, I out with my _kris_.

"'Now look here,' I said; 'I don't understand what you say, but maybe
you understand this. Walk! And if I catch you here again, you'll need
someone to sew you up.'

"I watched him as he went across the compound. The guard at the gate
scarcely looked up, and if the thing hadn't been impossible, there, in
the broad daylight, I could have fancied he saw no one. I turned to
Aoodya and took her hands, for she was trembling from head to foot.
At my touch she burst out sobbing, clung to my shoulder and begged me to
protect her.

"'Why, of course I will,' said I, more cheerfully than I felt by a long
sight. 'If I'd known you were frightened like this, I'd have slit his
body to match his eyes. But who is he, at all?'

"'He--he said he was my brother!' she wailed, and clung to me again.
'I cannot--I cannot!'

"'I'll brother him!' cried I. 'But what is it he wants?'

"'I cannot--I cannot!' was all she would say; and now her sobs were so
loud that the child woke up screaming and had to be soothed. And this
seemed to do her good.

"Well, I got her to bed and asleep early that night; but before morning
I had a worse fright than ever. Somehow in my dream I had a feeling
come to me that the bed was empty, and sat up suddenly, half awake and
scared. Aoodya had risen and was standing by the cradle, with one hand
on its edge; in the other was the lamp--a clam-shell fastened in a split
handle of bamboo, and holding a pith wick and a little oil. The flame
wavered against her eyes as she held it up and peered into the baby's
face--and her eyes were like as I had seen them once before, and
devilish like the eyes I had seen in another face that afternoon.

"A man never knows what he can do till the call comes. There, betwixt
sleep and waking, I knew that happiness had come to an end for us.
Yet I slipped out of bed very softly, took the lamp from her as gentle
as you please, set it on a stool and, turning, reached out for her two
wrists and held them--for how long I can't tell you. She didn't try to
fend me away, or struggle at all, and not a word did I utter, but stood
holding her--the babe asleep beside us--and listened to her breathing
until it grew easier, and she leaned to me, weak as water.

"Then I let go, and lifting the child's head from the pillow pulled
Aoodya's charm, the cocoanut pearl, from my neck and hung it about his.
'That's for you, sonny,' said I, 'and if the Berbalangs come a