behind their screen at sunrise at their
new surroundings, which they had hardly seen amid the
gathering darknesss of the previous night.
He might well say so. The hotel looked as if originally
issued in serial parts, the dining-room, bed-rooms, kitchen,
and stables being all separated from each other, and
scattered all over the courtyard. Along the front of the
dining-room (prudently raised several feet above the damp
ground) ran a vast roofed-in veranda, nearly half as large
as the hotel itself, serving the triple purpose of billiard-
room, parlour, and smoking-room, in which, whenever it
rained (which, in the wet season, was every day and all
day long), the Dutch traders sat over their pipes and
tankards, chatting, driving bargains, or turning over the
stained and tattered copies of the Roiterdamske Humoristik
Album that lay on the small round tables.
"I say," cried Huntley, peering out in turn, "here's a
fellow cleaning our boots with a big red flower!" (the
Hibiscus).
" The flower of a boot-tree, I suppose," chuckled Wyvil.
" Fancy hearing a boot-black sing out : ' Redden yer boots,
sir?' But here comes breakfast."
Eager for a good look at their new surroundings, the
boys finished their meal in a trice, and, after shouting in
vain for their Malay henchman, " Harry ", sallied forth for
a walk round the town.
But "Harry" (who by this time answered to his new
name as readily as to his own) was just then otherwise
engaged. Heathermoor and Thurraboy, now that they
were actually in sight of the mountains among which
they believed their friend to be held captive, wished, of
course, to set about his rescue at once, and had sent
for Harimau to take counsel with them.
" The one thing that troubles me in this business," said
Thurraboy, "is that, as you saw last night, no one here
196 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
seems to have heard anything of a white man being taken
by the Acheenese, though it's more than five weeks since
that shipwreck. Now, from what I know of Eastern ways,
it is hardly credible that a gang of savages should keep
such an important prisoner so long (if they really had got
him) without sending to demand his ransom, or at least
letting the white men know he was there."
"It does look bad," admitted Heathermoor; "but, after
all, there may be some reason for it of which we know
nothing. Those Somauli fellows who took you didn't put
you to ransom, you know."
"Yes, but that was because they hoped to get more by
selling me for a slave. These Acheen fellows couldn't do
that with the colonel, you know. But here comes our
young Rob Roy, looking Tiger by name and tiger by
nature."
In fact, the Tiger of the Golden Mountain had suddenly
shown an ominous change in his look and bearing. Once
more in view of his native hills, the fierce instincts of his
race were awake again, and he entered with the quick,
springy step, fiery glance, and savage alertness of his
terrible namesake.
The two men exchanged a meaning look, filled with a
secret fear that the new influences of civilization, which
this wild spirit had just begun to feel, would prove too
weak to resist the overwhelming force of the impulse
that was dragging him back to barbarism.
"Inche (chief) Harimau," said Heathermoor, who was
always careful to treat the young chief with studied
courtesy, "you know more of Acheen than we, and we
want you to advise us. Why is it, think you, that, if
Tuan Huntley is captive to your people, they have never
sent to the whites for a ransom for him?"
"It is hard to say, Tuan Ingrez (English master). He
may have been sick or hurt in the shipwreck, and then
they could do nothing till he was well again; or perhaps
A MALAY TOWN 197
they could not agree what ransom to ask for him; or the
messenger whom they sent may have been killed by some
other tribe."
"Then you still think he is alive yet?"
"Why not, Tuan? You have told me that he could
swim well; and, if he escaped the sea, no son of the
mountain would be such a gheela (fool) as to slay him?"
" And what, then, do you think we had better do?"
"Were I you, Tuan, I would send a native messenger up
into the hills to find out if the sons of the mountains hold
any white man captive, and who he is. Gladly would I go
on your errand myself; but you know what the prophet
has spoken: 'Till the appointed day is past, my foot
must not tread our hills again'. But money draws all
men after it, and assuredly it will be no hard matter
to find a man who will do your bidding for a sufficient
reward."
The two Englishmen dismissed their young adviser with
many thanks, and quickly agreed that they could not do
better than follow his counsel.
"And the best man to recommend us a reliable mes-
senger," added Heathermoor, "will be our friend Van der
Haagen of Willemsdal; and, if we don't hear anything of
him to-day, I'll send him a note the first thing to-morrow
morning."
Meanwhile, the two boys had quickly exhausted the
quiet little Malay town, which consisted chiefly of three
or four neat white Dutch villas, lying a little back from
the road amid feathery bamboos and fan-like palm leaves;
of a few open-fronted shops kept by Chinamen or Portu-
guese half-castes; and of a number of rude native hovels of
wood and dried grass, perched on strong piles several feet
in height, and looking, as Wyvil said with a grin, "like a
gang of centipedes crawling away through the mud ". Then,
finding no ground to walk on save the high-road itself for
the soft soil of the encircling plantations had been whipped
198 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
into a perfect custard by the recent rains they struck out
along it at a brisk pace.
"I say," cried Wyvil, "do you remember that black
panther that gobbled up the old magician in Doctor Basilius ?
I wonder if they have any of 'em here."
" I dare say they have," said Alfred coolly. " Dr. Basilius
hung out in Java, but they say the animals are much the
same in both. Wouldn't it be fine if we could manage to
shoot one? But what's that enclosure yonder? It looks
like a public garden of some sort."
It was a garden, but not such as they thought; for one
glance at the mouldering wooden crosses and crumbling
headstones told them that they had reached the burial-
ground of the settlement.
"Well, I do think they might keep it in better order,"
said Marmaduke. "Why, these two stones have crumbled
so that you can't make out the name; and just see how
those crosses are rotting away. They'll all be down to-
gether, the first time there's anything of a wind."
" But how can they help it in such a climate 1 Besides,
it's not that the wood's decayed; it's been eaten by the
ants. See, there they are at it now."
In fact, so completely was the cross to which he pointed
undermined by the swarming destroyers that it must have
fallen but for the support of a splendid tropical creeper,
which had twined lovingly around the mouldering wood as
if striving to hide its decay. Wyvil put aside the cluster-
ing leaves, and saw the rudely-painted words:
"Karel Willem, geboren April 24, 1881; gestorben
Mai 24, 1882."
"Only lasted a year, poor little fellow," said the English
boy pityingly. " I suppose the climate is very bad for
children."
" It must be, for here's a poor little mite that only lived
thirteen days," said Alfred, stooping over the next cross,
which told its own story:
A MALAY TOWN 199
"Gerrit Christian Frederick Beurhof, Mai 11-24, 1877."
" Here's one Englishman at least," cried Wyvil, who had
moved a little to the right, " and buried pretty lately too."
" And here's a Bohemian and a Swiss. Terribly home-
sick they must have been, poor fellows! I've heard the
Swiss always are when they go and live abroad."
" See these two graves here. They must belong to some
of the big men of the place, for there's been a lot of work
spent on 'em, and a lot of money too."
The tombs to which Marmaduke pointed which lay a
little apart from the rest did indeed show marks of un-
usual care. Though so freshly made that they were still
unmarked with either headstone or slab, the one was
encircled with a tasteful iron railing about eighteen inches
high, and the other edged with a neat border of white
stone, at the corners of which stood four pretty little red
vases filled with earth, whence the first green shoots of
tropical plants were just beginning to peer.
" Well," cried Marmaduke, looking about him admiringly,
"who'd ever have thought of coming across such a pretty
little place in the middle of all this mud and mess?"
In truth, in this quiet little grave-yard on the edge of
the boundless forest, Death himself seemed robbed of half
his terrors by the loving and tender care bestowed upon his
victims by the great mother on whose breast they reposed.
The very boundary of the enclosure, instead of a bare wall
of cold grey stone, was a ring of green boughs and gorgeous
flowers, the many-coloured brightness of which would have
tasked the pencil of Turner himself. Stately palms bent
mournfully over the dead. The hard outline of the rough-
hewn crosses was lost in the embrace of twining creepers.
Clustering leaves and huge bell-like flowers hid the moulder-
ing stones. To a poet's eye all this freshness, and bright-
ness, and beauty might well have seemed an offering laid
by mighty Nature in late repentance on the tombs of the
poor mortals whose feeble life had shrivelled like a
200 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
blighted flower under the blasting breath of her fierce
tropical might.
Here their sight -seeing might fairly have ended, espe-
cially as the sun was now high in the sky, and the scorching
tropical heat began to make itself felt in earnest. But, in
an evil hour for both, Wyvil saw, beyond the narrow belt
of cleared ground that encircled the grave-yard, a bristling
forest of wild grass (the famous " tiger-grass " of the East
Indies, high enough to hide a man on horseback), forming
the vanguard of the untamed jungle beyond.
"I say, Alf, here's a chance!" he cried. "We've never
been in a real tropical jungle yet; let's go in now and see
what it's like."
"But how about the snakes?"
"Oh, bother the snakes! You don't suppose there's
bound to be a rattlesnake or a boa-constrictor under every
blade of grass that we tread upon 1 If a snake attacks us,
we'll kill it and take it home for breakfast. Come along!
I've heard Mr. Thurraboy talk of grass high enough to lose
your way in, and I want to see how it feels."
How it felt poor Marmaduke soon found out to his cost.
Snakes, indeed, they saw none; but hardly had they gone
fifty yards through this grass-forest (the feathery tops of
which rose far above their heads) when Alfred, who was a
few paces in the rear, called out in dismay :
"I say, old fellow, have you cut yourself? your breeks
are all bloody."
Sure enough, Wyvil's white trousers were blotted with
a broad red stain a little above the ankle. Hastily pulling
them up, the boy saw a huge black leech clinging to his
flesh; and Huntley, stooping to pull it off, found two more
of these horrible creatures fastening on himself.
"We'd best be off out of this," cried he, facing about.
" Right you are. I've bled for my country quite enough
for one day, and I don't want to be turned into a set of
cuts by Leech."
A MALAY TOWN 201
"I ought to have warned you of that," said Heather-
moor, on hearing the story. " That long grass just swarms
with these wood-leeches, and no one ever thinks of going
into it without knee-high boots. It's lucky you went no
farther."
That evening, to their great satisfaction, came a note
from Van der Haagen to say that he would have all ready
for them next day, and send a carriage for them between
four and five in the afternoon.
CHAPTER XX
ON A SUMATKAN PLANTATION
T7ERY glad to see you, gentlemen. I've got some tea
T ready for you, and we shall have dinner in about an
hour."
So spoke the hospitable Van der Haagen as his guests
drove up to the door in the carriage sent for them, a small
cart following with their luggage.
The boys looked at the house with much interest, this
being the first Dutch country-house that they had visited
in the East, and it was certainly worth looking at. Larger
and loftier than the bungalow of British India, Van der
Haagen's mansion (approached from the highway by a
short curving drive) reared its broad white front amid the
trees of a spacious garden, in the arrangement of which
much taste as well as labour had been employed. From
a thatched porch, wide enough to shelter twenty men with
ease, a flight of wooden steps led up to a roomy veranda
set with light tables and basket-chairs of the well-known
East-Indian pattern. This veranda, extending along the
whole house-front, and completely shaded by the overhang-
ing eaves, communicated by two doors with the neat and
well-furnished drawing-room (which looked delightfully cool
and shady after the blistering glare outside), while under
the building ran a kind of colonnade, formed by the stout
posts that raised its foundation well above the damp soil;
and in this seclusion fowls were scratching and dogs play-
ing hide-and-seek unmolested.
Laying aside their vast umbrella-like sun-hats, our tra-
IN
ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 203
vellers gathered round the tea-table which was standing
all ready on the veranda, while Mynheer's native servants
carried up the luggage.
For the first few minutes the talk turned on indifferent
subjects, and the two lads were delighted to find that not
only had their host spent several years in England (as
might be guessed by his excellent English), but he had
actually visited the Charterhouse itself, and, indeed, had
more than one acquaintance among their former school-
fellows.
Just at first, however, Lord Heathermoor himself was
markedly silent and preoccupied; for, eager as he was to
open at once the question of Colonel Huntley's release, he
naturally shrank from the seeming discourtesy of entering
upon his own affairs with a comparative stranger just after
setting foot in the latter's house for the first time.
But the thought that his best friend was a captive
among savages, and in hourly peril of death, overbore
every other consideration, and ere the meal ended Van der
Haagen had heard the whole story.
"I am glad you've told me all this," said he heartily,
" and I need hardly say I shall be most happy to give you
any help I can. By the bye, you have not told me your
friend's name yet."
" You may possibly know it, for he has travelled a good
deal in these parts. His name is Colonel Randolph
Huntley."
"Randolph Huntley!" echoed the host. "I have good
cause to know his name, for but for him I should not be
here now."
"How was that 1 ?" asked Heathermoor and Thurraboy
both at once.
"A Malay rogue in Borneo was going to stab me in my
sleep, when a shot from Huntley's revolver broke his arm
just in time to save me."
" They may well call him ' Rescue Randolph '," said
204 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Heathermoor with a grim smile; "he seems to be always
saving someone."
"I dare say he never told you of it," resumed the
planter, "for he was not the man to talk of his own ex-
ploits; but you see I'm doubly bound to do all I can for
him, and I'm the more sorry that all I can is just now very
little."
Heathermoor's brightening face clouded visibly.
"Allow me to explain," said the other, noticing this.
" If it were only a question of finding a capable messenger
I could find you a dozen, but, unluckily, there is far more
needed than that. You see, these restless mountain tribes
in Acheen are always, as regards us Dutchmen, on a footing
either of open war or, of armed neutrality, which your
Captain Marry^t very truly defined as usually meaning
a charge of bayonets; and at present all the tribes of the
coast where your friend's vessel was wrecked are so bitter
against us that to send a native scout to them would
simply ensure his being murdered directly it was known
(as it soon would be) that he came from our settlements."
"But in that case," said the guest, looking graver still,
" might they not murder Huntley too in the belief that he
was a Dutchman?"
" Not likely, for many of them have had a good deal to
do with the English, and they would know the difference
at once. I think there can be no doubt of his safety; the
difficulty is to get at him. There is only one man here
who could help us, if he chose."
" And who is he, pray?"
"The Rajah of Medan, who, though he has adopted
many European ways, and associates quite as much with
the white men as with his own people, has always kept up
friendly relations with the Acheen Malays, and has great
influence among them, being related to several of their
most powerful chiefs. Unfortunately, he is a flighty young
fellow, constantly quarrelling with someone about nothing
ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 205
at all. He is not very fond of us Dutch at any time, and,
unluckily, an Englishman offended him just the other day,
so I doubt if either you or I would be well received by him
just now."
Here Wyvil, who had looked up eagerly at the first
mention of the Rajah, broke in unceremoniously:
"Did you say the Rajah of Medan? Why, I've got a
letter to him myself that the Maharajah of Johore gave
me; I'd quite forgotten it. Hold on a minute and I'll fetch
it you."
Away he ran, and returned in a trice with the all-
important letter, which, boy-like, he had suffered to lie for-
gotten for many weeks in the pocket of his portmanteau.
"Well, with that the thing is as good as done," said Van
der Haagen, visibly brightening after a moment's scrutiny
of the straggling, long-legged Eastern characters, which
looked as if someone had trodden, on a dozen spiders at
once. " I know this man ^ould do anything for the Maha-
rajah of Johore, and, as a rule, he's friendly to Englishmen,
though he happens to be out of humour with them just
now. It's too late to send it to him to-day, but I'll
despatch it by special messenger to-morrow morning, and
then he'll most likely ask you to come and see him, and
give you all the help he can."
This assurance was a cordial to his hearers' drooping
spirits, and even the anxious Huntley felt more hopeful
when, early next morning, he and Wyvil stepped out on
the veranda after their bath.
The first rays of sunrise were just lighting up the vast
procession of wooded mountains along the northern sky,
and over hill and valley, field and wood, brooded a stillness
as deep and solemn as if the world had that day come fresh
from the hand of God. All along the foreground (which
the distant jungle enclosed as if in a dark frame) extended
a rich crop of tall grass, relieved by the lighter green of the
young rice. Hump-necked Brahmin oxen, with upcurved
206 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
horns forming a complete ring, grazed drowsily in the low,
deep pasture-lands. Gaunt, bare-limbed, brown-faced men,
who, as Alfred said, looked as if made of the tobacco on
which they laboured, were creeping like ants along the
edge of the jungle, and on every side started up, like rocks
out of this sea of vegetation, the long, low, barrack-like
sheds built for the pressing and drying of the tobacco
leaves, in which were at work the four hundred Chinamen
who had been called to their task half an hour before by
the blast of a cow's horn.
"Isn't it grand?" cried Alfred; "and I can afford to
enjoy it now that there seems a chance to get Daddy out
of these fellows' claws. Just think that he's really among
those hills we see yonder. Why, it's almost as if we saw
him!"
" And now that we are so near him we'll have him out of
that somehow, never fear!" cried Wyvil valiantly. "I had
no idea, though, that it would be such a business to do it.
I thought we'd just go and take him away from them, slap-
off. But I suppose it's as Mr. Thurraboy says it's only
in story-books that people overcome difficulties and rescue
prisoners as easily as one would eat a mince-pie."
"If Mr. Thurraboy made that remark," chimed in that
gentleman's voice from behind, " he never said a truer word
in his life; and you will do me the justice to admit that I
have never in any book of mine made my hero rout a
whole tribe of savages single-handed, or carry off a rescued
lady in one hand while fighting half a dozen robbers with
the other, or spirit away a chained captive from an under-
ground dungeon through the midst of fifty armed guards,
or any other idiotic nonsense like that. But here comes
our tea and bread-and-butter, and after it we'll go for a
walk."
They did so, and found plenty to look at even in the
garden itself. The boys were delighted to find, growing in
the open air, so many shrubs and plants which they had
ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 207
hitherto seen only in glass houses, and they looked doubly
interested when they saw, hanging overhead, like prickly
cannon-balls, several specimens of the famous " durian " or
jack-fruit, that strange jumble of pine-apple, melon, and
cocoa-nut, equally renowned for the exquisite flavour of its
taste and the horrible foulness of its smell, which can only
be realized by eating bad eggs and decayed fish over an
open drain.
All at once Marmaduke, who was a few steps in advance,
drew back with a loud "Hollo!", and Alfred, springing
forward, saw the whitened skull of an elephant, with a
tell-tale bullet-hole in its vast frontal-bone, starting up just
in front of him, amid the twining green leaves and brilliant
flowers. -,
"There," said Thurraboy, pointing to it with a look of
sombre meaning, "is the best type of Sumatra."
