The Rajah of Dah Part 37

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

PRISONERS.

Everything looked dark as the Resident and Murray reached the Tumongong's handsome residence--handsome, though merely erected of bamboo and palm--but as they approached the steps, sounds were heard within, and very shortly after being summoned, the rajah's officer appeared fully dressed.

"Can I speak to you without being overheard?" said Mr Braine in English.

The Malay replied in his own tongue that he was prepared to hear anything the Resident had to say.

"But will what I say be overheard, I asked you?" cried Mr Braine, impatiently, still speaking in English, so that Murray might hear his words, knowing as he did that the Malay perfectly understood everything.

"I am quite ready to hear you," replied the Tumongong.

"And will what I say be carried to the rajah? Look here, Tumongong. I have always been on good terms with you since I came here, though I do consider you acted unfairly by me in not warning me in Malacca as to what my position would be."

"I am the servant of his highness," replied the officer, "and I have my duty to do toward him. When I have done that, I am your friend."

"Then tell me this: those two boys, my son and his young companion-- where are they?"

Dark as it was, Murray saw the Malay start, but he was perfectly calm the next moment.

"I do not know," he said.

"Is this the truth?"

"I do not know where they are," replied the Malay.

"Have they been seized by the rajah's orders?"

"I do not know. The rajah, our master, is king, and does what seems good to him."

Mr Braine made an impatient gesture, but masking his anger, he said appealingly:

"Tumongong, you have always been my friend, and the friend of my boy. I am in agony about his fate. He and his young friend have disappeared since we left the rajah's to-night. Tell me where he is."

"I do not know."

"Is he safe?"

"I do not know."

"You do know, and you will not speak," cried Mr Braine pa.s.sionately.

"The rajah has had them seized."

"The rajah is my master, and does what is good in his own eyes. If he has done this thing, it is wise and good. I do not know."

"Then I will go to the rajah himself, and he shall tell me.--Ah!"

Murray had been standing listening impatiently to this conversation, a portion of which was translated to him, but he had now suddenly grasped his companion's arm, and drawn his attention to the open place or veranda at the top of the steps, and upon Mr Braine looking up, he dimly saw that there was a figure standing there with a group of others behind, and in spite of the gloom he had no difficulty in seeing who the foremost figure was, and comprehending why the Tumongong had been so guarded in his replies to them.

Mr Braine addressed himself to the dimly-seen figure at once, speaking now in the Malay tongue.

"Your highness has heard all I have said," he cried. "Tell me, has some accident befallen those two boys, or have they been taken away by your orders?"

It seemed to be a different man entirely who was now speaking, and though Murray could not comprehend a word, he grasped the rajah's meaning plainly enough, as he uttered what was evidently a command, to which Mr Braine spoke again sharply now.

The rajah uttered a low guttural word, and Murray now cried: "What does he say?"

"Go!"

"But I insist," cried Murray.

The rajah spoke again, and a dozen armed men ran from behind and leaped actively to the ground.

Murray's hand darted to his breast, but Mr Braine caught his wrist.

"Madness!" he said. "Wait."

"But--"

"Do you want to throw away two lives that are valuable to our friends?"

whispered the Resident. "Do as I do. It is folly to resist now."

That moment the rajah spoke again, the men formed up around Murray and Mr Braine, and their leader said something to the latter.

"Come, Murray," he said, bitterly. "I have drilled these men to some purpose. We are prisoners, I suppose."

He took his companion's arm, and they were marched off through the darkness.

"Where will they take us?" said Murray, who was raging with pain and indignation at his inability to struggle against such force.

"To a boat, I suppose, and then put us on board one of the prahus,"

replied Mr Braine. "I might have known what would come of all these years of service."

They marched on in silence for a minute or two, and then Mr Braine uttered an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n full of surprise; for their guards faced round to the left, and marched the prisoners into the Resident's own garden, where the leader said a few words and pointed up.

"Prisoner in my own place?" said Mr Braine to the officer.

"His highness commands that neither you nor the bird man leaves the house till he gives orders."

"It might have been worse, Murray," said Mr Braine, as they ascended the steps, and dimly made out that the leader of the little party of guards was posting his men here and there.

"Been worse!" said Murray, angrily, as he threw himself upon a divan, "impossible!"

"Possible," said Mr Braine, quietly. "We are not quite prisoners, and are at liberty to plot and plan. They are very cunning, these people; but we English have some brains. It must be getting on toward morning.

Let's have some coffee, and a quiet smoke."