apidly between the groups that moved out of the
way on their passage. Lingard threw open the cabin door for her, but
remained on deck to inquire about his boats. They had returned while he
was on board the yacht, and the two men in charge of them came aft to
make their reports. The boat sent north had seen nothing. The boat
which had been directed to explore the banks and islets to the south had
actually been in sight of Daman's praus. The man in charge reported
that several fires were burning on the shore, the crews of the two praus
being encamped on a sandbank. Cooking was going on. They had been near
enough to hear the voices. There was a man keeping watch on the ridge;
they knew this because they heard him shouting to the people below, by
the fires. Lingard wanted to know how they had managed to remain unseen.
"The night was our hiding place," answered the man in his deep growling
voice. He knew nothing of any white men being in Daman's camp. Why
should there be? Rajah Hassim and the Lady, his sister, appeared
unexpectedly near his boat in their canoe. Rajah Hassim had ordered him
then in whispers to go back to the brig at once, and tell Tuan what he
had observed. Rajah Hassim said also that he would return to the brig
with more news very soon. He obeyed because the Rajah was to him a
person of authority, "having the perfect knowledge of Tuan's mind as we
all know."--"Enough," cried Lingard, suddenly.

The man looked up heavily for a moment, and retreated forward without
another word. Lingard followed him with irritated eyes. A new power had
come into the world, had possessed itself of human speech, had imparted
to it a sinister irony of allusion. To be told that someone had "a
perfect knowledge of his mind" startled him and made him wince. It made
him aware that now he did not know his mind himself--that it seemed
impossible for him ever to regain that knowledge. And the new power not
only had cast its spell upon the words he had to hear, but also upon the
facts that assailed him, upon the people he saw, upon the thoughts he
had to guide, upon the feelings he had to bear. They remained what
they had ever been--the visible surface of life open in the sun to the
conquering tread of an unfettered will. Yesterday they could have been
discerned clearly, mastered and despised; but now another power had come
into the world, and had cast over them all the wavering gloom of a dark
and inscrutable purpose.

II

Recove