The ominous words, though not yet supported by the
terrible proof which was to confirm them ere many days
were over, awed for a moment even the reckless boys who
heard them. In truth, no fitter emblem could be found
than this of the ambushed death that lurks on every side
beneath all the gorgeous tropical beauty of this magnificent
temple of destruction. Corpses come drifting down its
smooth, shining rivers. Crocodiles lie lurking in every
lagoon. Snakes coil and hiss in every thicket. The deadly
" black panther ", and the deadlier pestilence, against which
no care or caution can avail, haunt the shadowy depths of
its stately forests. A thousand perils, each with its own
tale of terror and doom, lie hid beneath the smiling surface
of its calm, sunlit seas. Amid the soft, dreamy beauty of
its wood -crowned hills the thin wreaths of bluish -white
smoke that curl venomously upward tell but too plainly
of the quenchless fires below. All the rich colouring, all
the barbaric splendour, of this wondrous region, is but a
beautiful mask hiding the eyeless horror of a death's-
head.
208 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
But these gloomy fancies were scattered at once by their
host's hearty voice from the veranda above.
"Good-morning, gentlemen! I'm just going to send off
that letter to the Rajah, and then I'll show you over the
plantation, and let you see what we planters are doing
here."
Twenty minutes later the party were tramping off to
the tobacco-sheds with their host, who said, as they went
along :
"It's a pity you were not here in spring, for then you
would have seen the whole thing from beginning to end
planting, growing, picking, and all the rest. But just now
there is nothing going on except the drying of the leaves,
which is being done in that shed yonder. You seldom get
two tobacco crops in succession from one piece of land.
Some of our neighbours have done it, but in general we
find it better to plant it with rice or something of that
sort, and not try tobacco upon it again for six or seven
years, which is just what I'm doing here, as you see."
And, so saying, he pointed to a wide belt of padi (rice)
which stretched far away to the right, its tender green
contrasting very prettily with the dark mass of uncleared
woodland behind it. In the nearer edge of the jungle
gaped a deep gash, showing where fresh ground was being
cleared for new tobacco-plantations, and right in the centre
of the great rice-field, towering far above the rustling sea
of smooth green blades below, a vast tree stood in solitary
grandeur, like some aged Indian warrior, the last of his
race, lingering alone amid the settlements of the pale-
faces.
"That's one of the sacred trees of the Malays," said
Van der Haagen, in answer to the questioning looks of his
companions. "There are several which they hold sacred,
and when we begin cutting away the jungle, to clear fresh
soil for planting, the natives come to us and beg us to
spare this tree or that tree, and of course we always do
ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 209
it. Now, here we are at the drying -shed. Shall we go
in?"
In they went accordingly, and found the interior very
much like a farm-yard, the hay-stacks being replaced with
huge piles of tobacco-leaves, among which a perfect army
of half-clad Chinese coolies, four hundred strong, were hard
at work sorting, ranging, and stowing.
Little conversation was possible here, for the four visitors
(none of whom were smokers) were all but stifled by the
atmosphere, in which the seasoned Chinamen breathed as
freely as in the open air. In fact, so overpowering was the
smell of the half-dried tobacco that a smoker might have
enjoyed his favourite pastime gratis, merely by taking an
empty pipe with him and inhaling the air through it.
"That is how we measure the heat, you see," said the
planter, pointing to a hollow bamboo thrust through each
stack of tobacco leaves, with a stick inside it, which, when
drawn out, was almost too hot to be touched. "It must
never be above or below a certain point, you know. In-
stead of stripping the whole plant at once, we hang it up
to dry, and don't strip the leaves till quite dried. The
Sumatra tobacco, however, won't do for cigars; it's only
used for the deck-blatt (cover-leaf) that covers the outside
of the cigar. Last season America took a great deal of
our tobacco, and we expect they'll take more still, in spite
of the high duty. The usual price is two and a half
guilders (four shillings) per pound, and the cost of trans-
port to Europe four shillings per bale of one hundred and
sixty pounds."
Midway along the grove of leaf -stacks, each as high as a
man's head, hung a ponderous iron steam-punch, all ready
to squeeze the loose leaves into bales as firm and even as
mosaic.
But what most struck them all was the healthy, muscular
look of the coolies, who, as Van der Haagen told them, had
three meals of rice and fish daily.
(B533) O
210 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" Ten hours' work," added he. " The horn blows at five
in the morning, and then they breakfast, and are at work
by six. They leave off at eleven to lunch, and start again
at twelve. At five, work is over for the day, and they go to
dinner. I'll show you their kitchen presently, and I think
you'll find it in pretty good order."
"Do they ever give you any trouble?" asked Thurraboy.
" Very seldom. Now and then some man stands up and
says he won't work; but it never lasts long. You see,
they're just like children with their fits and their humours,
and all you have to do is to be quite quiet and firm, and,
above all, never to lose your temper or seem the least bit
afraid. In all the time I've been on this plantation I've
only had one really serious row."
"And what was that?" asked Wyvil eagerly.
"Well, it was all the fault of one man one of those
rascally half-castes, part Chinese and part Malay, who are
generally the worst sort that we have. I had just begun
to keep my eye upon this fellow, as likely to make mischief
among the men, when one morning the whole three hundred
broke loose as soon as the horn sounded, and came trooping
down to the house with this fellow, Lu-Yan, at their head,
all shouting and yelling at once.
"I stood on the veranda, just at the head of the stair,
so that only one man could reach me at a time, and I said
to them quite quietly :
" ' Speak one at a time, and then I can understand you.'
" So they put Lu-Yan forward, and up he came and de-
manded double wages all round, and half a dozen other
things more absurd still, adding some insolence of his own
in a blustering kind of way, which showed me that he was
really afraid, and only swaggering to hide it.
" Before he could finish I hit out with all my might, and
knocked him head-over-heels to the bottom of the stair,
upsetting in his fall two or three others who had crowded
up after him.
ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 211
" ' There ! ' I cried, ' you see what a coward you've taken
for your leader. Carry him away, and go to your work at
once!'"
"And did they do it?" enquired Marmaduke, to whom
the idea of this quiet, pleasant-looking, modest young fellow
facing three hundred mutineers single-handed had quite a
heroic sound.
"Every man of them," replied the young Dutchman,
smiling; "and as for the half-caste, I discharged him on
the spot, and told him never to show his face on my land
again. And since then (this was a year ago) all has gone
well."
" And what became of Lu-Yan!" asked Alfred.
" Well, he may have slipped off to Singapore, or to the
Acheen hills, like^inany of our black sheep; but I've heard
no more of him."
By this time they were at the coolies' quarters, which,
on the outside, were an exact copy of the drying-shed itself,
but on entering they seemed to be in a military encamp-
ment, the tents being fairly represented by two long lines
of mosquito-curtains, some blue and some white, with an
open space down the middle.
Inside each curtain was the indispensable pipe and one
of those curiously -painted boxes that one sees in every
Chinese shop from Penang to Shanghai, and in the middle
of the central avenue rose a rude altar made of two old
packing-cases, and adorned with "joss-sticks", coloured
paper, and crabbed Chinese characters.
But the most striking thing was the spotless cleanliness,
which suggested a Dutch village at home rather than an
Eastern plantation; and, fresh from the sight of the
"Chinese town" in Singapore, they were amazed at such
neatness in a building tenanted by four hundred Chinamen.
" I'm always careful of that," said the planter, " for men
can never be healthy if they don't keep clean. I make
them keep their place in good order, and so we hardly ever
212 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
have any sickness. Now, will you come and see our head
Chinese overseer? You'll find him a very good fellow."
As they entered the trim little garden encircling the big
thatched house of the Chinese "boss", he appeared at the
door with a smile of welcome, and greeted them in Chinese
fashion by shaking his own hand instead of theirs, the boys
imitating him with great glee.
"You b'longee top-side," was his first salutation; "dlinko
one piecee demon-water chop-chop' (i.e. you come up and
drink a glass of demon-water at once).
"Can do," said Heath ermoor, whose travels in China had
familiarized him with pigeon (i.e. business) English.
The "demon- water" came, in the form of three big
bottles of soda-water, which the hospitable Chinaman un-
corked by the simple process of knocking off their necks
against the door-post.
His front room, opening to the veranda, was a perfect
museum of quaint Chinese carvings in wood or ivory, and
long, narrow, scarlet streamers hanging down the walls,
inscribed in black Chinese characters; these latter being
keepsakes from native friends. And now his wife and
children, conquering their first shyness, came forward to
greet the strangers in turn.
While Heathermoor and Thurraboy talked to the parents,
our boys had a game with the children, not a little amused
at the perfect gravity of these solemn wee yellow images
with braceleted wrists and narrow black eyes, who, though
evidently enjoying the fun, never once relaxed into a smile.
" Do all Chinamen talk such queer English?" asked Wyvil
as they left.
" To be sure. Haven't you ever seen the translation into
pigeon English of ' Mary had a Little Lamb ' ?
" ' Maly hab littee piecee lamb,
He wool all same he snow ;
What time he Maly b'long one side,
He lamb make all same go.' "
ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 213
" That Chinese overseer of mine will be a rich man some
day," said Van der Haagen. "He makes one thousand
pounds a year, and knows how to take care of it too. I
wish the coolies would do the same; but they gamble away
their money as fast as they get it. Now, yonder is the
coolies' kitchen," pointing to a long thatched shed open on
all four sides, "but I think I had better show you that later
on, when they're having their dinner."
"Do you do much coffee-growing in these parts r {" asked
Lord Heath ermoor.
" No, Java's more the place for that. Here we grow little,
for, as a rule, it don't even pay its own expenses. I have a
small plantation near here, but I doubt if I shall ever make
much out of it. Tobacco's the great thing in Sumatra."
"But if you so seldom get two crops running off the
same ground, and have to clear fresh land every year for
planting, the plantations must be very large."
"They are. One plantation, belonging to the Deli
Tabaks-Matschaapij (Tobacco Co.), which you must have
passed on your way here, stretches thirty-six miles, and
there are others even larger than that. In fact, there being
from four hundred to five hundred men employed on each
plantation, and each man having the care, during the plant-
ing season, of a patch of ground three hundred feet long by
twenty feet broad, you may think how much space is needed
in all. Well, I think you have seen everything now, except
the coolies' kitchen, which I'll show you to-night."
That evening, between five and six, they came up to the
coolies' kitchen and found it all in a bustle. One man was
drawing water as if for a wager, another watching a huge
iron pot, and a third filling with cooked rice the bowls
handed by the coolies as they came up. Others were
already eating their allowance, and those who had finished
were washing their dishes and carrying them away.
At the entrance of the Fan-Kwei (foreign demons) all
looked up with visible interest, and when Van der Haagen,
214: AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
saying a few kind words here and there in passing, helped
himself from one of the rice-buckets with a flat wooden
spoon, and Heathermoor followed suit, the general satisfac-
tion rose to a height.
"You try littee piecee chow-chow (food) too, master,"
said a tall Chinaman, offering Alfred a spoonful of rice;
"chow-chow muchee good."
This trick, if tried on the headlong Wyvil, might have
succeeded; but the cooler Alfred did not fail to notice the
quick glance of eager expectation shot at him by the coolies
as he put out his hand for the spoon; and he guessed at
once that the rice was burning hot !
Quick as thought, he seized the spoon, and thrust the
scalding mess into the mouth of the joker himself, who, thus
caught in his own trap, sputtered it out with a choking
screech like the cry of a strangled parrot. A shrill cackle
of glee from the coolies mingled with a lusty roar from the
English, and the discomfited joker slunk away, looking
very foolish indeed.
This completed the survey, and back they went to the
house, well satisfied with their sight-seeing, and much im-
pressed by their host's kind and thoughtful care of his
labourers.
"If all Dutch settlers in the East had been like him,"
said Lord Heathermoor in a tone of grave meaning, "it
would have been a very good thing both for them and for
their colonies!"
And well might he say so; for, in truth, there are few
sadder or darker stories in that great Newgate Calendar of
nations which men call history, than the rise and fall of
Holland's Eastern empire. Never were such glorious possi-
bilities offered to any nation; never were they more hope-
lessly and miserably cast away. When the Dutchman
came, in the fulness of time, to supplant those cruel, profli-
gate, rapacious Portuguese viceroys, who were the shame
of mankind in the sixteenth century, he came crowned
ON A SUMATRAN PLANTATION 215
with the glory of a triumph over the mightiest of modern
tyrannies, secured against both bodily and spiritual des-
potism by his Protestant creed and his republican institu-
tions, with all his energies developed to the utmost by that
long battle with man and nature that had raged ever since
the green pastures of Scaldmariland first received the name
of Bet Auw (good meadow), softened by the elegant Koman
into Batavia.
Then came to Holland and her people, had they but
known it, the day of salvation not only for themselves, but
for the whole Eastern world. The richest field of enter-
prise upon the face of the earth lay open before them.
Spain and Portugal had fallen. England was still but a
faint shadow upon the farthest horizon. In India, Japan,
and Malacca, Holland had supplanted Portugal; in Am-
boyna and the Moluccas, she had torn down the flag of
Spain. The civilized world's whole carrying-trade, and the
civilized world's wealth along with it, were pouring into
the stately harbour of Amsterdam. In the West, the
sturdy republicans who had defied the whole might of
Spain were a match for the combined strength of France
and England. In the East, millions of men, weary of
Portuguese treachery and Spanish oppression, were ready
to hail any change as a change for the better. The Am-
boyna massacre, the Java rebellion, the crimes of Warren
Hastings and his successors in India, the Opium War, the
Sepoy Mutiny, long generations of sin, and misery, and
ruin, would never have been, could the hero of the hour
have been content to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with God.
But it was not to be. Spain had sinned like a fanatic;
Holland sinned like a tradesman. The selfish greed of
gain was slowly eating away the stout manhood of that
noble nation which had buried its fairest tracts beneath the
sea to save beleaguered Leyden. In an age that could
remember the battle of Nieuport and the siege of Ostend,
216 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
a Dutch trader, accused of supplying stores to the enemy,
avowed it with coarse frankness: "We merchants trade
where we will, and were aught to be gained by trading
with Satan, I would risk burning my sails". The Amster-
dammer's Bible was his ledger, and his creed was : " There
is no God but Mammon, and cent per cent is his profit ".
CHAPTER XXI
CALLING ON THE RAJAH
THE satisfaction of the English party was further
heightened by a piece of good news which the after-
noon had brought them; for, between three and four
o'clock, the messenger sent by Van der Haagen to the
young Rajah, with the Prince of Johore's letter, had come
back to bring them word that his highness had given the
letter a favourable reception, and would be ready to receive
them at noon on the following day.
This was better than Heathermoor had bargained for,
knowing as he did that the golden rule of most Asiatic
potentates is never to do to-day what can be put off till to-
morrow; and accordingly the four set off next morning in
good time to keep their appointment, borrowing a carriage
from their host for the trip, which was somewhat over six
miles.
"I should have been glad to go along with you," said
the hospitable planter, " but, as I've told you, the Rajah is
not very fond of us Dutchmen, and my presence would do
you more harm than good. Anyhow, I wish you good
success."
The two boys whose minds were still full of all the
wonders of the Maharajah's palace at Johore were sadly
disappointed to find the royal residence of this new Rajah
nothing but a big country-house with a whitewashed front
and red-tiled roof, half-buried in the clustering trees of a
huge garden, and defended by an army of four or five men,
in a uniform compounded of Scotch caps, blue livery coats
217
218 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
edged with very shabby gold lace, and boots that seemed
all made for the left foot.
But the interior startled them yet more, adorned as it
was with wretched coloured prints of steeple-chasing, shoot-
ing, and fox-hunting (such as one sees in old English inns),
which some knavish trader had palmed off on the poor
Rajah as genuine Landseers and Turners. Nor was this
all. As they entered the principal room, a large musical-
box on one of the tables (evidently wound-up for the
occasion) struck up "Champagne Charlie", which the
Rajah somehow supposed to be the English national
anthem !
But though they had hard work to keep from laughing
at every turn, the visit was a great success. The Rajah (a
good-looking young man of twenty-five, though already too
stout for his age) received them very politely, and seemed
vastly pleased when Alfred, by a lucky inspiration, greeted
him in Malay, and even gave him his native title of Tunku
(your highness).
The prince listened attentively to Heathermoor's story,
and seemed much interested to learn that its hero was
Colonel Huntley ; for, though he had never met the colonel,
he had heard much of him, and had owed to Huntley's
skill and energy the settlement of a claim preferred by him
against a business house in Singapore.
Hence the Rajah hastened to assure them that a trusty
messenger should at once be sent off to the hills to find out
what had become of the colonel, and bring them word
with all speed. He despatched the courier before their
eyes; and the man, with a silent salaam, set off as com-
posedly as if a journey alone through one of the wildest
and most perilous regions on earth were no more than a
picnic.
Nor did his Highness's courtesy end here. When the
boys took leave of him, he gave Wyvil a silk scarf em-
broidered with the badge of his family, and Huntley a
CALLING ON THE RAJAH 219
fine ivory-handled hunting-knife, to the great delight of
both, though they little guessed how and where those gifts
were to prove their value.
" The messenger, being on foot, will take three days to
get there, and three more to come back," said Heath ermoor,
as they drove home; "and we must allow him at least a
week to find out what we want to know. Say a fortnight
in all. We'd better go back to our hotel, then, for it really
won't do for us all five to quarter ourselves on this good
fellow for two whole weeks."
But Van der Haagen would not hear of this, urging,
with some show of reason, that, should any important
news arrive suddenly, it would save him much trouble to
have them on the spot; and he seemed so vexed at the
idea of seeing the son of the man who had saved his life
quit his house for a hotel, that his guests let themselves be
persuaded to remain where they were, at least for the
present.
Next morning, at breakfast, the talk happened to turn
on crocodiles and the various ways of hunting them; and
Heathermoor spoke of having seen the West African
negroes kill them in the water, with no weapon but a short
knife.
" If it hadn't been my father who said that," said Wyvil
after the meal, " I'd have thought it was only chaff; for it
does sound queer for a creature whose hide's bullet-proof to
be killed with a knife ! "
"It true, all same, Tuan," put in Harimau, who stood
near; "me done it plenty time myself!"
"You?" cried both lads at once, eyeing the speaker's
smooth face and slender frame with pardonable amaze-
ment.
"You tink me no say true?" asked the young hero with
a quiet smile; "s'pose Tuan like see, me go do it now!"
Wyvil's eyes sparkled; but just then his father's voice
was heard:
220 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"Don't encourage him, Duke; I hope you would never
be so mean as to let this brave lad risk his life just for
your amusement."
