which seeketh whom it may
devour. In this way he chanced upon Tuan Bangau and Awang Itam, but
they had fled from the palace before he had learned who they were, and
who were the girls whom they had come to seek.

After this the meetings ceased for a space, but Tungku Uteh was not to
be so easily baulked, and a taunting message soon brought Tuan Bangau
once more to her feet. The meetings, however, no longer took place
within the palace itself, the lovers meeting and passing the night in a
wood-shed within the fence of the royal enclosure.

Things had gone on in this way for some time when Tungku Uteh began to
weary of the lack of excitement attending the intrigue. Like many Malay
women she regarded it as a reproach to a girl if no man desired her, and
the longing became greater and greater to show her partner and her
immediate _entourage_ that she also was wooed and loved. She had an
affection for Tuan Bangau, and admired him as a lover and a man, but
even this could not restrain the growing longing for notoriety. Perhaps
she hardly realised how grave would be the consequences; perhaps she
struggled against the impulse; who can say? The fact remains that her
lover was sacrificed, as many a man has been before and since, upon the
altar of a woman's ungovernable vanity.

One night, when the yellow dawn was splashing the gray in the East, and
the thin smoke-like clouds were hurrying across the sky, like great
night fowls winging their homeward way, Tuan Bangau awoke and found Uteh
sitting beside him with his _kris_ and girdle in her hands. She had
taken them from his pillow as he slept, and no persuasions on his part
could induce her to return them. While he yet sought to coax her into
foregoing her resolve, she leaped to her feet, and, with a sweet little
laugh, disappeared in the palace, and Tuan Bangau returned homeward with
Awang Itam, each knowing that now indeed their hour was come.

Once inside her own apartments, Tungku Uteh placed the _kris_
ostentatiously at the head of her sleeping mat, and then composed
herself calmly to enjoy the tranquil slumber, which in the West is
erroneously supposed to be the peculiar privilege of the just. Next day,
the _kris_ had been seen and recognised, but her father and mother
received nothing but taunts from Uteh in reply to their inquiries. What
her object was is difficult for the European mind to appreciate, for it
must be distinctly remembered that she had no quarrel with Tua