"
"What does he say?" inquired Babalatchi, eagerly. "You ought to
understand."
"I have forgotten their talk. A little I understood. He spoke without
any respect of the white ruler in Batavia, and of protection, and said he
had been wronged; he said that several times. More I did not understand.
Listen! Again he speaks!"
"Tse! tse! tse!" clicked Babalatchi, trying to appear shocked, but with a
joyous twinkle of his solitary eye. "There will be great trouble between
those white men. I will go round now and see. You tell your daughter
that there is a sudden and a long journey before her, with much glory and
splendour at the end. And tell her that Dain must go, or he must die,
and that he will not go alone."
"No, he will not go alone," slowly repeated Mrs. Almayer, with a
thoughtful air, as she crept into the passage after seeing Babalatchi
disappear round the corner of the house.
The statesman of Sambir, under the impulse of vivid curiosity, made his
way quickly to the front of the house, but once there he moved slowly and
cautiously as he crept step by step up the stairs of the verandah. On
the highest step he sat down quietly, his feet on the steps below, ready
for flight should his presence prove unwelcome.
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