Wyvil, somewhat abashed, hung his head; and his father
added with still greater emphasis :
"If he risked it to save a life, or do any good, I would
be the last man to check him; but there's no manliness in
running into danger just for the brag of it, and anyone
who does so is a boaster and a fool."
The bold young Malay opened his eyes wide at this new
doctrine; but he made no reply, and the subject dropped
for the time.
On the following afternoon the boys went out for a walk
in the heat of the day, to Van der Haagen's great amuse-
ment.
"I wish I could do that," said he; "but though it's
cooler up here than down on the Deli flats, I shouldn't care
to try it."
"Nor I," said Heathermoor; "for tropical nature will
have its way, even with us pig-headed English. I knew a
young fellow in Madras who laughed to scorn the idea of
resting in the hot hours, and said that even if he could not
go out, he could study Hindustanee; but when I looked in
an hour later, I found him studying Hindustanee with his
eyes shut, and his book lying on the floor!"
" So I suppose," put in Thurraboy. " There's an Italian
proverb that no one but a pig and an Englishman can stand
the hot wind, which a man politely quoted to me when I
was taking a mid-day walk at Aden; and I, not to be be-
hind him in courtesy, answered that he must be right, for
he and I seemed to be the only living things abroad."
" I should think he wouldn't try to chaff you again, Mr.
Thurraboy," chuckled Wyvil, as he followed his chum down
the steps of the veranda.
Scarcely had they set off, when the inseparable Harimau
was at their heels, in a costume ill-suited to such weather.
CALLING ON THE KAJAH 221
Two days before, Van der Haagen, as a reward for some
trifling service, had given him an old blue uniform cape
(once worn by himself when serving in the local militia),
which, with its braided collar and shining gilt buttons,
seemed surpassingly splendid to the Malay, who had all
a savage's love of finery. He put on the cloak at once,
and could hardly be persuaded to- take it off again, even
to go to bed; and now, in the hottest part of the day,
he went out wrapped in his beloved cape, which Wyvil
jokingly styled: "The Cape of Good Hope".
Strolling onward, and finding something new to admire
at every turn, our heroes at length reached the end of the
cleared land, and found themselves on the very edge of the
gloomy jungle beyond. By this time Harimau had begun
to find his cherished cape too hot, and compromised by hang-
ing it over his arm.
Seeing that bristling mass of impenetrable thickets, the
prudent Huntley called to mind their adventure with the
wood-leeches, and was about to propose turning back, when
he beheld a sight that froze the words on his lips.
Amid the great tangle of intertwined boughs was seen,
all at once, a ghastly face gaunt, haggard, spectral, and
deformed by a fearful scar, altering the shape of the left
eyebrow so as to give to the narrow, rat-like black eye
a kind of hideous leer.
But, frightful as this grim visage was from its goblin
features and corpse-like hue, its chief terror lay in the
horrible expression of mingled rage, wonder, hatred, and
fierce murderous joy with which it glared at Alfred and
his unsuspecting comrades. Just for one moment the
phantom was before him, terribly distinct; and then, ere
he had time even to shout to his companions, it vanished
as if it had never been.
CHAPTER XXII
DEATH'S AMBUSH
MR. THURRABOY, lying in a canvas deck-chair on the
veranda, was in the full enjoyment of his afternoon
nap, when he was awakened by a clatter of feet up the
steps, and a voice shouting:
" What do you think, Mr. Thurraboy ? we've seen a
robber!"
"A robber?" bried Van der Haagen, who had also been
aroused by the noise. " Impossible ! There are none about
here, whatever there may be in the mountains."
"Well, ask Alf, then; he saw the fellow plain enough."
Alfred briefly told his story, and minutely described the
apparition. As he proceeded, the planter's incredulous
smile faded into a look of grave anxiety, which deepened
at Huntley's mention of the hobgoblin's dull, brownish-
yellow complexion, coarse black hair, and slanting eyes;
but when the boy spoke of the disfiguring scar, up sprang
the Dutchman, as if at an electric shock, and darted down
the steps, crying:
"I must send men at once to beat the thickets; there's
no safety for anyone while that rascal is prowling about."
The boys stared after him in amazement, and even the
stoical Thurraboy looked disturbed. But Van der Haagen's
excitement was fully accounted for when he returned, which
he did just as Heathermoor joined the group.
" I hope my men will catch the fellow," said he, " for, by
your description, Mr. Huntley, he must be that scoundrelly
half-caste, Lu-Yan, who, as I told you, stirred up my coolies
to riot."
"And if you do catch him, what will you do with him?"
222
DEATH'S AMBUSH 223
asked Thurraboy, while Wyvil hastily explained to his
father what had occurred.
" Hand him over to the authorities, who will take care
he sha'n't do any more mischief; for I find he tried to stir
up a mutiny on several other plantations as well as mine."
Just then Harimau, who was standing behind him, said
to the planter, with peculiar emphasis :
"You know why he do it, Tuan?"
So rarely did the taciturn Malay speak without being
addressed that everyone started, and the planter eyed him
keenly; for the boy's look was even more significant than
his tone.
" Out of revenge, I suppose, or to get a chance of stealing
something in the confusion."
"No; he do it for make big disorder all over country;
give Acheen man chance for come down and kill all
Dutchman."
The listeners exchanged looks of mute amazement.
"Before my father send me away," went on Harimau,
"come two, free, four runaway from Dutchman to my
people in mountain. My father say: 'Send 'em back; no
want here'. My uncle say: 'No send back; good work
do; wait a bit. One time dem man go down to Dutch
plantation, stir up big fuss wid coolie, make Dutchman
plenty busy; den come we, kill all!'"
Even Thurraboy began to look grave, and the young
planter's bright face darkened ominously; for, though no
one knew better than he the undying hatred which burned
against his whole race among these savage mountaineers,
it was something startling to find it so suddenly and terribly
brought home to him.
" Why should your people want to kill Mynheer Van der
Haagen?" asked Thurraboy. "He has never done them
any harm."
"He Dutchman!" replied the young savage pointedly.
"Look see! You all been plenty good to me me tell
224 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
you what no tell other man. S'pose my uncle get chance,
he kill you all!"
This was pretty plain speaking, and made his hearers
look graver still. But at that moment Heathermoor, who
had not yet uttered a word, said to the young chief :
" Inche Harimau, was this half-caste, Lu-Yan, among the
runaways who came to your people from here before you
left them?"
"No can tell," replied the Malay carelessly. "May be
so, may be not."
When the party had broken up, and the boys had retired
to make themselves tidy, Heathermoor drew his host aside,
and said gravely:
"Mynheer, this is worse than I thought. It's plain as
print that Lu-Yan's behaviour on your plantation was part
of a great plot; and his reappearance to-day shows there is
mischief afoot. If he has recognized Harimau (as it's ten
to one he has), the young fellow's loving uncle will soon
know that the nephew he hates and fears is within his
reach, and that means one of two things either Harimau
will be murdered by some of these ruffians, or this house
will be burned over our heads."
So emphatically was this said, so terribly probable did it
appear, that the planter looked very grave as he listened;
and he looked graver still when the beaters sent in search
of the half-caste came back to report that they had seen
nothing of him.
The next few days were the most trying time that our
heroes had spent since the fatal morning when they watched
their shattered vessel drifting helplessly toward the cruel
rocks of Acheen Head. Haunted day and night by a peril
which they were powerless to avert, forced to remain in-
active, feeling their lives threatened at every turn, while
disabled from making any effort to defend them, the brave
men might well feel (as their leader said) like men flung
into the sea with their hands tied.
DEATH'S AMBUSH 225
As day after day wenc by without the return of their
messenger, or any news from Acheen, even Thurraboy and
Heathermoor began to grow restless and unnerved, while
the boys were excited to such a degree that they found it
literally impossible to remain still for five minutes. Only
by rushing about the plantation during the day, till they
were fairly tired out, could they manage to get any sleep at
night ; and, in spite of Van der Haagen's repeated warnings,
they again and again plunged recklessly into the surround-
ing jungle, in the hope of surprising and capturing their
skulking enemy Lu-Yan. But no trace of him could they
ever find.
Thus matters stood when, on the sixteenth day after the
departure of the Eajah's courier, Wyvil and his chum went
out in the afternoon as usual, but this time without the
escort of their trusty henchman, Harimau, who had gone to
the town on some errand for Heathermoor.
Having just been cautioned once more by Van der
Haagen against venturing into the uncleared jungle (which,
apart from the risk of meeting Lu-Yan or some other
ruffian, swarmed with hungry panthers and poisonous
snakes), the boys resolved to go not one foot beyond the
safe limit. So they headed toward a point where the
clearings extended to within a few hundred yards of the
Deli Biver, while the thickets along the bank had been
so thinned that neither man nor beast could have lurked
there undetected.
Here, then, they thought themselves safe, and strolled
along the bank till they came to a small native boat moored
beside it.
"Here's a chance!" cried Wyvil. "I say, Alf, let's go
for a voyage in it along the river."
"Better not," said Huntley; "we mightn't be able to
bring it back, and it would be a shame to lose the poor
fellow's boat for him. Besides, the river's as full of shoals
as "
( B 533 ) P
226 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
He broke off so suddenly that Wyvil turned round in
surprise, and saw him staring at a face that peered out of
the thickets on the farther bank, with the brownish-yellow
tint and small, cunning eyes of the man they had sought so
long the wretch Lu-Yan!
One hurried whisper, and the boat was loose, and shoot-
ing across the river. Ere it was half-way, the face had
vanished; but the noise made by the fugitive in forcing his
way through the bushes was guide enough, and after him
they went like stag-hounds.
For the first hundred yards there was actually a kind of
path; but it soon deserted them, and they had to tear their
way through the untamed jungle, tripping over projecting
roots, catching their feet in coiling creepers, and more than
once barely escaping a headlong fall into a clump of thorns
as long as knitting-needles.
Such exercise within half a degree of the Line was too
exhausting to last; but, happily for our panting heroes, it
seemed to tell even more severely on their adversary. The
crash and crackle of his flight through the thickets sounded
nearer and nearer in front, and at last he stumbled and fell
all his length, while they pounced upon him with a gasping
shout, only to discover (with what feelings may be imagined)
that he was not Lu-Yan at all !
"What on earth do you mean by running away like
that," growled Wyvil, "and leading us such a goose-chase
for nothing?"
" Master no be angry no my fault," whined the captive.
"Me tink master want ca tehee, beatee so me run."
"I fancy he's a runaway coolie," said Alfred in a low
tone; "and, anyhow, he isn't Lu-Yan, so he'll be no good
to us. We'd better go back."
"I suppose we had," grunted Marmaduke; "but when
we do get hold of Mr. Lu-Yan, he shall lose nothing by
waiting."
And, leaving the man where he was, they turned back
DEATH'S AMBUSH 227
through the jungle, very tired, very sore, very dirty, and
very cross.
For some time both were silent, partly from disgust and
partly from want of breath ; but at last Huntley said :
"I say, old fellow, are you quite sure we're going right?"
This was the very question that had been tormenting
Wyvil, and it was no sooner asked than answered. They
were lost in the jungle !
Such a discovery, in such a place, had broken down many
a strong man's nerve altogether. But Huntley had inherited
no small share of his renowned father's cool and indomitable
firmness, and he faced this fearful dilemma like a man.
"If we could only get a glimpse of the sun, we'd have
some notion which way to steer," said he, " but there's no
seeing anything through this jolly old cobweb of leaves.
We'd better try and find a clear place, and then take our
bearings."
They at length succeeded in doing so, and, having ascer-
tained as well as they could in which direction the river
must lie, headed toward it at their best speed.
A weary struggle it was, with many a stumble and
bruise, and more than one hair's-breadth escape from the
venomous serpents that started up with a threatening hiss
amid the rank wiry grass which rose nearly a yard above
the wanderers' heads. And still, as they struggled on, the
gloomy jungle seemed to stretch itself out interminably be-
fore their weary eyes, tree beyond tree and thicket beyond
thicket, as if it would never end.
Worse still, the few stray glimpses that they could catch
of the sky overhead, amid this rank wilderness of horrible
abundance, showed them that it was darkening slowly, as
if the day were drawing to a close; and Wyvil (whose
impulsive nature was more easily depressed than the stead-
fast temper of his comrade) was beginning to despond, when
a shout from his chum made him look up, to catch, through
the tangled leaves, a glimpse of the long-sought river !
228 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
A moment more and they came out on the bank, but
only to be confronted with a new and formidable per-
plexity. How were they to cross the stream?
This time no boat was at hand, and nothing was to be
seen that might serve as a raft. The current, indeed, was
not strong, and the distance a trifle for such swimmers;
but then, the crocodiles!
The chill white mist of evening, heavy with fever and
death, was beginning to curl up venomously over the foul,
beer-coloured stream, all along either side of which the
bare white roots of the mangroves, digging into the black,
oozy slime below, looked like monstrous crabs feasting on
a drowned corpse. Here and there a dead bough, thrust-
ing itself gauntly out, like a skeleton hand, from the mass
of dark snaky leaves, threw its spectral shadow on the
sullen waters beneath. Far down the western sky, one
angry gleam of red, just visible above the endless tree-
tops, showed where the sinking sun was fading into the
gloom of a coming storm.
Suddenly a huge carrion-bird, startled from the thicket
by the unwonted sound of footsteps, flapped heavily away
into the deeper shadows with a hoarse, ominous shriek.
But this was the only sight or sound of life in that dismal
panorama. No brightness, no freshness, no beauty in this
great charnel-house of nature; all was foul, rotting, hideous.
An immense silence, an awful loneliness and desolation.
The very leaves, as they rustled, seemed whispering to
each other some horrible secret which they dared not speak
aloud.
Tired, hungry, worn out, the boys were more than usually
exposed to the depressing influence of this gloomy scene;
and for some moments neither spoke a word.
" Look here, Alf," cried Wyvil at length, with the air of
one driven to desperation, " the more we look at it the less
we'll like it. We must get across somehow, so let's just
swim it and take our chance."
DEATH'S AMBUSH 229
"Hold hard!" said Huntley, holding back his impetuous
comrade as the latter was about to jump in. " Yonder's a
dead tree stranded close to the bank; let us try if we can
shove it off, and float ourselves across on it."
This task proved easier than they expected, for, luckily
for them, the greater part of the trunk was afloat, being
only kept to the bank by the hold of the larger roots upon
the nwd. The weight of the two boys as they scrambled
on to the tree tilted up the higher end sufficiently to dis-
engage it, and, guided by the dry bough which Alfred had
broken off to use as a steering-oar, the mass drifted slowly
out into the stream.
But, though safety was actually within sight, they were
not destined to attain it even now. '
The current bore them downward, despite Alfred's efforts
to guide the raft straight across; and they were not yet
half-way over when their tree, with a shock that almost
threw them off, ran bump on a rock in mid-stream, and
they tried in vain to push it off again.
"We've no luck to-day," said Wyvil; "we must just
swim it after all. But stay, here's a log drifting down;
let's try and get hold of it as it passes."
He was just springing to the edge of the rock to do so,
when Alfred, after one quick glance at the approaching
"log", clutched him by the arm, shouting:
" Keep back, for your life ! It's not a log it's a
crocodile!"
CHAPTEK XXIII
FACING A MONSTER
THE words were hardly spoken when they were terribly
confirmed; for the seeming log suddenly whirled
round with a rush, and they saw, so close as almost to touch
their feet, the horny snout, gaping jaws, and small, cunning,
cruel eye of a monstrous crocodile.
Both lads sprang up on to the stranded tree, shouting
with all their might in the hope of scaring the monster
away. But the fierce and ravenous brute was not to be
baulked of its prey so easily; and instantly its hideous
head was seen rising above the edge of the low rock, fol-
lowed by a huge scaly fore-paw. Wyvil set his teeth in
desperation, and drew his knife, and Alfred, holding the
broken bough spear-wise, prepared to deal a vigorous thrust
at the monster's only assailable point the eye.
But a sudden shout from the other bank made the doomed
pair look up, just in time to see a light form come bursting
through the bushes Harimau!
On his return from the town, the young Malay, learning
that the boys had gone out alone, started at once in quest
of them, naturally fearing some mishap. He had tracked
their footprints down to the river, but, seeing no means by
which they could have crossed (for the Malay boat had long
since drifted away), he was scouring the bank for some trace
of them, when their shouts drew him to the scene of action,
and one glance told him the whole story.
But it seemed as if, after all, he had come too late; for
the monster had already dragged itself right up on to the
rock; and as the huge, clumsy, mud -plastered mass rose
230
FACING A MONSTER 231
inch by inch from the thick, oily stream, the doomed lads
felt even the horror of death itself deepened by their disgust
at the foul creature that was about to inflict it.
But help was at hand. Harimau, plunging into the water
without a moment's hesitation, shot over it so swiftly that
he seemed to cross at one stroke, with his famous blue cape
in a bundle on his head. Passing the crocodile so close as
almost to touch it, he scrambled on to the stranded tree,
and stood between the reptile and the boys, rolling his
cloak round his left arm, and drawing his broad -bladed
dagger.
By this time the monster had got all its four feet planted
firmly on the rock, and, turning savagely upon this new
enemy, it dealt a blow at him with its huge tail that would
have broken the back of a. buffalo, snapping off like reeds
two thick boughs that met-its sweep, and making the whole
tree quiver so violently that the two lads were all but hurled
into the river by the shock.
But the brave Malay was no novice in such combats, and,
ere the blow could reach him, he had leaped off into the
water.
The reptile darted after him with savage eagerness; but,
so far from avoiding its rush, Harimau faced boldly round
upon it, and thrust his left arm, swathed in the thick folds
of the cloak, right into the terrible jaws.
Two cries broke forth like one from the dismayed boys,
who thought that all was over with their brave young
champion. But Harimau knew well what he was about.
The tightly-rolled cloak, hard and compact as a cotton bale,
filled the crocodile's mouth so completely as to give it no
space for bringing into play the leverage of these tremendous
jaws, one snap of which would have crushed an ox; and
the monster, half-choked by this new kind of gag, was
struggling convulsively for breath, when the Malay's dagger
dealt it a fearful stab in the softer part of its exposed throat.
A hoarse snort answered the blow, and the vast scaly
232 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
bulk quivered with agony ; and, quick as thought, a second
stroke, dealt with a force of which the young savage's slight
frame seemed incapable, buried his weapon to the hilt in
the soft flesh beneath the jaw-bone. Frantic with pain, the
brute lashed the water with its tail till the boys were
drenched with the yellow spray, and then, with one last
convulsive effort, plunged down into the depths below,
carrying its young assailant along with it.
