om Lingard in Carimata) as a trifling job. It took him a
little longer than he expected but he had got back to the brig just in
time to be sent on to Lingard with Carter's letter after a couple of
hours' rest. He had the story of all the happenings from Wasub before he
left and though his face preserved its grave impassivity, in his heart
he did not like it at all.

Fearless and wily, Jaffir was the man for difficult missions and a born
messenger--as he expressed it himself--"to bear weighty words between
great men." With his unfailing memory he was able to reproduce them
exactly, whether soft or hard, in council or in private; for he knew no
fear. With him there was no need for writing which might fall into the
hands of the enemy. If he died on the way the message would die with
him. He had also the gift of getting at the sense of any situation
and an observant eye. He was distinctly one of those men from whom
trustworthy information can be obtained by the leaders of great
enterprises. Lingard did put several questions to him, but in this
instance, of course, Jaffir could have only very little to say. Of
Carter, whom he called the "young one," he said that he looked as white
men look when they are pleased with themselves; then added without
waiting for a definite question--"The ships out there are now safe
enough, O, Rajah Laut!" There was no elation in his tone.

Lingard looked at him blankly. When the Greatest of White Men remarked
that there was yet a price to be paid for that safety, Jaffir assented
by a "Yes, by Allah!" without losing for a moment his grim composure.
When told that he would be required to go and find his master and
the lady Immada who were somewhere in the back country, in Belarab's
travelling camp, he declared himself ready to proceed at once. He had
eaten his fill and had slept three hours on board the brig and he was
not tired. When he was young he used to get tired sometimes; but for
many years now he had known no such weakness. He did not require the
boat with paddlers in which he had come up into the lagoon. He would go
alone in a small canoe. This was no time, he remarked, for publicity and
ostentation. His pent-up anxiety burst through his lips. "It is in my
mind, Tuan, that death has not been so near them since that night when
you came sailing in a black cloud and took us all out of the stockade."

Lingard said nothing but there was in Jaffir a faith in that white man
which was not easi