t--The Sam-Sam--The poison of the Savage
and the venom of the Civilized.

My strength and health, which had suffered in consequence of those few
days' strain of muscle and nerve, soon returned to their normal state in
that peaceful retreat upon the grassy banks of the stream that is an
affluent of the Bidor.

My friendship with the Sakais increased every day because little by
little their suspicions concerning me were allayed and the curiosity
with which they watched my every act was no longer mixed with fear. They
did not attempt to run away when I bent my steps towards their rough
habitations in spite of the Ala's veto to my passage through their
village and it was not a rare thing for my gifts of tobacco and _sirih_
to be exchanged with pheasants and other game and sometimes even with a
chicken. I found it easy to talk with the men and prized these
conversations as a means of studying their characters and of learning
their language, which is composed of short, strongly accented words. It
was very seldom that I could find any sort of derivation from the Malay
tongue in these terse syllables.

At the same time that I sought to get upon a familiar footing with my
new friends I did not forget one of the principal motives that had
induced me to wander so far from the haunts of ordinary men, so one day
I cracked a cocoanut in half and, cleaning it well out, I dipped the
shell into the bed of the stream and drew it out again full of water and
sand.

I examined the contents with great care and found a few grains of gold
in the alluvion! This was joy indeed, and mentally I bade goodbye to the
life of a planter (although I had not yet begun it) and there on the
spot decided to dedicate my time and energy to the gathering of gold
which would be far the quickest way of making a fortune.

All at once, however, an unpleasant thought crossed my mind and dimmed
my bright hopes.

In my chats with the Sakais they had told me that there was another
_orang putei_ at Tapah. I endeavoured to discover who this person was,
and what he was doing, in the little Malay town, but I was unable to
obtain any information about him.

Now the idea suggested itself that this white man could be no other than
a British Government Officer to whom, from a feeling of delicacy,
respect of the law, and as a means of avoiding future trouble, I was
bound to explain what I wished to do before setting myself to work, as
his permission would be neces