The boys drew a short, quick breath, feeling too sure
that the gallant boy had lost his life to save them. But
ere either could speak, the Malay's lithe brown figure shot
up again like a cork, and then the crocodile's huge un-
gainly bulk was seen drifting down the dark river, limp
and dead.
"Well done, Harry!" cried Marmaduke, grasping his
champion's dripping hand. " Just let me catch anyone
saying, after this, that you can't kill a crocodile with a
knife! But why on earth do you look so glum?"
" Look see, Tuan," said the Malay despairingly, " me
gone lost fine blue cloak!"
"Well, I never!" laughed Wyvil; "here's a fellow been
within an ace of being gobbled up by a crocodile, and he
begins howling about an old cloak ! Bother the cloak, man,
we 11 buy you another ! "
" But dat no all, Tuan," said Harimau with the air of
one who felt that circumstances really had been too hard
on him. "Crocodile float away; no can catch him; plenty
good meat go waste ! "
"Good meat? You don't mean you'd really eat that
nasty brute?"
"All Malay eat him when get him; plenty good call
him ikan bezar (big fish)."
" Everyone to his taste," muttered Wyvil.
" And now," put in Alfred, " the sooner we're across, the
better. Harry, come and help us to shove off this old tree ;
we can't stir it."
FACING A MONSTER 233
" Root catch in crack," said Harimau, after a moment's
inspection; " s'pose turn tree over, all right."
This was soon done, and, under the Malay's skilful guid-
ance, they safely reached the farther shore.
Eager to relate their adventures, the boys flew to the
house ; but they found it in such a fever of excitement that
their arrival seemed quite unnoticed. The Rajah's envoy
had come back from Acheen at last; arid it was but too
plain from the clouded faces of Thurraboy and Van der
Haagen, and the settled sternness which darkened Heather-
moor's handsome features, that his news was of no pleasing
kind.
CHAPTEK XXIV
EVIL TIDINGS
HASTILY changing their wet and mud-besmeared clothes
the boys hurried to the veranda, where they found
Heathermoor, Thurraboy, and the planter himself in close
conference with the Rajah's courier and a tall, dark, haughty-
looking man in the dress of an Acheen mountaineer, whom
neither of them had seen before. But he was evidently no
stranger to Harimau, whose keen black eyes shot forth a
flashing glance of fierce and menacing recognition at the
first sight of him.
" Ular Bukit Mas!" (the Snake of the Golden Mountain)
he muttered with a stern emphasis which showed that he
had good cause to remember the name, and to remember it
in no friendly way.
On a small table beside Van der Haagen lay a torn and
dirty piece of paper, upon which a few words were scribbled
in pencil. Alfred Huntley glanced carelessly at it in pass-
ing; but the next moment he was bending over it with
eager attention, for the hand-writing was one which, though
it was long since he had last seen it, he was not likely to
forget; and the words were these:
"I am alive and getting well, but closely guarded; all
my companions were drowned.
"RANDOLPH HUNTLEY."
"Thank God!" said the boy with a fervent emphasis
that showed how intense was this sudden relief from the
burden of those fears for his father's safety which had so
long weighed him down like a nightmare.
234
EVIL TIDINGS 235
But just then, as he looked up, he saw Heathermoor's
eyes fixed upon him with a look of deep pity, which made
the brave lad's stout heart sink again with a foreboding of
some fresh evil of which he as yet knew nothing.
" Well," said Van der Haagen aside to his guests, " I
think we have heard all they can tell us ; so we may dismiss
them. We'll keep them here to-night, and to-morrow we'll
send back this Golden-Mountain man with our answer."
As he spoke, he glanced at Heathermoor, who, seeming
quite to understand him, said to the young chief:
" Inche Harimau, you had better go down with them
and get some food; and keep your eye on that Golden-
Mountain fellow, who seems to be our enemy as well as
yours."
Harimau obeyed with an alacrity that showed how much
the commission was to his taste; and Van der Haagen said
to his guests :
" Here's dinner ready, and you must be ready for it;
come along."
But this time the usually hearty meal was a wretched
pretence. Even Thurraboy, who had eaten heartily, a few
weeks before, while awaiting the onset of hundreds of
bloodthirsty savages, appeared to have now as little appe-
tite as the rest; and it was a relief to all when the meal was
over.
Then their host led the way, not to the veranda as usual,
but to his office, and, having carefully locked the door,
said:
" There's no risk of being overheard here, so we can
talk over our plans; and the best way to begin will be to
let these young men know what we have just learned."
The statement that followed, gently and kindly as it was
made, came upon the unsuspecting boys like a thunderbolt.
The Rajah's envoy had done his work well, and had kept
the secret of the connection between the English party and
Colonel Huntley, saying only that some English who were
236 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
visiting Medan had heard that a countryman of theirs was
in the hands of the Acheenese, and were willing to ransom
him at a reasonable rate.
He soon learned that there was an English captive among
the men of Bukit-Mas; but, this being a tribe over which
his master's influence did not extend, he was in doubt
whether to venture among them himself, or get his host,
the chief of Utan-Itam (Black Forest), to send a messenger
thither, when the question was settled for him by the arrival
of three envoys from Bukit-Mas, the people of which were
evidently aware, not only of his presence in the district, but
also of its object.
The leading envoy (no other than Ular, the haughty-
looking warrior whose sudden appearance had so un-
pleasantly surprised Harimau that evening) announced that
he bore a special message from Gajah (elephant), the present
chief of Bukit-Mas. Harimau's worthy uncle, Gajah, had
just succeeded Harimau's father; the latter having, by a
most unfortunate accident (as Van der Haagen said with
grim irony), fallen over a precipice while hunting with his
brother and some of that gentleman's particular friends.
The message brought by this worthy was as stern and
haughty as himself. The chief of the Golden Mountain,
he said, forbade the Rajah's servant to tamper with his
neighbours, the men of the Black Wood, or in any way to
make mischief between him and them. Moreover, the
great chief had learned that his nephew, Harimau (who was
said to have been killed by English pirates at Pulo-Tombak)
was still alive, and with a party of white men at Medan;
and he now laid his commands on those white men, who
presumed to interfere between him and his prisoner, to
give up Harimau to him forthwith, or the captive for whom
they were so anxious should be burned alive.
To give weight to his words Ular had brought with
him a brief note in Randolph Huntley's own writing the
same which Alfred had seen that evening, and announced
EVIL TIDINGS 237
his intention of accompanying the Rajah's courier on his
return journey, and himself delivering the note and his
chief's message to the white men at Medan. The courier,
though by no means eager for the honour of his company,
was forced to consent; and the two had reached Willemsdal
that afternoon.
Such was the case laid before our heroes; and nothing
could be simpler. They must doom their best friend to
die, or connive at a cowardly murder; for it was certain
that Harimau's uncle, could he once get the boy into his
power, would dispose of him as he had already disposed of
his father.
There was a gloomy silence when the planter ended,
broken at length by Alfred Huntley, who, seeming to feel
himself appealed to as the nearest relative of the imperilled
man, spoke out as firmly as ever, though his white, rigid
face told what it cost him.
" If I know anything of my father," said he, " he'd rathei
be killed a dozen times over than be saved like that; and
I'm sure he would never forgive me if I were even to think
of it."
" Spoken like a man," cried Heathermoor, clapping him
on the shoulder. " I hope we shall rescue your father, my
brave boy, though not in that way. It was just for that
reason, to tell the truth, that I got Harimau out of the
way to-night; for if he were to know how matters stood
(which he won't find out from the messengers themselves,
for these fellows never chatter) he'd be quite capable of
giving himself up to that ruffian to save your father's life!"
"Well," put in Thurraboy, "of course that's not to be
thought of for a moment; so let us consider what we can
do instead."
"I'll tell you what we might do," cried Heathermoor.
" As you know, I got a note to-day from my first officer to
say that he has brought over the yacht in good trim, and
that she's at anchor here in the mouth of the river; so all
238 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
we have to do is to take her round to the north-west coast,
anchor off Bukit-Mas, and then (as soon as we've surveyed
our ground a bit, and seen how to get at 'em) land our
crew and any other men that we can muster, storm their
crow's nest, and carry off the colonel."
"That seems to me rather risky, with all deference to
your better knowledge of native ways," objected Thurra-
boy. " I should advise joining forces with some neighbour-
ing tribe with which they're at war (there are sure to be
plenty of them), and attacking from the land side, with the
tribesmen to help us."
But the planter, to whom both looked for approval,
shook his head with a quiet smile.
"Gentlemen," said he, "you speak like brave English-
men, but we need craft here more than courage. If you
take my advice you will send back Ular to-morrow to tell
the chief of Bukit-Mas that you will come up to the hills
yourselves as soon as you can and bring Harimau with you.
That, you see, will gain time at the outset, especially as
you can travel slowly, as if the boy were not strong enough
for a rapid journey."
"And what then?" asked Heathermoor, looking puzzled.
" Then take the Rajah's courier with you, and make him
present you to the chief of Utan-Itam, who is devoted to
the Rajah, and send a message thence to Harimau's uncle,
inviting him to a conference on neutral ground, with so
many friends on each side, he bringing the colonel with
him, and you Harimau. You understand?"
"1 do; it's a first-rate idea, and many thanks for it."
"Well, I'm glad you approve, for I really think it's the
best thing to be done. I only wish I could go with you,
but I know enough of these fellows to be sure that the
presence of a Dutchman would simply spoil all. In fact,
you had better impress on the Acheenese, as strongly as
you can, that you are not Dutchmen at all, but belong to a
race that has often been at war with us."
EVIL TIDINGS 239
This hint was turned to good account by the ready Eng-
lishman next morning when he gave his answer to the
envoy.
"Tell the great chief, too," he added, after giving the
message dictated by Van der Haagen, "that we hope he
will not shame us by taking us for Dutch planters. We
are none such; we belong to a nation that has fought
against the Dutchmen many a time. Fail not to let him
know all this, and tell him I shall have more to say to him
on that point when I can speak to him freely amid the
Dark Mountains of Acheen."
The sudden change in Ular's dark face told the observant
speaker that the savage had attached to his last words the
very meaning he intended to convey; and, in fact (for
reasons that will appear later on), these few words were
destined to have a more important influence on coming
events than anything else which Heath ermoor could have
said or done.
CHAPTER XXV
UP INTO THE MOUNTAINS
I SAY, Alf, isn't it a queer fashion these Acheen fellows
have of calling themselves after all kinds of beasts the
tiger, the elephant, the snake, and all that? Fancy finding
one's self introduced suddenly to the hospitable Mr. Bengal
Tiger, and the charming Miss Laughing Hyaena!"
"Well, 'it's just what Fenimore Cooper's Indians used to
do, after all. You remember old Chingachgook, the Big
Serpent, and his son Uncas, the Bounding Elk, and all
those other fellows."
" I like a deal better, though, the dodge my father says
they have in Borneo, of calling the ladies after different
flowers Champak, Goolab, and so on. Pretty idea, isn't
it?"
"Why, we do the same thing ourselves, if that's all
Rose, Lily, Violet, and all the rest of it. But hollo ! what's
old Ismail singing out about?"
"Wanting us to halt, I think. So I suppose we had
better do it."
Our heroes and their friends had been some time on
their momentous journey to Acheen; but, following Van
der Haagen's advice, they had travelled slowly, and though
now close to the border of the hill-country, they had not
actually entered it yet.
Nor, indeed, was the aspect of this wild region calculated
to make anyone feel very eager to penetrate it. Seen as
they had hitherto seen it, rising in a background of shadowy
purple behind one of the most charming landscapes in the
East Indies, it showed itself in holiday guise, concealing all
240
UP INTO THE MOUNTAINS 241
its terrors. But now, when only a few miles separated the
formidable "Batak hills" from the bold travellers who
were about to plunge into them, the grim " No Man's
Land" looked what it really was one of the wildest and
gloomiest tracts upon earth; and at sight of that weird
unending labyrinth of frowning heights, black tomb-like
gorges, shaggy woods, savage precipices, dark impenetrable
thickets, and roaring torrents, even the reckless Marma-
duke began to look thoughtful, and the grave faces of the
two elder men became graver still.
The party numbered six persons the four Englishmen,
the Rajah's courier Haji-Ismail, and Harimau himself, whose
superstitious fear of defying the fatal prophecy had been
overcome at last. In the first heat of his frantic,, grief and
rage at the death of his father and so mkny of his friends
(for Gajah was not one to do his work by halves, and had
killed or banished all who might oppose his usurpation)
Heathermoor easily persuaded him that a man who did not
shrink from wholesale murder was not likely to scruple at
falsehood; that the dreaded prediction was undoubtedly
a mere trick of his uncle to get rid of him; and that it
now behoved him to hasten back at once to his native
place and punish the murderers as they deserved.
All six were well armed, for they were now on the
border of a region where every man carried his life in his
hand. Wyvil had a light rifle of his father's; Huntley one
of Thurraboy's; Harimau was similarly equipped; and Haji-
Ismail carried a splendid English double-barrel lent him by
his master.
Ismail's cry proved to be a signal for Alfred and Marma-
duke (who had got a little ahead) to close up to their
party, and when they did so he warned them emphatically
that it was not safe to straggle here. Meanwhile the two
leaders hastily reviewed their plans, being now near the
place where these were to be carried out.
"The yacht should be at her anchorage by this time,"
( B 633 ) Q
242 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
said Heathennoor. "I told them to take her round at
once, and, with full steam on, she wouldn't be more than
three days (or four at the outside) in getting to the place."
"It's a rocky islet off the headland of Bukit-Mas, isn't
it? I understood Van der Haagen to say so."
" That's it and it seems just made on purpose for what
we want. The rock's shaped like a half-open book, with
the opening facing the mainland, and between the two
projecting cliffs there's water enough, for her to ride at
anchor, quite sheltered on the seaward side and pretty well
protected on the lan side too, being only a mile from the
coast."
" So that if we have to make a run for it "
"She <^i help us with her guns just so, or else she can
send a booZ to take us off, for there will be somebody on
the watch dayTfcnd night for our signal; or, if the worst
comes to the worst, as she only lies about a miJ from the
shore, we can swim it."
"To be sure we can. But hollo! what place is that
yonder? I suppose it must be the Chinesetrading-station
that Van der Haagen spoke of, where we re to leave our
horses."
"That's it, no doubt. We'll halt there to-night, and
send a messenger to <fche chief of Utan-Itam to tell him we
are coming to see him to-morrow."
"What, another messenger?" cried Thurraboy. "Why,
we've sent him one already, while we were on the road.
How many more does the fellow want?"
"Oh, that's the way in these parts! the more fuss and
bother you make when you call upon anyone, the more
credit it is both to him and to you. They have no idea of
doing things quietly out here. Among these fellows as
you will soon see a man can't even blow his nose without
sending out a herald first to proclaim that he's going to do
it."
When they reached the "factory", as these trading-
UP INTO THE MOUNTAINS 243
stations are usually called, the Chinese trader, an old
acquaintance of Van der Haagen, received them very
civilly, and readily agreed to have their horses sent safely
back, and get them coolies next morning to carry their
saddle-bags up the mountain; for he and his men, being
(as in many parts of West Africa) the sole channel of
supply between barbarism and civilization, went to and fro
unmolested even among these wild mountaineers.
"Well," said Thurraboy that night, "we'll soon be in
the thick of it now."
In fact, Ismail, finding at the station three or four Utan-
Itam men, who had come to make purchases, had offered
to go back wi^h them and announce to their chief the com-
ing of the English party, so that our travellers expected to
make their final start next morning.
"We shall," rejoined Heathermoor. "But look here,
my dear fellow, are you quite determined to see this job
to the end? Once we're fairly among the hills, you know,
there's no drawing back; and I don't see why you should
risk your life for a matter that doesn't concern you a bit,
though it's very good of you to volunteer. Think twice
before you decide; it's not too late yet."
"It is too late," said Thurraboy calmly. "It's always
too late to draw back when I've once passed my word.
Let us say no more about that, but tell me how you mean
to communicate with Colonel Huntley."
"Well, as to that I must be guided by circumstances,
for we can't tell how the fellows who have got hold of him
may act. But in any case we must be careful; for there
must be at least one man about him who can read English
the cautious wording of his note shows that."
"And that one man," replied Thurraboy in a low tone,
as if the man spoken of might perhaps be within hearing,
"is undoubtedly Lu-Yan; and it was he, of course, who
told Harimau's precious uncle that the poor boy was still
alive and in our company."
244 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"No doubt; but I hope we shall be too smart for him
yet. Good-night!"
At sunrise the boys were aroused by the untiring Ismail,
quite ready to start again at daybreak, though he had not
returned from his mountain march till after midnight.
They found the two seniors already astir, and hurrying
their preparations in order to get well up the hills ere the
heat of the day came on.
As the travellers, having left their horses behind, tramped
slowly along the rude bridle-path into which the road de-
generated at this point, they seemed to stand between
savagery and civilization. Below lay beaten roads, trim
plantations, neat country-houses; above rose craggy ridges,
pathless forests, bristling jungles, and frowning precipices.
" Chance for you", Mr. Thurraboy," cried Wyvil. " Write
a farewell to civilization."
"No, I'm not fortunate in farewells. I once tried my
hand at a farewell to London, and this was the result :
" Great city, farewell ! thou must fade from my view ;
Fate calls me, and I must away ;
To-morrow the rent of my lodging is due,
A debt I can never repay.
Thy spires meet my eye, rising solemnly black
From the smoke that o'erhangs thy repose ;
As the face of a collier, when veiled by a sack,
Protrudes thro' the canvas its nose.
" But torn though I be from thy sable embrace, ^
Yet crowned with thy gifts I retire ; ^, .
Adorned with thy choicest of soot is my face,
And decked are my boots with thy mire.
Thy people have given me nought 't is their way
And to them I am equally kind ;
I take but a borrowed umbrella away,
And leave but a tooth-brush behind ! "
"Tiptop!" cried Wyvil; "can't you recollect some
more?"
UP INTO THE MOUNTAINS 245
"Hush!" said his father; "look well to your feet, and
don't talk."
The caution was needed, for the path, constantly mount-
ing, had now narrowed to a mere ledge, barely wide enough
for one at a time, and winding along the very brink of a
black and frightful ravine so thickly wooded that even the
tropical sun could not pierce its ghostly shadows, out of
which rose sullenly the hollow roar of an unseen water-
fall.
