It was currently believed at that time in the settlement that Lakamba's
visits to Almayer's house were not limited to those official interviews.
Often on moonlight nights the belated fishermen of Sambira saw a small
canoe shooting out from the narrow creek at the back of the white man's
house, and the solitary occupant paddle cautiously down the river in the
deep shadows of the bank; and those events, duly reported, were discussed
round the evening fires far into the night with the cynicism of
expression common to aristocratic Malays, and with a malicious pleasure
in the domestic misfortunes of the Orang Blando--the hated Dutchman.
Almayer went on struggling desperately, but with a feebleness of purpose
depriving him of all chance of success against men so unscrupulous and
resolute as his rivals the Arabs. The trade fell away from the large
godowns, and the godowns themselves rotted piecemeal. The old man's
banker, Hudig of Macassar, failed, and with this went the whole available
capital. The profits of past years had been swallowed up in Lingard's
exploring craze. Lingard was in the interior--perhaps dead--at all
events giving no sign of life. Almayer stood alone in the midst of those
adverse circumstances, deriving only a little comfort from the
companionship of his little daughter, born two years after the marriage,
and at the time some six years old.
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