, with his scorn of the unrest and folly of men,
was angry with his white friend who was always bringing his desires and
his troubles to his very door. Belarab did not want any one to die but
neither did he want any one in particular to live. What he was concerned
about was to preserve the mystery and the power of his melancholy
hesitations. These delicate things were menaced by Lingard's brusque
movements, by that passionate white man who believed in more than
one God and always seemed to doubt the power of Destiny. Belarab was
profoundly annoyed. He was also genuinely concerned, for he liked
Lingard. He liked him not only for his strength, which protected his
clear-minded scepticism from those dangers that beset all rulers, but he
liked him also for himself. That man of infinite hesitations, born from
a sort of mystic contempt for Allah's creation, yet believed absolutely
both in Lingard's power and in his boldness. Absolutely. And yet, in the
marvellous consistency of his temperament, now that the moment had come,
he dreaded to put both power and fortitude to the test.

Lingard could not know that some little time before the first break of
dawn one of Belarab's spies in the Settlement had found his way inside
the stockade at a spot remote from the lagoon, and that a very few
moments after Lingard had left the Chief in consequence of Jorgenson's
rockets, Belarab was listening to an amazing tale of Hassim and Immada's
capture and of Tengga's determination, very much strengthened by
that fact, to obtain possession of the Emma, either by force or by
negotiation, or by some crafty subterfuge in which the Rajah and
his sister could be made to play their part. In his mistrust of the
universe, which seemed almost to extend to the will of God himself,
Belarab was very much alarmed, for the material power of Daman's
piratical crowd was at Tengga's command; and who could tell whether this
Wajo Rajah would remain loyal in the circumstances? It was also very
characteristic of him whom the original settlers of the Shore of Refuge
called the Father of Safety, that he did not say anything of this to
Lingard, for he was afraid of rousing Lingard's fierce energy which
would even carry away himself and all his people and put the peace of so
many years to the sudden hazard of a battle.

Therefore Belarab set himself to persuade Lingard on general
considerations to deliver the white men, who really belonged to Daman,
to that supreme Chi