All at once started up right in their path, from behind a
huge fern-clad boulder, a gaunt, dusky, wild-eyed spectre,
unclothed save a tattered waist-cloth and its own shaggy
black hair, with a long bamboo spear in its bony hand, and
a short, curved Malay dagger at its side. The goblin shot
a quick, cruel glance at them from its small, deep -set,
glittering eyes, and in tones like the mingling of a bull-
dog's growl with the croak of a frog, bade them halt, and
asked what they wanted.
CHAPTER XXVI
AN EASTERN MONTENEGRO
EVEN Heathennoor was startled by this sudden and
ghastly apparition, and not without reason ; for, stand-
ing as he did on the inner side of the ledge-like path, the
grim sentinel might have hurled them all over the precipice
with one push of his lean brown hand. But a few muttered
words from Haji- Ismail appeared to satisfy this Malay
Cerberus, who, signing to them to follow, went striding
up the break-neck ascent at a pace which few men could
have equalled on level ground.
The travellers followed as best they might, the two lads
halting every now and then for a glance at the wonderful
panorama around them, the surpassing grandeur of which
was now fully visible in the growing sunlight.
As they ascended, their admiration of the scenery ap-
peared to grow stronger and their halts to admire it more
frequent, for the path became steeper and steeper, while,
every time they glanced upward, tree-tops after tree-tops
piled themselves up overhead, rank on rank, into the very
sky, fully justifying the district's name of " Black Forest ".
Despite their natural agility and perfect training, the
Charterhouse athletes were already panting like overdriven
post-horses, when a sharp turn suddenly brought them in
sight of the place whither they were bound.
Half-way up the great mountain-wall lay a broad belt of
cleared ground, defacing the grand sweep of the virgin
forest with a bare, unsightly scar. Not a tree, not a bush,
not even a tuft of tall grass, broke the gaunt barrenness of
this miniature desert; for those who had made it were not
246
AN EASTERN MONTENEGRO 247
the men to leave a hand -breadth of cover tor an enemy
within gun-shot of their fortress. On the farther side of
the clearing rose a high bamboo stockade, such as one sees
at every turn in Siam and Burmah, thick and strong enough
to be proof against anything short of a cannon-ball.
At the gate of this primitive fort their goblin conductor
halted and uttered a peculiar cry. A grim face looked over
the top, and after the exchange of a few words the gate
was unbarred, and our heroes found themselves, for the
first time in their life, within a genuine Malay fortress.
"Well, these fellows know something of soldiering, if
they know nothing else," said Thurraboy, glancing from
the formidable palisade to the sinewy frames and stern
faces of the wild figures that manned it. "Give me a few
hundred men like these, and plenty of ammunition, and I'd
hold this place against an army."
" And, look here," rejoined Heathermoor, pointing to the
little bee -hives of bamboo and dried palm -leaves around
them, from which a few half-naked children crept forth
wonderingly at their approach. " Curious, is it not, to see
how much alike the dwellings of savages always are in
every part of the world? Set down one of these huts in
Algeria or Morocco (or in Zululand either, for that matter),
and it would be quite at home."
The chief a stalwart and rather fine -looking man of
middle age now came forward to greet his guests; and
Heathermoor, knowing that in the East all visits of cere-
mony begin and end with presents, lost no time in present-
ing to him an excellent English dirk-knife, an embroidered
sash, and a light chain of polished brass, glittering like gold
in the sunshine with all of which the worthy savage was
as much delighted as with Heathermoor's polite greeting to
him in his own language.
A few minutes later the baggage-coolies came up, and
the English were shown to the quarters prepared for them,
which proved to consist of a huge thatch of dried leaves
248 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
and grass supported on stout poles eight feet high, the
whole affair being, as Wyvil truly said, "a room without
walls ".
"Hollo!" cried he, "is this where we're going to hang
out 1 Why, we shall have to eat and sleep and dress right
before the eyes of the whole nation! I used to think it
must be fine to be a public man, but I didn't bargain for
being quite as public as all this!"
" Well, Duke," laughed his father, " I doubt if you'd be
any better off in one of these huts; for, as the thatch is
always alive with snakes and scorpions, and the inside
fairly creeping with every living thing that crawls and bites,
I think we should soon have you changing back again."
It had not escaped Heathermoor's watchful eye that,
directly after their arrival, a man had hastily left the fort
and darted down the mountain-side at racing speed in a
direction nearly opposite to that from<%hich the English
party had ascended. Noticing this fact^n as unconcerned
a tone as possible to his Malay host, he was told that the
man was a messenger from Gajah, the chief of Bukit-Mas,
who wished to be informed as early as possible of the
coming of the "white warriors", since he, too, wished to
"let his eyes behold their faces, and his ears hearken to
their words".
"Harimau's worthy uncle is no fool," muttered Heather-
moor. "He means to keep his eye on us, I can see; but
he won't catch us napping."
As a precaution against this crafty enemy, he hinted to
the chief that it might be well to keep watch on Harimau,
the young chief of Bukit-Mas, and not let him stir out of
the fort, lest his eagerness to see his native place again
should lead him to rejoin his tribe, in which case (as the
great chief of Utan-Itam was no doubt aware) some fearful
calamity, foretold by a prophet of unquestioned holiness,
would overwhelm not only Bukit-Mas itself, but every
other tribe in Acheen.
AN EASTERN MONTENEGRO 249
)
This hint was not lost on the superstitious savage, who
knew the whole story of the prophecy, and Harimau's
consequent exile; and thenceforth the young Malay was
watched with a sleepless vigilance that made Heathermoor
quite easy.
Of course the coming of the distinguished visitors was
celebrated with a feast, and equally of course the worthy
savages over-ate themselves fearfully in honour of their
guests. What food they had, however, was more plentiful
than choice; and our heroes, fresh as they were from the
rough-and-ready feasts of an English school, were some-
what nonplussed when each in turn found a huge mass of
half-raw goat-flesh, slippery with grease, plumped right into
his lap on a vast curling plantain-leaf instead of a plate.
This last indulgence, however, was plainly due to their
character as guests; for the Malays never troubled them-
selves about plate or leaf, but simply took a lump of greasy
meat on their bare knees, and hacked it with their knives,
or tore it with fingers and teeth.
"They say one swallow doesn't make a summer," said
Alfred. "I'm sure ors such swallow as these chaps have
got ought to last a ^hole year ! "
"Right you are!" said Wyvil; ''it's a sort of inter-school
match the Charterhouse against Eatiri !"
" Well, I should rather call it a gobblin' vision."
The moment this gorging ended, these strange creatures,
as if bent on reversing all civilized usages, jumped up and
fell to various athletic sports, to the amazement of the
boys, who, after such stuffing, did not expect them to
move for an hour. But the native champions acquitted
themselves so well as to earn the approval of even such
athletes as Thurraboy and Heathermoor.
"These fellows," said the author, "would be awkward
customers in a real fight. With such precipices to help
them, I don't wonder General Van Swieten found 'em a
tough morsel ten years ago, brave as he was."
250 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
The two Charterhouse gymnasts were eager to try their
strength with the Malay athletes; but Heathermoor, know-
ing how this would compromise their dignity in the eyes of
the savages, flatly forbade it.
" It won't be long before we have to show what we can
do," said he meaningly, "and in the meantime our best
plan is to keep quiet."
And now the Acheenese, having had enough of athletics,
took to the favourite amusement of Eastern races, viz.,
story -telling; and a thin, little, sharp -nosed man, aptly
named Tikus (rat), led off as follows:
"Two men had a dispute about a woman, each claiming
her as his wife. One was a learned man, the other a
peasant, who made his living by tilling the ground, and,
as they could not agree, they went before the kazi (judge).
Now, the matter was made all the more puzzling by the
woman herself, who refused to say anything on one side
or the other; so the kazi (who was a man of exceeding
wisdom) heard all the witnesses to an end without himself
saying a word.
" When all had spoken, the judge said : ' Leave the woman
here, and return later on; then shall you hear my decision.'
"So they all saluted him and withdrew; and when they
returned, he said to the learned man : ' Take thy wife ', and
sentenced the peasant to fifty strokes of a rattan. And
when a friend asked him wherefore he decided thus, the
judge said: 'I bade this woman fill my inkstand, and she
did so most expertly, as one well used to the task; and
thus I knew her to be the wife "of the learned man, for
what should a peasant's wife know of inkstands?'
"Then all men praised the kazi's wisdom, and his fame
as a judge went abroad far and wide."
When this story had been duly applauded, Mr. Eat-
evidently a recognized wit in Utan-Itam society launched
forth into a second:
"In former days the Rajah of Kedah sent messengers
AN EASTERN MONTENEGRO 251
with a letter to the Kajah of Perak and all his chiefs, and
there was found in it this one question only: 'Which is
the higher, Gunong Jerei or Gunong Bubu?' Now, Gunong
Jerei is a mountain in Kedah, and Gunong Bubu a moun-
tain in Perak. When the letter had been read there was
much stir among the Perak people, for many thought that
such a message betokened war; and for three days the
Kajah and all his chiefs consulted together as to what
answer they should make to it. On the third day this
reply was sent: 'Gunong Jerei is the higher of the two,
but Gunong Bubu is the greater.'"
"Well, they seem to think all that very funny," mut-
tered Wyvil, looking wonderingly at the mirthful faces
around him, "but, for the life of me, I can't see the joke;
can you, Alf ?"
"Well, you know, every nation has its own idea of
fun," replied Huntley. " The Frenchmen always say that
Shakespeare had no more humour than a post, and I dare
say these Malay fellows wouldn't see any fun in Tom Hood
or Dickens."
Just then several voices were heard calling the name of
a solemn-looking old greybeard by the chief's side mani-
festly the fashionable literary man of this miniature capital
and inviting him to contribute in his turn to the general
entertainment; and the old gentleman, not being civilized
enough to have learned the polite custom of refusing half
a dozen times before doing as he was asked, complied at
once.
"Prepare, then, my brothers," said he with a dignified
air, " to hearken to the tale of Bapa Ibrahim (Father Abra-
ham) and the King of the Giants."
His hearers assented with an alacrity from which no one
unfamiliar with Eastern ways could have guessed that the
story was as well known to them as to the narrator him-
self, and the latter began as follows :
" When Sheikh Ibrahim was a child (may the blessing of
252 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Allah be on all who descend from him !) the earth was given
up to idolatry, and all men worshipped images of wood or
stone, such as the true believers cast out of Mecca when
the light of Islam first shone; for then the whole world lay
in darkness, and not yet had the light of truth dawned on
it through the birth of our holy Prophet (may his name be
exalted !).
" Now, when Ibrahim, the father of the faithful, was
born, he was straightway hidden in a cave, and nourished
there in secret, to save him from the sword of the giant-
king, even Nemroud (Nimrod) the Accursed, who in those
days ruled over all the earth. For ye must know, brothers,
that the sorcerers and cunning men of Nemroud's court,
in whom was the spirit of Eblis (Satan), had foretold that
on that day should be born a child who should destroy
idolatry, and teach the children of men to pray to Allah
alone.
"Then was King Nemroud sore troubled, and he sent
forth his servants, and sought Ibrahim to slay him. But
he found him not; for Allah cast a cloud before his eyes
and the eyes of his servants; even as it is written in the
Book (the Koran): 'Cast a cloud before them, that their
eyes be darkened '.
" And when the dates had ripened and fallen sixteen
times, Ibrahim came forth from the cave where he had
been hidden; and it was night. Then said Ibrahim in his
heart : ' Where is the true God, that I may go to him and
be his servant?' And he spake to the beasts and birds:
'Who is he that made you?' But they gave him no
answer.
" Then arose a star, bright and beautiful, and he thought
that surely this must be God. But the star set, and Ibrahim
said: 'I have no faith in gods that die.' When the moon
rose, he thought that now he had found God; but the
moon set likewise. At last arose the sun in his glory, and
Ibrahim was .glad, and cried aloud : ' Truly this can be no
AN EASTERN MONTENEGRO 253
other than God, for there is nought else so glorious!' But
the sun set also, and Ibrahim was amazed, and knew not
what to do.
"Now Terah, Ibrahim's father, was himself a maker of
idols; and when his son came to him, and said: ' Show me
him who made the world,' Terah pointed to the images
that he had made. But Ibrahim thought : ' How can these
make anything, which have themselves been made by my
father's hands? I will try them.' So he set corn and
fruit before them, and said : ' If ye be gods, arise and eat.'
But they stood still, and heeded him not. Then took
Ibrahim a heavy staff, and smote all the gods in pieces save
the largest, in whose hands he put the staff; and then he
cried to his father to come and see what was done.
" When Terah saw it, he rent his mantle, and cast dust
on his head, and cried: ' My heart is turned to water, and
my face made black before men! Tell me, son, how befell
this ill chance?' And Ibrahim said: 'The young gods
were greedy, and snatched at the food ere the old one was
ready to begin; so he took his staff and punished them as
thou seest.'
"But his father was wroth, and cried aloud: ' Son, what
dirt is this that thou hast been eating? Know I not that
these images are the work of my own hands, and can neither
move nor speak?' 'How then,' said Ibrahim, 'canst thou
worship them, and say they are gods?' Then was Terah
clothed with shame; neither found he any answer.
" But when the idolatrous people of the land (may dogs
defile the graves of their fathers !) heard what Ibrahim had
done, they were angry; and they came and seized him, and
led him before Nemroud the king. And the king sat on
his throne in royal array, terrible to look on; for he was
fierce of countenance and huge as the giants whom the
prophet Moossa (Moses) slew when he led the armies of
the Beni-Israel. But Ibrahim feared not, for God was with
him.
254 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
" Then said the king : ' Thou hast set at nought the gods
of thy father, but thou shalt worship my god, or it shall
go ill with thee.' 'And who is thy god, king?' asked
Ibrahim. 'My god is fire, the mightiest of all things;
therefore worship it.' ' Nay, not the mightiest,' said
Ibrahim, 'for water quenches it.' 'Worship water, then,'
said the king. ' Not so,' quoth Ibrahim, ' for the clouds,
which take it up, are stronger still.' ' Worship the clouds,
then, prater,' cried Nemroud, waxing wroth; for never yet
had man dared to beard him thus. 'Nay, King,' said
Ibrahim, ' for the wind that scattereth the clouds is mightier
than they.'
"Then cried the king in anger: 'By the gods of my
fathers, this babbler's tongue is worse than the hot wind of
the desert! Worship the wind, then, dog, and let us have
done with thy prating.' ' Nay,' said Ibrahim, ' for lo! men
withstand the force of the wind, and are stronger than it.'
' And I am the mightiest of men,' said the king proudly,
' therefore worship me, or thou shalt be cast forthwith into
a fiery furnace.' But Ibrahim answered: 'If thou art in-
deed the mightiest of all, bid the sun turn back in his course,
and set where he now riseth. But if thou canst riot dc
this, I worship thee not!'
" Then the king commanded, and they bound Ibrahim,
and cast him into the fiery furnace; but God delivered hire
from the fire, and made him a blessing unto many nations,
Brothers, the story is ended."
CHAPTER XXVII
LIVING DEATH
AFTER the toilsome march, and various excitements of
this eventful day, the two Charterhouse lads slept as
only English school -boys can. But with Heath ennoor it
was otherwise; for, now that he was actually face to face
with the terrible problem on the solution of which hung
the life or death of his best friend and perhaps that of
himself and his whole party likewise the strain of this
haunting and ever-present anxiety was almost too much
even for him.
In truth he had enough to keep him awake. So far all
had gone well; but what next? He knew that the fierce
usurper of Bukit-Mas (now within a few miles of them
with his whole tribe) would slaughter them to a man with-
out hesitation, if by so doing he could get Harimau into
his power; and who could be certain that their present
hosts might not at any moment betray them to the enemy 1
But even if the Malays did keep faith with them, the
task that lay before them was all but hopeless. To get
Colonel Huntley out of Gajah's clutches by stratagem
seemed impossible, and to rescue him by force was equally
so without the full co-operation of the Utan-Itam men,
which was scarcely to be hoped for; for Heathermoor knew
enough of the East to feel certain that two savage tribes of
Mohammedan Malays, whatever private feuds might exist
between them, would be far more likely to combine against
a party of " white-faced unbelievers ", than to side with the
white men against each other.
Hour after hour the brave man lay pondering, with a
256
256 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
heavy heart, till he hit upon a plan so desperate that few
men save himself would have thought it worth con-
sideration.
" Hollo ! this is having the eyes of the universe upon
one with a vengeance!" cried Wyvil, awakening, to find
himself in the midst of a hollow square of eager faces and
staring eyes, formed by the throng of Malays that encircled
the open-sided " shelter " in which he had spent the night.
" I say, Alf, just look here!"
" It reminds me," said Huntley, " of that bit in Macaulay
that we used to laugh at so, about Louis XIV dressing, and
shaving, and all that before hundreds of people : ' He even
took his emetics in state, and vomited majestically in the
presence of the entire court '. Well, you fellows, what's it
all about? Did you never see an Englishman before?"
But, as the boys started up, the crowd dispersed, the
Malays having seemingly no other object than to see how
the mysterious orang - orang - laut (men of the sea) looked
when asleep.
But in spite of an inquisitiveness as rude and shameless
as that of an interviewer, these bony, black-maned goblins
proved to be not such bad fellows after all. The courage
with which these mere boys had undertaken so rough and
perilous a journey, and the hardihood with which they had
sustained it, prepossessed the bold mountaineers in their
favour; and, as usual, their knowledge of the native
language was a passport to the hearts of all who spoke it.
The boys were beginning to think these savages not so
black as rumour painted them, when they were suddenly
confronted with a fearful proof to the contrary. In a deep,
gloomy hollow, which they had not yet seen, they came
all at once on a low bamboo frame, to which was bound a
human form, seemingly lifeless, and wasted to an absolute
skeleton.
The boys were turning to Harimau, who was with them
as usual, to ask what crime had doomed this wretch to such
LIVING DEATH 257
a death, when a low groan from the seeming corpse startled
them both.
" Why, he's alive!" cried Alfred in horror; " and just see
what they've done to him!"
In fact, the victim's swollen wrists and ankles, black with
sores and vermin, were held fast by cleft sticks, in each of
which a knife was so placed as to cut into the flesh at the
sufferer's slightest movement.
"That is a shame and no mistake!" shouted Wyvil in-
dignantly. " Whatever he's done, they oughtn't to torment
him like that. Here goes to cut him loose."
