time it blazed up bravely.

As he stood looking at the flames, a Kelantan man named Abdul Rahman
came up and asked him how the house had caught fire.

'I know not,' said To' Kaya.

'Let us try to save some of the property,' said Abdul Rahman, for, like
many Kelantan natives, he was a thief by trade, and knew that a fire
gave him a good opportunity of practising his profession.

'Good!' said To' Kaya, 'Mount thee into the house, and lift the boxes,
while I wait here and receive them.'

Nothing loth, Abdul Rahman climbed into the house, and presently
appeared with a large box in his arms. As he leaned over the verandah,
in the act of handing it down to To' Kaya, the latter stabbed him
shrewdly in the vitals, and box and man came to the ground with a crash.
Abdul Rahman picked himself up, and ran as far as the big stone mosque,
where he collapsed and died. To' Kaya did not pursue him, but stood
looking at the leaping flames.

The next man to arrive on the scene was Pa' Pek, a Trengganu native,
who, with his wife Ma' Pek, had tended To' Kaya when he was little.

'Wo',' he said, for he spoke to To' Kaya as though the latter was his
son, 'Wo', what has caused this fire?'

'I know not,' said To' Kaya.

'Where are thy children, Wo'?' asked Pa' Pek.

'They are still within the house,' said To' Kaya.

'Then suffer me to save them,' said Pa' Pek.

'Do so, Pa' Pek,' said To' Kaya, and, as the old man climbed into the
house, he stabbed him in the ribs, and Pa' Pek ran away towards the
mosque till he tripped over the prostrate body of Abdul Rahman, fell,
and eventually died where he lay.

Presently, Ma' Pek came to look for her husband, and asked To' Kaya
about the fire, and where the children were.

'They are still in the house,' said To' Kaya, 'but I cannot be bothered
to take them out of it.'

'Let me fetch them,' said Ma' Pek.

'Do so, by all means,' said To' Kaya, and, as she scrambled up, he
stabbed her as he had done her husband, and she, running away, tripped
over the two other bodies, and gave up the ghost.

Then a Trengganu boy named Jusup came up, armed with a spear, and To'
Kaya tried to kill him, but he hid behind a tree. To' Kaya at first
emptied his revolver at Jusup, missing with all six chambers, and then,
throwing away the pistol, he stabbed at him with his spear, but in the
darkness he struck the tree. 'Thou art invulnerable!' he cried, thinking
that the tree was Jusup's chest, and, a panic sei