hand.
The clouds thickening over the camp made the darkness press heavily on
the glow of scattered fires. "There is blood between me and the whites,"
he pronounced, violently. The Illanun chiefs remained impassive. There
was blood between them and all mankind. Hassim remarked dispassionately
that there was one white man with whom it would be wise to remain
friendly; and besides, was not Daman his friend already? Daman smiled
with half-closed eyes. He was that white man's friend, not his slave.
The Illanuns playing with their sword-handles grunted assent. Why, asked
Daman, did these strange whites travel so far from their country? The
great white man whom they all knew did not want them. No one wanted
them. Evil would follow in their footsteps. They were such men as are
sent by rulers to examine the aspects of far-off countries and talk of
peace and make treaties. Such is the beginning of great sorrows. The
Illanuns were far from their country, where no white man dared to come,
and therefore they were free to seek their enemies upon the open waters.
They had found these two who had come to see. He asked what they had
come to see? Was there nothing to look at in their own country?

He talked in an ironic and subdued tone. The scattered heaps of embers
glowed a deeper red; the big blaze of the chief's fire sank low and
grew dim before he ceased. Straight-limbed figures rose, sank, moved,
whispered on the beach. Here and there a spear-blade caught a red gleam
above the black shape of a head.

"The Illanuns seek booty on the sea," cried Daman. "Their fathers and
the fathers of their fathers have done the same, being fearless like
those who embrace death closely."

A low laugh was heard. "We strike and go," said an exulting voice. "We
live and die with our weapons in our hands." The Illanuns leaped to
their feet. They stamped on the sand, flourishing naked blades over the
heads of their prisoners. A tumult arose.

When it subsided Daman stood up in a cloak that wrapped him to his feet
and spoke again giving advice.

The white men sat on the sand and turned their eyes from face to face
as if trying to understand. It was agreed to send the prisoners into the
lagoon where their fate would be decided by the ruler of the land. The
Illanuns only wanted to plunder the ship. They did not care what became
of the men. "But Daman cares," remarked Hassim to Lingard, when relating
what took place. "He cares, O Tuan!"

Hassim had l