Whipping out his knife, he was about to sever the
prisoner's bonds, when Harimau caught his arm, and at the
same moment a tall, gaunt, savage-looking Malay sprang
up from the deeper shadows of this evil place, as if he had
risen through the earth, and, waving back Marmaduke with
a menacing gesture, growled that the captive was his, and
that no one must touch him.
Wyvil, in the first flush of his indignation at this brutal
cruelty, was about to " punch the fellow's head ", and get
himself killed on the spot in return, but the more prudent
Huntley drew him hastily back, and bade Harimau enquire
the doomed man's offence.
The explanation was soon given. By mountain law, any-
one who did to a tribesman any injury, which was judged
worthy of death, was doomed to perish by the slow torture
now before their eyes ; being watched day and night by his
adversary, or one of the latter's friends, to see that no one
relieved his misery.
The victim before them had had a scuffle with the brother
of the man who was guarding him, and had dealt him a
blow that proved mortal. He vehemently protested that
he had not meant to kill the man ; but, ill-will being known
to have existed between the two for some time, he was
doomed to die, and, being given up to his victim's family,
had lingered in this hideous trap for nearly a week, with
(B533) K
258 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
just food and water enough to keep him alive to suffer, as
he would probably continue to do for three days more.
Harimau told all these horrors with a cool unconcern
which showed that such things were too familiar to impress
him; but the warm-hearted English lads were far from
sharing his pitiless composure.
" This won't do," said Alfred. " It's no use offering these
fellows money, for they don't know what it's worth; but
I'll give 'em everything else I've got, to the very shirt off
my back, rather than let that poor wretch lie groaning there
any longer."
Then, turning to the tall mountaineer, he said in Malay :
" Son of the Black Forest, are you determined to kill this
man ? Can he not be ransomed 1"
At the word " ransomed " the- savage's native greed
sparkled in his keen black eyes; but he replied with affected
coldness :
" Who would pay for such a thing as he is now a price
that would satisfy us for what he hath done?"
" We would," replied Alfred firmly. " What say you?"
"I say nothing," answered the Malay with a cunning
smile, " till I have spoken with my father and brother; for
this concerns us all."
" Bring them hither at once, then," said Alfred, so
authoritatively that Wyvil himself was startled; "and
you, Harimau, go quickly and call the two English
chiefs."
He was instantly obeyed; and, just as the tall Malay
came up with his father and brother on one side of the
hollow, Harimau appeared on the other, followed not only
by Heathermoor and Thurraboy, but by a dozen of the
leading tribesmen, including the bulky chief himself, whose
size and strength amply bore out his name of Kerbau
(Buffalo).
Harimau had already explained to the new-comers how
matters stood; and, while Heathermoor whispered apart
LIVING DEATH 259
with his son and Alfred Huntley, the chief stepped for-
ward, and, pointing to the prisoner, called out:
" In whose hands is the life of this 'son of the bamboo'?"
The father and brothers of the slain man stepped forward,
naming themselves as they did so.
"Where are they who wish to ransom him?" asked
Kerbau again.
"Here," answered Heathermoor, as he and his party
came to the front, each in turn mentioning his own
name.
"Well, for savages, they seem to do things pretty
systematically," muttered Thurraboy. "I wouldn't have
given 'em credit for it."
"Are ye three content to take ransom for this man's
life?" asked the chief.
"We are, if it be such as satisfies us," replied the father
(a sullen, fearfully scarred old man) with a sneer which
showed that he did not think such an offer very likely.
Half the camp had by this time gathered round the spot,
and all eyes were fixed on Alfred as, at a whispered hint
from Heathermoor, he went up to the elder brother, and,
holding out the dagger given him by the Rajah at Medan,
said:
"This was the Rajah's gift; it will cut a hair or split a
log. Try it."
The Malay's eyes flashed at sight of the splendid weapon,
and, clutching it eagerly, he slashed away like a feather a
stout twig overhead. Then he struck the point into a
tree, and it sank several inches deep.
"I am content," said he; "the bamboo hath fallen from
my prisoner's right wrist."
Rightly interpreting this strange formula as an abandon-
ment of his part in the family vengeance, Heathermoor put
forward Wyvil to deal with the second brother, whose greedy
glances at Marmaduke's embroidered" scarf had not escaped
either him or his father.
260 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"This is what I offer," said he, holding out the sash; "it
was the Rajah's gift to me, and bears his badge."
"I am content," said the other, clutching the prize; "the
bamboo hath fallen from my prisoner's left wrist."
"But I am not," growled the father; "ye have received
gifts, but what gift have I?"
"This," said Heathermoor, presenting his cartridge-
pouch, which, with its glossy leather and scarlet cord,
bright brass initials, and polished steel buckles glittering
like silver, was the admiration of the whole camp. Even
the old savage's thirst for vengeance gave way to the desire
of owning such a treasure; and, snatching it from Heather-
moor's hand as if fearing that the latter might repent of his
offer, he growled:
"I am content; the bamboo hath fallen from my pri-
soner's feet."
The sufferer was at once freed from his horrible prison ;
and his mother and sister (who had tried vainly to soften
these human tigers with the offer of all that they had) bore
him tenderly away, casting on his deliverers a look of grati-
tude more eloquent than any words.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE MYSTERIOUS SOUND
WE'VE not much time left to work in now. So far as
I can make the Mohammedan calendar square with
our own, the last day of the term fixed by that prophecy,
during which Harimau must not show his face among his
own people, is the twenty -sixth of this month; and, after
that, you know, we can have no possible excuse for not
giving him up to them."
"Next Sunday week; rather a short term for getting a
man out of the claws of a gang of bloodthirsty savages."
The speakers were Lord Heathermoor and Mr. Thurra-
boy, who stood side by side on the hill-top above the Malay
village, looking down in the glory of the sunrise on the
grand panorama below. But they gave little heed to it,
the eyes of both being riveted on the point where, through
a deep, gloomy, narrow glen that cleft the great mountain-
wall beyond them, they caught a distant glimpse of the
bright blue sea, and of a small rocky islet that rose from it
like a tower, under the lee of which lay at anchor their trim
little yacht, with the flag of Old England waving jauntily
over her.
The two grave faces lighted up at the sight, but only to
cloud again.
" Harimau's uncle, Gajah," said Heathermoor, " seems in
no hurry to answer our message. It's two days since we
sent that man to tell him that we are here, ready to confer
with him, yet not one word of answer has he sent us, though
his place is only a few miles off."
" Do you think, then, he's plotting some treachery f "
261
262 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"I'm sure he is; and I suspect these Utan-Itam men,
with all their friendliness, are plotting some treachery
too."
"What makes you think so?" asked Thurraboy, looking
rather disturbed.
"Well, I can give you no actual proof of it; it's more
that I feel it in my bones, as the Yankees say. But judge
for yourself. These men know Huntley's a prisoner in
Bukit-Mas; and they know, too, that he's our countryman,
and a man of note among us. Well, having seen us give,
to save that poor wretch who was being tortured, a lot of
things that seemed priceless treasures to them, they'll
naturally think that if we gave so much for a man who
didn't belong to us, we'll give ten times more to save an
Englishman."
"I don't quite follow you."
" Well, then, suppose that, in the midst of our negotiations
with Grajah and the Bukit-Mas men, these Utan-Itam people
should make a sudden attack upon them, take Huntley out
of their hands by force, and then refuse to give him up to
us unless we ransom him from them ?"
" Well, supposing they did, what then ? We would ran-
som him from them, and there would be an end of it."
"You don't understand me yet. Don't you see that, if
Gajah saw any risk of such a prisoner as Colonel Huntley
being taken out of his hands by force, the first thing he'd
do would be to kill him on the spot?"
"H'm! that's true; I hadn't thought of that."
"Or, even if he did escape with his life, I feel certain
that, in case the Utan-Itam men got the best of it, and
carried off Huntley, their first move would be to seize upon
us as well, and put us and him all to ransom together; and
as for Harimau, they'd most likely kill him at once, for
fear he should avenge the defeat of his tribe upon them
later on."
"And what on earth do you mean to do, then?" asked
THE MYSTERIOUS SOUND 263
Thurraboy with a sharpness which told that even his iron
nerves were beginning to feel the long strain of these wear-
ing anxieties.
"I have my plan," replied the other with that cold com-
posure which, as Thurraboy had already begun to learn,
was habitual to him when he was specially dangerous.
The author would gladly have enquired what this plan
was; but there was something in Heath ermoor's tone and
look that did not encourage questions, and for some minutes
both were silent.
Then all at once was heard amid the deep, solemn still-
ness of early morning coming apparently from the far
distance, yet distinct as if close at hand a harsh, hollow
rumble, not so much like thunder as like the slow rolling
of ponderous wheels over a rough and broken road.
"What on earth is that 1 ?" cried Thurraboy, starting.
Heathermoor, who seemed to be listening intently, made
no reply; and none was needed, for hardly had his com-
rade uttered the query when it was strangely and terribly
answered.
Thurraboy had noticed carelessly a small white cloud
hovering over the hills, and was wondering why it should
cling so persistently to the summit of a bare, black, grim-
looking peak some miles to the north, when, gazing more
attentively, he saw with secret dismay that it was no cloud,
but smoke.
"What's that?" cried he, changing colour.
"A hint to us to stay here no longer than we can help,"
said the other, as coolly as ever; "but we won't take it. If
all the hills in Acheen come tumbling about our ears, we
won't go without Randolph Huntley."
As if in reply to this bold challenge, the mysterious
sound was just then heard again, louder and nearer than
before.
"Well," said the author, forcing a laugh, "it's hard to
have to deal with savages and an earthquake as well; that's
264 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
being pretty heavily handicapped in a match for life and
death. You think, then, this is some volcanic convulsion?"
" I'm sure it is. This Malay Archipelago, you know, is
simply a great electric cable of volcanic forces, which runs
all through Sumatra and Java, and is carried on to the east
by the smaller islands of Lombok and Sumbawa to Floris
and Timor, after which it takes a twist north to Amboyna
and the Moluccas. Sumbawa itself blew up like a powder-
mine in 1816, shaking the earth for hundreds of miles
round, and covering with ashes a space as large as Ger-
many. What has happened once may happen again.
Every one of these mountains on which we stand is
volcanic, and this district is the most dangerous of all.
You remember that strange sunset we saw off Ceylon,
and what we found going on in the Sunda Straits, and
what Captain Earshot said about it 1 ?"
The sudden gravity that clouded his friend's face showed
that he did remember; and again there was a gloomy
silence, broken at last by a sharp crackle in the thicket
below, as if someone were forcing his way through it.
A moment later, up came a big Malay to announce that
a messenger had just arrived from Gajah, the chief of
Bukit-Mas, and that the great chief of Utan-Itam wished
to speak with "the lord of the white men of the sea".
CHAPTER XXIX
MEETING AN OLD FRIEND
AS the Englishmen strode down the hillside after the
bearer of Kerbau's summons, Lord Heathermoor
hastily reviewed in his own mind their present situation,
and the measures by which he designed to meet it.
The survey was far from encouraging. He had to pro-
vide against three or four contingencies at once, and a
failure in one point might cost not only the life of the
man whom he was striving to save, but his own and those
of all his comrades. He was now certain that his Utan-
Itam allies, tempted by his liberality in ransoming the
prisoner, were meditating some such treachery as he had
suggested to Thurraboy. On the other hand, he felt equally
sure that Gajah of Bukit-Mas was bent on getting Harimau
into his power without giving up Huntley. Moreover,
there could now be no doubt that the two chiefs were
secretly plotting to unite the whole force of the border
tribes against the Dutch (evidently expecting him and his
friends to co-operate with all their might), and a refusal to
do so would mean certain death to them all.
Fearless as he was, the brave man felt his heart grow
heavy as he realized, more fully than ever, on the brink of
what a precipice they were all standing. But whatever
anxieties might rack him, the keenest eye could read no
trace of them on his calm, handsome features.
The Bukit-Mas envoy proved to be no other than Ular,
the haughty warrior who had brought to Willemsdal Gajah's
demand for the surrender of Harimau, and his threat to put
Huntley to death if they refused. Heathermoor found him
265
266 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
looking greatly ruffled, as if his dignity had just received
a severe shock; and so it had, and that shock was due to
Marmaduke Wyvil himself.
The moment he recognized the Malay, our slap-dash
hero ran up to him, in his usual headlong style, with a
loud laugh, greeted the scandalized warrior at the top of
his voice, and coolly asked why he had been so long with
his message, and whether he had fallen asleep on the
way.
But the wily savage, even while writhing at this un-
ceremonious treatment, was shrewd enough to bethink
himself that something worth knowing might be let slip
by this incautious, outspoken boy; so he said carelessly:
"I suppose that fire -boat behind the islet is your
father's."
"Ah, you've seen her, then?" cried Wyvil; "isn't she a
beauty ? Yes, she's ours ; we came in her all the way from
our country beyond the sea."
"And plenty of your sea- warriors on board?" went on
Ular.
"Lots of 'em and plenty of guns too," said the boy,
elated at finding himself talking to a real live savage in
his own language, and making himself quite understood.
"My father never goes anywhere without her; and he sent
her round here to wait for us."
This, as it happened, was the very best thing that our
hero could have said. His father, knowing that the appear-
ance of an armed vessel off their coast would cause great
excitement and alarm among the men of Bukit-Mas, and
rightly judging that the best way of dealing with such born
rogues was to tell them the simple truth, had coupled with
his last message to their chief the announcement that the
strange ship was his own, and that she had been sent to
that place by his special orders, to be ready for anything
that might happen a phrase which Gajah, remembering
the tone of covert enmity to the Dutch that had marked
MEETING AN OLD FRIEND 267
Heathermoor's former message to him from Willemsdal,
interpreted in his own way.
All this tallied so exactly with what Marmaduke had
just said that even Ular himself, suspicious as he was, felt
convinced of its truth.
"But why," asked he, "did you not come here in your
fire-boat, instead of taking this long journey by land?"
"So we would, but she wasn't finished yet."
"Not finished?" echoed Ular, looking puzzled.
"Well, she had to be repaired, you know, after the
storm," said the boy, who seemed to take it for granted
that his new friend knew all about it. "A vessel needs
some putting to rights after being all but wrecked!"
"You were nearly wrecked, then?" cried the Malay
with a sparkle in his keen black eye; for, like all Acheenese,
he was a " wrecker " to his finger-tips.
"To be sure we were," said Wyvil, as gleefully as if the
fact were rather creditable to them than otherwise. " We
were just driving ashore off Acheen Head " (Ular started
visibly), "and the whole beach was covered with men, all
ready to murder us the minute we got to land, when, just
at the last moment, we struck a cross-current, and managed
to get past the cape."
"And when did this happen?" asked the savage
eagerly.
"Only a few months ago," said Wyvil; "the ship's only
just repaired again."
"Wonderful indeed are the ways of Allah!" cried the
devout Mussulman. " When I first saw yonder fire-boat, I
thought I knew her; and lo! now it seems that I thought
rightly. Well do I remember how we rejoiced when we
saw her come driving toward the rocks, thinking that the
mercy of Heaven had sent us much good plunder; but
when she veered round, and slipped past the headland, our
hearts were heavy, for we saw then that it was our destiny
to get nothing!"
268 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"What? were you there?" shouted Wyvil with the full
power of his lungs.
"I had been sent by our chief with a message to the
chief of that district; and when his people ran down to the
shore, seeing your ship drifting on to the rocks, I went
also."
"Well, this is a joke!" cried Marmaduke, clapping the
astounded savage on the back with a roar of laughter.
"Here, Alf, Alf ! come here, quick! here's one of the chaps
that were going to murder us that time off Acheen Head ! "
And, to the Malay's amazement, Huntley seemed as
much delighted as his chum at this chance meeting with
their would-be assassin.
" Of all beings that Allah hath created," said Ular later
on, when describing this queer interview, "the strangest,
assuredly, are these English heathen. Truly one might
think they love their enemies more than their friends; for,
when yon lad knew that I was one of those who would
have plundered and slain him, he laughed right merrily,
and welcomed me as a man welcomes his brother! There
be many madmen on earth, but maddest of all is a young
English unbeliever."
When Heathermoor reached the camp, he learned that
Gajah's message was an invitation to them to visit him in
Bukit-Mas, and confer with him as friends on the points at
issue between them. To the wary Englishman, this invi-
tation seemed very much like that of Mrs. Bond to her
ducks; "Ducky, ducky, ducky, come and be killed"; and
he replied that while the young chief of Bukit-Mas, Hari-
mau, formed one of their party, it would be a gross dis-
courtesy to visit his native place without taking him with
them, which the well-known prophecy forbade at present.
Moreover, when matters of such importance were being
discussed, it was only fair that his illustrious host, the
great chief of Utan-Itam, who had so hospitably enter-
tained him and his friends, should also be present
MEETING AN OLD FRIEND 269
This compliment, spoken in Kerbau's hearing, vastly
pleased the worthy savage; but Ular, not so easily deceived,
eyed the speaker with the look that a practised cardsharper
might wear on suddenly encountering another cheat as
skilful as himself.
It was at length decided, at Heathermoor's suggestion
(though he cleverly contrived to make the proposal seem
to proceed from the chief himself), that Gajah should be
invited to appear on the border-line between Bukit-Mas
and Utan-Itam, with twenty warriors of his tribe, and his
prisoner, Colonel Huntley; and that Kerbau should meet
him there with an equal number of Utan-Itam men, and
Heathermoor's whole party, Harimau included. This being
settled, Heathermoor said, loud enough for all to hear :
"I must now withdraw for a time, for I have to write an
important letter to the Rajah of Medan, with which his
messenger here (pointing to Ismail) must set off this very
day."
"What! are you going to dismiss our courier?"
whispered Thurraboy with a look of surprise.
" He can be of no more use to us here," said Heathermoor
in the same tone, "and the Bukit-Mas men have nothing
to do with the Rajah, and wouldn't care twopence for him.
Besides, it will impress these fellows a good deal to see us
sending off a letter to the Rajah, by special messenger, of
which they don't know the contents. If they are plotting
treachery, it'll make 'em think twice before trying it."
The letter was soon written, and, an hour later, Haji-
Tsmail started down the hill with it, escorted by two of
Kerbau's warriors.
CHAPTER XXX
WALKING IN DARKNESS
AS Lord Heathermoor bad foretold, this public proof of
a secret and intimate communication between the
Rajah and their English guests made a visible impression
upon the Utan-Itam men and their chief; and the wary
Englishman did not fail to observe that it had its effect
upon Ular likewise (for whose benefit, indeed, and for his
master through him, this scene had been chiefly got up).
