The Hidden Force Part 22

"Hush, mem-sahib!... Come along ... to the swimming-bath!"

"Wash me, Oorip!... Oorip, my hair, my eyes!... O G.o.d, I can taste it in my mouth!..."

She sobbed despairingly; the maid dragged her along.

"Oorip! First look ... look and see ... if they're spitting ... in the swimming-bath too!"

The maid went in, s.h.i.+vering:

"There's nothing there, mem-sahib."

"Quick then, Oorip, bathe me, wash me."

She flung off the kimono; her beautiful body became visible in the light of the lamp, as though soiled with dirty blood.

"Oorip, wash me.... No, don't go for soap: water will do!... Don't leave me alone! Oorip, wash me here, can't you?... Burn the kimono! Oorip!"

She ducked in the swimming-bath and swam round desperately; the maid, half-undressed, went in after her and washed her.

"Quick, Oorip! Quick: only the worst places!... I'm frightened! Presently ... presently they'll be spitting here!... In the bedroom next, Oorip!... Call out that there's to be no one in the garden! I won't put the kimono on again! Quickly, Oorip, call out! I want to get away!"

The maid called across the garden, in Javanese.

Leonie, all dripping, stepped out of the water and, naked and wet, flew past the servants' rooms, with the maid behind her. Inside the house, Van Oudijck, frantic with anxiety, came running towards her.

"Go away, Otto! Leave me alone! I've ... I've got nothing on!" she screamed.

And she rushed into her room and, when Oorip had followed her, locked all the doors.

In the garden, the servants crept together, under the sloping roof of the verandah, close to the house. The thunder was muttering softly and a silent rain was beginning to fall....

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Leonie kept her bed for a couple of days with nervous fever. People at Labuw.a.n.gi said that the residency was haunted. At the weekly a.s.semblies in the Munic.i.p.al Garden, when the band played and the children and the young people danced on the open-air stone floor, there were whispered conversations around the refreshment-tables touching the strange happenings in the residency. Dr. Rantzow was asked many questions, but could only tell what the resident had told him, what Mrs. van Oudijck herself had told him, of her being frightened in the bathroom by an enormous toad, on which she had trodden and stumbled. There was more known through the servants, however; though, when one spoke of the throwing of stones and the spitting of betel-juice, another laughed and called it all babu-talk. And so uncertainty prevailed. Nevertheless, the papers throughout the country, from Surabaya to Batavia, contained curious, hinting paragraphs, which were not very lucid but which suggested a good deal.

Van Oudijck himself discussed the matter with n.o.body, neither with his wife and children nor with the officials or the servants. But on one occasion he came out of the bathroom looking deathly pale, with eyes staring wildly. He went indoors quietly, however, and pulled himself together; and no one noticed anything. Then he spoke to the chief of police. There was an old graveyard next to the residency-grounds. This was now watched day and night; also the outer wall of the bathroom. The bathroom itself was no longer used; they took their baths instead in the visitors' bathroom.

As soon as Mrs. van Oudijck had recovered, she went to stay with friends at Surabaya. She did not return. She had gradually, and unostentatiously, without a word to Van Oudijck, made Oorip pack up her clothes and all sorts of knick-nacks to which she was attached. Trunk upon trunk was sent after her. When Van Oudijck happened to go to her bedroom one day, he found it empty of all but the furniture. Numberless things had disappeared also from her boudoir. He had not observed the dispatch of the trunks, but he now understood that she would not return. He cancelled his next reception. It was December; and Rene and Ricus were to come from Batavia for the Christmas holidays, for a week or ten days; but he cancelled the boys' visit. Then Doddie was invited to stay at Patjaram, with the De Luce family. Although, with the instinct of a full-blooded Hollander, he did not like the De Luces, he consented. They were fond of Doddie there: she would have a better time than at Labuw.a.n.gi. He had given up his idea, the hope that Doddie would not become Indianized. Suddenly, Theo also went away: through Leonie's influence with commercial magnates at Surabaya, he obtained a well-paid berth in an export-and-import business.

Van Oudijck was left all alone in his big house. As the cook and the butler had run away, Eldersma and Eva constantly asked him to meals, both to lunch and dinner. He never mentioned his house at their table and it was never discussed. What he discussed confidentially with Eldersma, as secretary, and with Van Helderen, as controller, these two never mentioned, treating it all as an official secret. The chief of police, who had been accustomed daily to make his brief report--that nothing particular had happened, or that there had been a fire, or that a man had been wounded--now made long, secret reports, with the doors of the office locked, to prevent the messengers outside from listening. Gradually all the servants ran away, departing stealthily in the night, with their families and their household belongings, leaving their huts in the compound empty and dirty. They did not even stay in the residency. Van Oudijck let them go. He kept only Kario and the messengers; and the prisoners tended the garden daily. Thus the house remained apparently unaltered, outside. But, inside, where nothing was looked after, the dust lay thick on the furniture, white ants devoured the mats, mildew and patches of moisture came through the walls. The resident never went about the house, occupying only his bedroom and his office. His face began to wear a look of gloom, like a bitter, silent doubt. He worked more conscientiously than ever and stimulated his subordinates more actively, as though he were thinking of nothing but the interests of Labuw.a.n.gi. In his isolated position, he had no friend and sought none. He bore everything alone, on his own shoulders, on his own back, which grew bent with approaching age: the heavy burden of his house, which was being destroyed, and of his family life, which was breaking up amid the strange happenings that escaped his police, his watchmen, his personal vigilance and his secret spies. He discovered nothing. n.o.body told him anything. No one threw any light on anything.

And the strange happenings continued. A mirror was smashed by a great stone. Calmly he had the pieces cleared away. It was not his nature to believe in the supernatural character of possibilities; and he did not believe in it. He was secretly enraged at being unable to discover the culprits and an explanation of the events. But he refused to believe. He did not believe when he found his bed soiled and Kario, squatting at his feet, swore that he did not know how it had happened. He did not believe when the tumbler which he lifted broke into s.h.i.+vers. He did not believe when he heard a constant, irritating hammering overhead. But his bed was soiled, his gla.s.s did break, the hammering was a fact. He investigated all these facts, as punctiliously as though he were investigating a criminal case, and nothing came to light. He remained unperturbed in his relations with his European and native officials and with the regent. No one remarked anything in his behaviour; and in the evenings he worked on, defiantly, at his writing-table, while the hammering continued and the night fell softly in the garden, as by enchantment.

On the steps outside, the messengers crept together, listening and whispering, glancing round timorously at their master who sat writing, with a frown of concentration on his brows:

"Doesn't he hear it?"

"Yes, yes, he's not deaf."

"He must hear it."

"He thinks he can find it out through detectives."

"There are soldiers coming from Ngadjiwa."

"From Ngadjiwa!"

"Yes, he does not trust the detectives. He has written to the major sahib."

"To send soldiers?"

"Yes, there are soldiers coming."

"Look at him frowning."

"And he just goes on working!"

"I'm frightened. I should never dare to stay, if I hadn't got to."

"I'm not afraid to stay, as long as he's there."

"Yes ... he's brave."

"He's plucky."

"He's a brave man."

"But he doesn't understand it."

"No, he doesn't know what it is."

"He thinks it's rats."

"Yes, he has had a search made for rats upstairs, under the roof."

"These Hollanders don't know things."

"No, they don't understand."

"He smokes a lot."

"Yes, quite twelve cigars a day."