The Rajah of Dah Part 36

Mr Braine glanced at him, surprised by his strange manner, and then he caught up the light, and went and looked in the room in his turn.

"Gone!" he said, in a low excited voice. "What is the meaning of this?"

Murray shook his head.

"There was no mistake about the directions? I told Frank to go home with your boy to bear him company, and to wait until I came. Oh, I see.

The foolish fellow! He must have misunderstood me, and taken Ned home with him. They are waiting for us there."

"And Hamet? My follower?"

"Gone with them."

"He would not have known."

"Then the boys have been here. Frank was f.a.gged out, and said he would not wait for me any longer, and he has gone home. Your boy and Hamet have accompanied him to see him safely there."

"You are speaking without conviction, Braine," said Murray, sternly.

"You say this to comfort me, and you are thinking differently. What does this mean? What desperate game is this man playing? I swear that if harm has come to that poor boy, though I die for it, I'll shoot this rajah like a dog--like the cowardly cur he is."

"Hus.h.!.+ don't be hasty. You know that your threat may have been heard, and will perhaps be reported to the rajah."

"Let them report it."

"Be sensible, man," whispered Mr Braine. "I feel all this as keenly as you do, and I cling to the hope that we may find the boys at my place.

Come with me."

Murray made no answer, but went to one of the cases he had brought up the river in the boat, and took from it his revolver and some cartridges, charged the weapon, and then thrusting it into his breast, he turned to the Resident.

"I am ready now," he said, in a low harsh voice. "Come on."

The bamboos creaked, and the house shook with the heavy steps of the two men, as they went down, and conscious all the time that they were watched, and fully expecting to have their way barred at any moment, they retraced their steps, to halt for a minute and listen, as they came opposite the entrance to the doctor's garden. But all was silent there, and the lamps were burning just inside the door.

"Come on," whispered Mr Braine, with his voice trembling with the intense strain from which he suffered.

The distance was very short, not many yards on in the direction of the rajah's place, and here they crossed a carefully-tended garden toward the veranda, about whose creepers the fireflies were gleaming.

But there a low fierce voice challenged them from the darkness, and Murray's hand flew to his breast.

"I, Yussuf," said Mr Braine, quietly; and then, in Malay, he asked if the boys had come, and received his answer.

"Not here, and they have not been," he whispered to Murray.

"No. There is some other meaning to it," said Murray, sternly. "The rajah has had them seized. To-morrow I was to have been sent out of the way, but this is a fresh plan. Is it in consequence of what was overheard at Doctor Barnes's?"

"It is impossible to say," replied Mr Braine. "I am beginning to feel bewildered. But we must be calm. No great harm can have befallen them.

It is part of some plan to force Barnes to consent to this hateful marriage."

"Then we must take time by the forelock, and go."

"It is impossible, I tell you."

"There is no such thing in a case like this, man," cried Murray, angrily. "Have you not thought of what I feel?"

"Sir," retorted Mr Braine, bitterly, "have you not thought of what I feel?"

"Forgive me," said Murray, humbly. "I am half mad with rage and excitement. But, for pity's sake, propose something upon which I can act. If I could be doing something, I could bear it better."

"I can propose nothing," said Mr Braine, sadly. "We are so surrounded by difficulties, so hedged in by danger, that we cannot stir. You must remember that any premature action on our part might hasten the catastrophe we want to avert."

"But he would not dare--"

"Murray!" replied Mr Braine, with energy, as they stood there in the intense darkness, the speaker conscious that several of the rajah's spearmen were close at hand, "he would dare anything in his blind belief that he is too powerful for the English government to attack him."

"Then he must be taught."

"And I," continued Mr Braine, as if not hearing the interruption, "have been for years doing what seems now to recoil on my unhappy head, strengthening his belief in himself by training his people for him, and turning savages into decent, well-drilled soldiers, who have made him the dread of the country for hundreds of miles round."

"Come on and tell Doctor Barnes," said Murray at last, and they hurried back, almost brus.h.i.+ng against two sentries standing among the trees, men who followed them silently, and then paused as they entered the gates, where they were joined by three more, looking shadowy and strange by the fireflies' light.

As they reached the foot of the steps, the doctor stepped forward, and then said that he would descend.

"She is asleep at last," he whispered. "Thank you for coming. You need not be so anxious now. Go back, and I promise you both that I will send Driscol on if there is the slightest need of your help. There is not likely to be anything but a quiet insistence on his part, and this must be met firmly."

"There is likely to be something more than quiet insistence, Doctor Barnes," said Murray, sternly. "We have come to bring bad news. Those two lads have been spirited away."

"What!" cried the doctor, excitedly. "No, no; surely not. They were favourites with the rajah. Some accident or some prank. They are only boys; perhaps my man Driscol has--No, no, no. He is here in the house.

But think again; had they any idea of trying some kind of night fis.h.i.+ng, or shooting? Yes, of course. I heard Frank tell my child that he was going to sit up and watch with a Malay--of course--in the jungle, to try and trap or shoot a specimen or two of the argus pheasant for you, Mr Murray.--That is it, depend upon it, Braine."

"No," said the Resident, despondently. "He would not have gone to-night after such a weary day, and he would not have gone without telling me his plans. He told me everything, even to his trifling fis.h.i.+ng trips on the river. There is something more--an accident, or he has been carried off."

"What! by the crocodiles?" said Murray, suddenly.

"No, no; I don't fear that. Come, man, we must be up and at work now."

"What are you going to do?" asked Murray, eagerly, for he was quivering with the intense desire he felt to be in action.

"I am going to the Tumongong. He has always been my friend."

"The man who was watching and listening to-night!"

"It could not have been the chief. He is too much of a gentleman at heart. Your servant was mistaken. Come on, Murray. We will come and tell you when we have been. He must know what has been done."

"He will not betray his master's secrets," said Murray, bitterly. "It is more than his life is worth."

"I shall not ask him to do that," said Mr Braine, slowly; "but I think he will set our hearts at rest as to the safety of our boys. Will you come?"

"Yes," said Murray, thoughtfully, "I will come. No: I cannot think of anything else having happened to them. It must be the rajah's doing.

Come on then, and let us know their fate."