In short, when the Bukit-Mas envoy set off homeward that
evening, Heathermoor felt satisfied that his story would
lose nothing in the telling, and that Harimau's respectable
uncle would hear of something not at all to his advantage.
Ular himself returned no more; but another envoy came
from Bukit-Mas on the next morning but one, to announce
Gajah's assent to their proposal, and arrange the prelimi-
naries of the meeting, which was fixed to take place at a
spot about three miles from the Utan-Itam fortress, where
the boundaries of the two tiny principalities met.
During the preparations that filled up the next two
days, Thurraboy noticed that his friend Heathermoor was
very much in the company of the chief Kerban, and seemed
to be constantly asking him questions, the answers to which
he appeared to note with close attention.
The chief was visibly pleased at this marked interest in
his country and people on the part of a man of another
race and creed, who came from the end of the world. But
Thurraboy soon noticed that his comrade's questions turned
chiefly on the natives' mode of fighting, their weapons, and
their skill in using them; and when Kerbau ordered up
270
WALKING IN DARKNESS 271
two of his best warriors for a sham fight, to show his guest
how such things were done, the author's growing suspicions
deepened into certainty.
" I've guessed your plan," he said, the next time he and
Heathermoor were alone; "you're going to provoke Gajah
to a single combat."
"Well, I didn't mean to tell you, but, as you have
guessed it, I must admit you are right. That villain is the
source of all our troubles, and without him the tribe will
be like a body without a head. There's no safety for poor
Huntley or that brave lad Harimau while he lives; and,
though I have no love for bloodshed, I feel that mercy to
such a ruffian, after all his crimes, would be like sparing a
tiger or a mad dog!"
" I wouldn't try it if I were you; if he does accept,
which I don't think he will, he's sure to attempt some
foul play."
" He can't refuse, before his own men and another tribe
as well, without losing for ever his credit as a warrior; and
as to foul play, I shall take that for granted, and be on my
guard."
It was the night of the 24th August. On the following
evening the two parties were to meet at the boundary, and
encamp there for the night, the conference being fixed for
the next day.
The spot chosen was well suited to the purpose. It was
the summit of a low, rocky bluff, which rose pyramid-like
in the centre of the deep, narrow valley separating Utan-
Itam from Bukit-Mas. Its top formed an irregular plat-
form two hundred yards wide, sloping steeply toward
Utan-Itam in a broken descent traversed by a winding
path, while the Bukit-Mas side went sheer down in a preci-
pice of a hundred feet, around the base of which another
path, which only a goat or a Malay could have climbed,
zigzagged upward till it reached the platform half-way
along one of its more accessible sides.
272 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Seen from its eastern or Utan-Itam face by which it
was usually approached this curious hill -top wore the
exact likeness of a gigantic chair, the back of which was
formed by a vast tower-shaped mass of black volcanic rock,
starting sheer up from the very brink of the precipice more
than fifty feet into the air.
It was already close upon midnight, and the rising moon
was just beginning to peer over the black mountain-ridges
that surged up against the sky like rolling waves, when
two dark figures came creeping, as silently as shadows,
along the break-neck path which led up the eastern side
of the boundary-bluff.
It might have startled a spectator (had any spectator
been there) to see human forms in this ghostly spot at that
unearthly hour; for it was at dead of night that the demons
with whom Acheenese superstition had peopled these shaggy
woods and gloomy gorges were believed to be abroad in all
their terrors, and the boldest of these wild mountaineers
would have shrunk from venturing forth in such a place
and at such a time. Stranger still, the growing moonlight
showed that one of these two night-wanderers was a native,
the other being a tall man with the dress and complexion
of an Englishman.
When the two prowlers, having wormed their way with
marvellously little noise through the mass of thorny under
growth that fringed the edge of the platform, had at length
emerged from the thickets upon the open ground beyond
them, the taller of the pair, after glancing keenly round
him for an instant, said in a low whisper to his companion:
"You told me, Inche Harimau, that, if we have to run
for it, the right-hand path is the one. But where is it ? I
see no sign of it."
" Were you to push back that bush that rises above the
rest, Tuan Heathermoor, you would see it, and it is the
only one by which you could escape from this spot. The
path by which we have come leads, as you know, to Utan-
HE CAUGHT HARIMAU's ARM JUST AS THE LATTER
WAS ABOUT TO MAKE HIS SPRING
Page 274
WALKING IN DARKNESS 273
Itam, and the left-hand one to Bukit-Mas; but the path to
the right, though it seems to turn inland, strikes at last
into a valley by which you can go straight down to the
sea."
The other was about to reply, when Harimau, with a
warning gesture, drew him back into the shadow of the
thicket.
At first even Heathermoor's practised ear failed to catch
the sound that had warned the young savage's acuter
senses, but at length he caught a very faint rustle, which
told that someone was picking his way cautiously up the
perilous ledge-path pointed out by Harimau as the way to
Bukit-Mas. Nearer and nearer came the sound, and then
a man crept forth into the moonlight within twenty yards
of them, facing round instantly as if to address or be
addressed by someone still hidden by the bushes.
"I go no farther," said a deep voice from the thicket,
" and you know what you have to do. Kill him, and your
reward shall be great; fail me, or turn traitor, and my ven-
geance shall find you even in the depths of the sea!"
Low as was his tone, the unseen speaker, to whom his
companion replied only with a low salaam, spoke with such
deadly earnestness that his words were as terribly distinct
to the ambushed listeners as if uttered in their very ears.
The moment Harimau heard his voice he gave a slight
start, and said to Heathermoor in a whisper so low that
even the Englishman's quick ear could barely catch it:
"Abangf" (my uncle).
Brave as Heathermoor was, even he felt his heart beat
quicker at this sudden intimation that the terrible Gajah,
the man of a thousand crimes, whose hands were red with
his own brother's blood, was actually before him at last.
Eagerly did he strain his eyes into the thicket for a glimpse
of the formidable adversary to whom he expected to be
opposed in mortal combat ere two more suns had set.
But amid the black shadow of that impenetrable under-
( B 533 1 S
274 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
growth nothing was to be seen, and in another moment
a faint and lessening footfall, far down the dark descent,
told him that his foe was beyond his reach.
At that instant the man who was left behind turned half-
round, as if to watch his departing leader. The moon
shone full on his face, and they recognized the treacherous
half-caste, Lu-Yan, who had incited Van der Haagen's
coolies to riot, and played the spy on Harimau.
That the young chief himself had not forgotten this was
plain enough, for he at once drew his dagger with a look
at Heatherrnoor too terribly significant to be misunder-
stood.
Most men would have let him do his will, for, it being
undoubtedly Harimau himself whom this wretch was com-
missioned to slay, it might well seem but justice for Hari-
mau to slay him. But not so thought Heathermoor. Spy,
traitor, assassin, though he knew this ruffian to be, yet to
strike him down thus without warning seemed so like an
actual murder that the brave man's English heart rose
against it, and he caught Harimau's arm just as the latter
was about to make his spring.
Ere either could speak, the question was suddenly settled
for them. A gust of wind whisked off the half-breed's
cap and tossed it toward the farther side of the clearing,
whither its owner flew to seize it ere it could be carried in
among the bushes.
Poor wretch ! he was too eager in his pursuit to hear the
quick, heavy breathing amid the dark undergrowth, or to
see the two spots of pale, greenish-yellow light that shaped
themselves all at once out of the encircling gloom. There
came a sudden crash in the thicket a black shadow shot
athwart the moonlight a sharp, angry snarl was heard,
and a stifled cry and the villain lay writhing on the earth
in the clutch of a monster as pitiless as himself the black
panther of the Archipelago.
Heathermoor unslung his rifle, but, ere he could fire,
WALKING IN DARKNESS 275
destroyer and destroyed had vanished together into the
deeper shadows beyond.
" You see now," said he solemnly to Harimau, " that no
hand of man is needed to execute God's judgment on
treachery and murder. Let us trust in Him to guard us
and to save us from all our other perils as He has saved us
from this."
CHAPTER XXXI
THE STROKE OF DOOM
ON the following evening the silent and lonely spot that
had witnessed this midnight tragedy was full of life
and bustle. The glare of two huge camp-fires lighted up
the rocky platform and its encircling thickets, and around
the blaze were grouped the two Acheenese bands, which
had reached the spot at nightfall within a few minutes of
each other.
Each party, however, kept to its own side of the clearing,
for native etiquette forbade them to mix with each other
till the pending council was over. The Utan-Itam men
and their white allies were gathered close to the brow of
the steep slope by which they had ascended, while Gajah
and the warriors of Bukit-Mas had planted themselves
farther back, beneath the shadow of the overhanging
crag.
At any other time this evening halt would soon have
become a revel, not a whit less blithe from the conscious-
ness that the next morning might set the revellers at each
others' throats. But on this occasion both sides had secret
anxieties of their own which were more than enough to
check the riotous gaiety of these overgrown children.
Gajah's keen eyes, strain themselves as they might to-
ward the group around the opposite camp-fire, failed to
discern whether it contained the nephew on whose track he
had sent a practised cut-throat twenty hours before, and he
remained in all the tortures of uncertainty if his plot had
succeeded or no. On the other hand, Heathermoor and his
276
THE STROKE OF DOOM 277
friends were equally ignorant if the captive colonel (of
whom nothing had been seen so far) was with the Bukit-
Mas party as arranged, and they began to fear that their
wily foe had outwitted them after all.
But other and heavier burdens weighed down the bold
hearts of the Malays, for all that day the march of both
bands had been haunted by mysterious and terrible por-
tents, which the superstitious fancy of the savages made
even more terrific. On those breezy hills, usually the play-
ground of all the winds of heaven, not a breath was stirring,
and a sultry, unnatural closeness brooded over earth and
sky. More than once during the journey, brief as it was,
one or other of the Malays had paused to listen in secret
terror to that dull, distant, unearthly sound which Heather-
moor and Thurraboy remembered only too well. In pass-
ing along the crest of a high ridge overlooking the sea, the
Bukit-Mas men had been startled by a strange agitation in
the water below, which appeared to surge violently back
from the shore. The Utan-Itam party, on their side, had
been equally dismayed to find that a stream crossed by
their line of march which had never failed within the
memory of living men had suddenly disappeared, leaving
its bed perfectly dry. And, more startling still at that
season, the sun, instead of shining with its wonted cloud-
less splendour, had all day loomed dim through a ghostly
haze.
Reckless though they were of any earthly danger, these
savage mountaineers were as timid as children on the score
of supernatural terrors. All these omens of evil (for such
they held them) weighed them down like a nightmare;
and after a few faint and spasmodic attempts at merriment
which served only to make the universal depression more
glaringly manifest a chilling gloom and silence sank down
upon each and all.
" A Greek would have said," whispered Thurraboy to his
comrade, eyeing these living statues as the darkness slowly
278 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
deepened around them, "that these fellows were haunted
by the Furies."
"And my countrymen up in the north," rejoined
Heathermoor, "would say that they were fey (doomed).
But, after all, I don't know that we have much cause to be
in better spirits ourselves."
"Not much, certainly. It all amounts to this: we've
got to outwit a set of men that we can't trust, with the help
of another set of men that we can't trust either."
"That's about it. We want to get hold of Huntley
without giving up Harimau, and Gajah wants to get hold
of Harimau without giving up Huntley; but to do that he
must be a better man than I am."
"Then you still keep to your idea of the single com-
bat?"
" I can see no other way may God forgive me if I am
wrong! But we must keep watch and watch over Harimau
all to-night, for those fellows would think nothing of mur-
dering him right in the midst of us."
Thurraboy assented. But this special watch was hardly
needed, for there was little sleep for any of the five that
night. Marmaduke was excited by the expectation of a
general affray on the morrow. Alfred was worked up to
fever-pitch by the near approach of the crisis of his father's
fate. Heathermoor and Thurraboy were in no mood for
slumber on what might be their last night on earth.
Harimau's fierce Malay blood was boiling at the thought
of being at last within reach of the villain who had mur-
dered his father and so many of his trustiest friends.
Yielding to the persistence of his comrade, who had
offered to take the first watch, Thurraboy lay down, but
not to sleep. Wrapped in his own gloomy thoughts (which
harmonized well with the wild scenery around him, and the
grim faces that started out spectrally ever and anon in the
fitful glare of the dying fires) he lay broad awake for a full
hour. But at last the utter silence and the refreshing cool-
THE STROKE OF DOOM 279
ness of night began to make him feel drowsy, and he was
almost in a doze when a cry of alarm from the savages
around made him spring to his feet, thinking they were
attacked.
But the wild cries of the Bukit-Mas men showed them to
be equally terrified, and certainly not without reason. The
moon, which had just risen in all its glory, was fast losing
its silver light and deepening into a blood-red glare. Be-
neath that ghastly splendour the streams that trickled
down the rocks seemed to run blood; the towering crags
stood out as if red-hot against the gloomy sky; the cluster-
ing leaves around turned to quivering tongues of flame;
and the wild faces of the savages, distorted with terror
and amazement, looked wan and livid as those of the
dead.
For a whole hour did this weird spectacle last, and then
ended as startlingly as it had begun; for a black cloud
swept athwart the moon and blotted it out as if it had
never been.
There was no more sleep for either camp that night, and
seldom has the first gleam of dawn been more eagerly wel-
comed than by those weary, downcast, gloomy men, whose
haggard faces seemed already darkened by the shadow of
death.
"Sunday morning!" said Heathermoor with a faint sigh,
as he watched the glorious sunrise broadening over the
dark mountains. "To-day all our people at home are
going to church to pray. I hope some of them are praying
for us, for we need it."
"We can pray here just as well," rejoined Thurraboy.
"Shall we have our service now? I've got my pocket
Bible."
"We will. I'll read a chapter, and then we'll have our
favourite psalm."
A few minutes later the savages were startled by the
deep, mellow cadence of the grand old psalm, which came
280 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
with peculiar fitness from the lips of men who knew not if
they should ever see another sun go down.
" O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home !
' Beneath the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints shall rest secure ;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure."
The fierce mountaineers listened in silent awe. At any
other time their Moslem fanaticism would have prompted
them to interrupt with hard words (and probably with
hard blows likewise) the devotions of men whom their
ignorant bigotry believed to be worshippers of the Evil
One himself; but now, shaken and unnerved as they were
by the dreadful and mysterious portents of the previous
day and night, the prayers of this little band of Christians,
uttered so fearlessly in their very midst, had an overawing
effect which they could neither understand nor resist, and
which was unexpectedly deepened by a very startling
phenomenon.
The sun had risen in cloudless splendour, as if to sweep
away all memory of the past night and its terrors. But
the last notes of the psalm were still echoing among the
rocks when the dazzling light began suddenly to grow
faint and dim (just as it had done on the previous day),
as if seen through a rising mist. The Malays saw, and
shuddered.
"See'st thou, brother?" muttered one of Gajah's men;
" the white sorcerers are working wonders with the power
of their magic song!"
" And lo ! the sun obeys them, and hides his face at their
word," said a second in tremulous tones. " From the peril
THE STROKE OF DOOM 281
of sorcerers and magicians, and all servants of Eblis (Satan),
I will fly unto Allan, the Lord of all men!"
As the terrified savage faltered out this passage of the
Koran (used by Mohammedans as a safeguard against
witchcraft) a sudden movement in the Bukit-Mas group
left visible a seated figure leaning against a rock. Heather-
moor's heart gave a bound as if it would leap from its
place, for the man, though in native dress, was unmistak-
ably a white, and the keen-eyed Englishman knew at a
glance his long-lost friend, Eandolph Huntley!
He thought Huntley stole a glance at him in return,
though making no sign of recognition, which was just as
well, for the English had warily kept the secret of his close
connection with them.
And now, for the first time, our heroes had a full view
of the Bukit-Mas band and their leader. Conspicuous
among Gajah's warriors was the stately form of Ular,
evidently watching them keenly, seeing which, Heather-
moor whispered warningly to Alfred:
"There's your father at last, Alf; but whatever you do,
don't let those fellows see you know him. One false step
now may spoil all!"
Just then he felt a touch on his arm, and saw Harimau,
with an ominous gleam in his eyes, pointing to a tall man
among the Bukit-Mas warriors, who, as the boy said in a
fierce whisper, was his uncle, Gajah !
Heathermoor looked keenly at the formidable champion,
whom he expected to face in mortal combat that very day,
and saw, to his surprise, quite a different man from what
he had imagined. The dreaded chief's face, though scarred
with wounds, had a bold and rather handsome outline, and,
but for the wolfish restlessness of his small, deep-set, shift-
ing eyes (which seemed to see everything without looking
direct at anything), there was absolutely nothing to suggest
the fearful reputation that credited him with all the crimes
of Richard III. His limbs were finely formed, and the
282 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
suppleness of every movement told of an agility fully
matching his giant strength.
"Tough work, I expect," said Heathermoor; "but, in
a just cause like this, I'd face him if he were twice as
All at once the usurping chief's massive features writhed
themselves into a scowl of such deadly hatred that no
further evidence was needed as to his real nature. He
had caught sight of his hated nephew, and knew that his
murderous plot had failed.
The impatient boys thought the business of the day very
long in opening. And in fact the only part of it which
this Malay parliament seemed in haste to transact was the
preparing and devouring of their morning meal; for with
all the savage's amazing power of enduring privation the
hill-men had also the savage's love of over-eating at every
chance, and plainly held the opinion of the negro who said
to his son: "Sam, my boy, if you ebber hab work to do
'fore breakfast, mind and git yer breakfast fust!"
While this motion was before the House (the only one
that it was likely to carry unanimously), Heathermoor
hastily whispered a few final instructions to his comrades,
ending with a warning to remember that, if "anything
happened" (by which convenient phrase he mildly ex-
pressed the possibility of a fight to the death between
these two gangs of savages), their way of escape lay down
the right-hand path, and that, in case of any confusion,
they could not do better than follow Harimau.
Up to this time, in accordance with native etiquette, the
two chiefs and their followers, though separated only by
a hundred yards of open ground, had appeared studiously
unconscious of each other's presence, resolutely pretending
not to notice that there was anyone there but themselves.
But now that breakfast was over, and the business of the
meeting about to begin, these duodecimo potentates at last
permitted themselves to become aware of the presence of
THE STROKE OF DOOM 283
those who had been encamped beside them for fourteen
hours.
" Salaam-aleikoum, Gajah Bukit-MasJ" (Peace be with you,
Elephant of the Golden Mountain), said Kerbau, stepping
before his men, and addressing Gajah as if he had not seen
him for a year.
" A leikoum-salaam, Kerbau Utan-Itam !" (With you be peace,
Buffalo of the Black Forest), replied Gajah; and, this ex-
change of compliments serving the purpose of opening the
meeting, the speeches began forthwith.
But, to the boys' great amusement, the orators on both
sides seemed to deal with every subject save the one in
hand. Loud boasts of the speakers' feats of war, extravagant
praise of the Acheenese in general and their own tribe in
particular, coarse abuse of the Dutch and furious threats
of vengeance on them, filled every speech from beginning
to end.
This, however, was merely the usual frothy bluster that
always preceded the real business in hand ; and it came at
last. After various minor orators had said their say, Gajah
himself rose and poured forth a vehement tirade, which
had a marked effect, not merely on his own band, but on
the Utan-Itam men likewise.
And well it might. The savage scorn with which he
spoke of the Dutch settlers, his artful allusions to the rich
booty that might be wrested from them, the fiery vehe-
mence wherewith he recalled former battles with the
whites, and pointed to their scars on his own face, were
well fitted to make a deep impression on these fierce
and ignorant robbers, as their yell of applause amply
showed.
But Kerbau, though as savage as his ferocious ally, was
more cautious, and seemed inclined to moderate rather
than inflame the general excitement. He reminded them
that while they had always succeeded in repelling the
Dutch from their mountains, they had uniformly got the
284 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
worst of it when encountering the latter in the plain ; and
he suggested that it might be well to be assured of the
other border tribes before committing themselves to open
war.
These temperate counsels, however, were plainly not to
the taste of Gajah, or of his lieutenant, Ular, whose war-
like renown made him a leading personage in his own
tribe. Ular warmly seconded his chief, and it was de-
cided that the Dutch settlements should be attacked at
once; and, this done, "the House adjourned for lunch",
as Marmaduke whispered to his chum with a forced
laugh.
But Wy vil's merriment was a poor pretence ; for the near
approach of this terrible crisis, and the consciousness that
within a few hours nay, perhaps even within a few minutes
their fate and that of Colonel Huntley would be decided,
were more than enough to sober the reckless boys. Even
Thurraboy began to look nervous and restless; and Heather-
moor himself, with all his firmness, betrayed some emotion
as the decisive moment drew nigh.
The second meal was despatched more rapidly than the
first, the Malays having by this time begun to enter into
the spirit of their day's work. As it ended, the English
instinctively drew close together, knowing that the next
subject of debate would be the disposal of themselves and
of Colonel Huntley.
Then a solemn hush fell over the whole assembly, every
one seeming to feel that now the really serious part of the
conference was about to begin, and amid that grim silence
came another of those mysterious and appalling signs of
evil which had haunted the whole of this ill-omened march.
Though not a breath of wind was stirring, the surrounding
trees suddenly began to quiver violently; in fact it might
almost be said that they shuddered, for the motion was
exactly that of one who shivers with fear.
A tremor of undisguised panic ran through the throng
THE STROKE OF DOOM 285
of superstitious savages, and several voices were heard to
suggest that they must have chosen an "unlucky day",
and that they had better break up the council forth-
with.
"Tell not me of unlucky days!" shouted Gajah in a
voice like the roar of a storm. "Those who are cowards
may go home if they will; I want none but warriors
here!"
Then, turning to Kerbau and his men, he said emphatic-
ally:
"Children of the Black Forest, there are certain white
chiefs among you, of a race that has often fought against
the Dutchmen, whom we hate. Are they willing to go
with us and fight against them once more?"
Kerbau looked enquiringly at Heathermoor, who, step-
ping forward, answered loud enough for everyone to
hear:
"Chief of the Golden Mountain, your words are good.
Assuredly we will not sit still when there is work to do;
but men say that the white chief who is your guest is
mightier both in wisdom and war, and hath done great
deeds of valour. Let him decide what is best for us to
do. If he is willing to go, we wilf go with him at once."
He ventured to lay a slight stress on the last words, and
saw by the sudden change of Huntley's face that the colonel
had caught their meaning.
"Ask him; he will speak for himself," said Gajah, inno-
cent of this by -play; and his reply satisfied Heathermoor
that the colonel had played his part well, and had adroitly
humoured the mistake of his jailers in counting on him as
an ally.
" Randolph," cried he to his old comrade, speaking French,
lest any of the Malays should understand English, "can
you hear me?"
" I hear you, and I understand," replied Huntley in the
same language; " but be careful"
286 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
"He says he hears and understands my words," said
Heathermoor to the savages in Malay; and then he added
in French to the prisoner:
" Are you bound, crippled, or hampered in any way, or
are you able to run and to fight?"
" I am fit for both, though they think I'm not; and I'll
do whatever you tell me."
"Be ready, then, to run over to us whenever you hear
me call."
Then he said impressively to the Malays :
" The great white chief is willing to join us, and now we
are all of one mind. It is well that it should be so, and
that we should speak freely and truthfully to each other;
for if there be any falsehood or treachery among us,
surely the hand of Allah will be heavy against us and
our cause."
The sudden change in the faces of both chiefs at his last
words did not escape the watchful speaker; and their looks
changed yet more when, as if in answer to his solemn
warning, the same dull, distant rumble that had startled
them so often was heard again!
The superstitious savages exchanged glances of silent
terror, and even the iron-hearted Gajah looked dismayed;
but, recovering himself with a violent effort, he said in a
tone of assumed frankness:
"We are, then, friends and comrades henceforth; and
you will now be ready to give back to me my young
nephew, who is your prisoner."
"Nay, no prisoner, but a guest, who has come with us
of his own free-will. As for giving him back to thee, the
term is not yet ended that was appointed by the prophecy
which forbade him to appear among his own people, lest he
should bring evil upon them."
This was a poser for Mr. Gajah, who must either give
way or confess the dreaded prophecy to be a fraud of his
own; and, with a very bad grace, he did the former.
THE STROKE OF DOOM 287
"Thou art right," said he sullenly; "but when the
appointed term is past, thou wilt be ready to restore
him?"
" He is a free mountain chief, and can do as he will,"
said the Englishman coldly. " If he wish to return to thee,
assuredly I will not hinder him."
And as Gajah ground his teeth in baffled rage, knowing
what chance there was that the nephew whom he had done
his best to murder would return to him willingly, the other
went on :
" We are all friends and brothers now, and frankly as
brothers must we speak. Thy nephew thinks doubtless
mistakenly that he has foes among the men of Bukit-Mas,
who might do him wrong. Now I know well how safe he
would be in thy hands; but, that no shadow of doubt may
be left betwixt him and thee, I call on thee to pledge thy
faith to God and the Prophet, here before us all, that the
young chief hath nothing to fear under thy care."
Hardened as the ruffian was, he shrank from the frightful
and blasphemous perjury which he was thus called upon to
utter; and his evil conscience suggested that this seemingly
friendly offer must be really a snare, and that his missing
agent, Lu-Yan, had betrayed him, and might even now be
at hand, ready to disclose the entire plot.
However, it was now too late to draw back; so, calling
up all his firmness, he said aloud:
" My nephew has none but friends among our people ;
and as I shall deal with him, so let God's justice deal with
me!"
Amid the freezing silence that followed this hideous
perjury, Thurraboy was heard to draw a quick breath; for
he saw that Heathermoor was about to give the speaker
the lie direct, and utter the fatal defiance, which, between
two such men, must result in the death of one or both.
But the dispute was destined to a very different ending.
Hardly was Gajah's impious falsehood spoken when the
288 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
mysterious sound was heard once more louder, sharper,
nearer than ever. The earth trembled the trees bowed
as if shaken by a mighty wind and the towering crag
overhead, torn from its place, fell with a crash that was
heard miles away, crushing like flies Gajah himself, Ular,
and a dozen of their band.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 26, 1883
HMHE thunder of the falling rock the sudden and terrific
-L destruction which it wrought the whirl of dust that
for a moment darkened the whole air, above all, the instant
following of this fearful catastrophe on the solemn appeal
to Heaven's justice, changed at once these strong, savage
men into a rabble of frightened children. Some fell flat
on the earth, others cowered away into the bushes, and the
majority took to their heels outright, in such confusion
that several of the Bukit-Mas men, instead of making for
their own country, fled down the slope towards Utan-Itam.
Amid this terror and disorder, while all was still hid by
the whirling dust, Heathermoor felt a hand on his shoulder,
and heard the colonel's voice say: "Here I am; let us run
for it!"
Instantly the whole party, led by Harimau, were flying
like hunted deer along the right-hand path, and soon heard
the uproar die away behind them.
How long that race with death lasted none of them could
ever have told. Just beyond this hill lay the vessel that
would save them ; but would they ever reach it ? Crashing
into matted thickets, stumbling over loose stones and pro-
jecting roots, bursting through tangled briers, on, on they
flew, with throbbing hearts, and swimming eyes, and breath
coming in laboured gasps.
All at once the breakneck path made a sharp turn, and
began to slope steeply downward, and they suddenly found
themselves in the valley spoken of by Harimau, at the far
end of which they caught a glimpse of the sea.
( B 533 ) 289 T
290 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
At that sight the boys waved their hands joyfully, and
expended their last breath in a faint hurrah. But the poor
lads were exulting too soon. Hardly was their shout
uttered when it was answered by a hoarse clamour of
harsh, angry voices, and they burst right into an armed
band of Bukit-Mas warriors at least thirty strong.
The fact was that Gajah (always suspecting others of
the treachery habitual to himself) had determined to an-
ticipate any hostile intentions on the part of his friend
Kerbau by keeping this force ready near the place of
meeting; and the fugitives, by ill-luck, had fallen right
into it.
But the savages were quite as much taken by surprise
as their opponents; and, profiting by their confusion, the
English broke through them with a headlong rush. Colonel
Huntley, preserving his wonted coolness even in that terrible
moment, called to his comrades to reserve their fire, and,
singling out the Malay leader, struck him down with a
spear that he had snatched up in the general flight.
Heathermoor and Thurraboy, warily noting that only six
of the savages had guns, beat down two of these with their
clubbed rifles, while Harimau disabled a third with a dagger
stroke; and, bursting through their astounded foes, they
dashed headlong down the valley toward the sea.
After that all that passed was like the confused horror
of a dream. Dropping shots, whizzing spears, grim faces
appearing and vanishing by turns, rattling stones and
whirling dust, savage yells (repeated by all the mountain
echoes in hideous chorus), coming closer and closer behind;
for, spent as they were, their pursuers, coming fresh to the
chase, had a fearful advantage. How terribly far away
seemed that pale glimmer beyond, which, faintly visible
amid the deepening gloom, showed where the black mouth
of the glen opened upon the sea. And still the wolfish
cries of the pursuing savages drew nearer, and nearer, and
nearer.
THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 26, 1883 291
Twice they were forced to check the foremost pursuers
by turning and firing on them; but the rest came on so
furiously as to give them no time to reload, while such of
the Malays as had firearms took flying shots at them in
turn. Moreover, the strain of this headlong race over
broken ground was too exhausting to last, as their quiver-
ing lips, swollen veins, and reeling steps showed but too
plainly. Would they never get to the end of this valley of
death?
At last, just as Heathermoor himself was beginning to
despair, the last rays of the setting sun, breaking for an
instant through the ghostly dimness tnat had obscured it
all day, showed them, close in front, the steep rocky ridge
that overhung the sea.
" Up there " gasped their leader; and the hunted
band, with a last effort, struggled frantically up the ascent,
and sank exhausted on its summit.
There, hardly a mile away, lay the trim little yacht on
which they would be safe; and Thurraboy, having no
breath left to hail her, signalled her with three successive
revolver -shots. But these were hardly needed; for the
distant firing, and the yells of the savages, had already put
her crew on the alert, and the moment they saw the white
men appear on the crest of the ridge, they set to work to
lower a boat.
Meanwhile the savages, who had expected their victims
to rush down to the beach and be overtaken there, halted
undecidedly on seeing them mount the ridge; for the
sheltering brushwood ended half-way up, and to scale that
bare slope in the face of practised shots was no inviting
enterprise.
But the fierce Malays were not to be easily baulked.
Skilfully availing themselves of every inequality of the
ground, they began to ascend from several points at once,
while the worn-out Englishmen, hardly able to lift their
weapons, faced the attack in silent desperation.
292 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
Suddenly the air trembled with the burst of a mighty
volume of sound, to which the loudest thunder would have
been nothing. The earth shook the forest quivered to its
topmost boughs the rocks fell thundering from their places
the sea started back from the shore. Instantly all was
dark as night, and the English fell to the earth like dead
men.
CHAPTEK XXXIII
A BLACK SABBATH
MINGLING with the uproar came the fierce lash and
hiss of bursting waves, and a whirl of snow-white
foam glimmered spectrally through the blackness of that
unearthly gloom. But so stunned were our heroes by a
shock that seemed to unhinge the very earth itself, that,
though in momentary expectation of being swallowed up
alive by the heaving ground or the surging waves, many
minutee passed ere they attempted to move.
The first to rise was Heathermoor himself; and, as he
stood leaning dizzily on his rifle, Randolph Huntley
scrambled to his feet on one side and Thurraboy on the
other.
" What was it an earthquake 1" asked the author .
" Either that or a volcanic eruption," said Heathermoor.
"Now, God grant that my poor lads on the yacht may not
have had time to lower the boat before it came ; for if they
have, they are all dead men."
Most providentially the convulsion had come just before
the boat was ready, and thus her gallant crew had escaped.
The yacht herself, apart from the protection of the two
great cliffs between which she lay, was riding with two
anchors out; and, though one cable snapped like a thread,
the other held fast, and the brave little craft remained
unharmed.
In fact, Heathermoor and his party had had a far narrower
escape themselves; for the mountain wave hurled upon the
shore by the convulsion had rushed up the ridge to within
a few feet of the spot where they lay uprooting trees,
208
294 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
tearing away solid rocks, and even ploughing a yawning
chasm in the hillside itself. But it had rid them of their
foes, for the savages below were swept away to a man.
By this time it was pitch dark, what with the coming
night and what with the black dust that filled the air.
But this was nothing to the stout English sailors, who, as
soon as the agitation of the sea had so far subsided as to
make it safe to lower a boat, pulled ashore and brought off
their commander and his whole party.
Oh, but that was a black Sabbath for Java and Sumatra !
The fatal volcano of Krakatoa, standing between the two
islands, dealt equal destruction to both. One great wave
blotted from the earth the thriving Javanese town of
Tieringin. At Anjer the inhabitants suddenly beheld, far
out at sea, a piled-up mass of water standing up like a high
wall, and sweeping landward with inconceivable swiftness.
When it receded, Anjer was gone, and thirty thousand
human lives with it; while Teluk-Betong, a large native
town on the Sumatran side of the strait, was engulfed at
the same moment, with ten thousand more.
In Western Java the burning ashes fell thickly over the
whole country as far as Cheribon, blasting scores of flourish-
ing plantations into a hideous desert, and destroying in one
night the labour of years. Between sunset and sunrise the
whole outline of the Sunda Strait was altered past recogni-
tion, and neither chart nor compass could save the bewildered
seamen, who, voyaging through a channel which they knew
by heart, suddenly found land where they had always seen
water, and water where they had always seen land.
The sea, shaken to its lowest depths, rose and fell like a
fountain-jet, flinging boats and even large ships far up on
to the Java shore; and even in the streets of Batavia itself
the volcanic cinders and lava-dust fell so thickly that, on
the morning after that fatal Sabbath, the sun rose upon it in
vain. A cloud of " darkness which might be felt " shrouded
the affrighted city. Every lamp lit in that tainted air
A BLACK SABBATH 295
flickered and died. The few who ventured to grope their
way about the darkened town fell fainting in its streets.
Houses and shops were shut and barred, and the inhabitants
sat trembling within, thinking the last day at hand. But
with the destroyed perished the destroyer. One line in a
bulletin summed up the issue of this Miltonic conflict: "The
sea now rolls where Mount Krakatoa once stood".
Early on the morrow of that fatal night the rescued
group were gathered, silent and thoughtful, on the yacht's
deck, as she headed north-west over the still heaving sea,
beneath a blank, sunless sky. All looked sombre, but the
gloomiest was Harimau, whose native superstition, revived
by this fearful tragedy, ascribed it wholly to his own rash-
ness in transgressing the limit fixed by the prophecy. He
was somewhat comforted, however, by Heathermoor's assur-
ance that, judging from what they had themselves seen in
the Sunda Strait many weeks before, the great explosion
must certainly have come, even had Harimau never set foot
in Acheen again.
"We are saved," said Heathermoor solemnly; "but I
daren't even think Avhat the next news from Java will be,
for, of course, it is Krakatoa that has done all this."
"As soon as we get to Singapore," cried the colonel, as
he sat between his old friend and long-absent son, "we'll
get up a subscription there to relieve the sufferers, and give
all we can to it ourselves."
" Ay, that we will ; and then, home to Old England ! "
" The sooner the better," said Huntley. " I've had quite
enough of the East Indies, and so, I should think, have you
all."
"We have indeed," said Thurraboy meaningly.
"But you, Inche Harimau, what do you mean to do?"
asked Heathermoor, turning to the young chief, who still
sat silent and moody. " Will you stay with us, or go back
to your own people?"
" Oh, do stay with us, Harry ! We'll take you home with
296 AMONG THE DARK MOUNTAINS
us, and teach you to play cricket!" cried Marmaduke,
evidently regarding this as the first and greatest rudiment
of civilization.
"And if you like being at sea, you know, you can help
us to sail the yacht," added the more practical Alfred.
Harimau made no reply, and Heathermoor resumed in
his kindest tone:
"Understand me; we have not the least wish to part
with you if you are content to remain; all I want you to
know is that, if you prefer to go back to your own country,
you are quite free to do so."
The young savage lifted his head quickly, and, as he
met the Englishman's kindly look, an answering gleam of
emotion lighted up his bold black eyes.
"Why should I go back to my own land now?" said he
with unconscious pathos. " My father and all my friends
are dead, and the judgment of God has fallen upon my
people, because there was treachery in their hearts. The
world is wider than I thought, and I would fain see the
wondrous lands of the West, and learn more of the God of
the Christians, who teaches men to love their enemies. I
will go with you, if you will have me."
"Won't we just?" cried Marmaduke, shaking hands with
him with true school-boy energy; "and if we ever part with
you till you go yourself, call me a Dutchman ! "
The strange compact was faithfully kept; but Prince
Harimau's farther adventures with his English friends can-
not be told here.
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