Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 4, 1925 — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE GOLD-DUST RAJAH. 823 would be unwise to let the servant know what he suspected. ‘‘ As a matter of fact,” he said to him- self as, seated under the umbrella, his prau strained out to take its place in the Straggling line, “it may just ‘be that the Chink wasn’t smoking opium at all last night. The whole thing might have been some kind of a plant—to make me think the Chink’s no good, or something like that —to turn me against him, anyhow. And .I’m not so sure that Kwong doesn’t undcer- stand that things are not as they ought to be.” He raised and lowered the umbrelia in a final salute to the Dyaks hallooing their farewells to him from the beach. Then he folded the shade, for there was a down- river breeze, and the umbrella made a sail against which the paddlers were forced to work. Ahead, the procession was aligned as it had been the day before. Back to him came the sound of Barker's voice as he sang and the noisy squabbling of the fighting cocks. He had a better chance to observe the Malays than he had had the day before. Half naked as they were, with their long earrings and their black teeth, and their shifting look and general air of indiffer- ence as to what the white man might think of them, his own crew impressed him more unfavorably than ever. “Am I crazy?” he asked himself. ‘When have I ever felt so dead sure of a thing without a substantial reason? And I can’t get it out of my head.” He tried to control the impression which beset him; tried to shake off his feeling of WOrTy. | From time to time he called back replies to Wray’s questions, or he pointed out whatever there was to interest a trav- eler—for example, a smoke rising from @ coal formation, where a fire had been burn- ing, report said, for generations, giving the effect of a live volcano. Wray asserted stoutly, and repeatedly, that he found the scenery better than that laying below the village just left behind. At some places the jungle gave place to bamboo thickets, which lined the banks like huge upstanding green feathers. In one spot there was a pebbly beach, and here, set high above the ground, were three cof- fins shaped like canoes. Beyond this native cemetery considerable excitement was af- forded the expedition as a wild boar took to the water—a great tusker who swam easily and swiftly, grunting as he went, and only shaking his head as Wray, in spite of Marcia’s earnest protesting, tried his skill at the beast with one of the auto- matics. Toward the middle of the day the line of boats drew up, one after another, to a beach that was white and pebbly, and here the expedition stayed throughout the hot- test hours of the day. Under arching branches that made a gloom of green, mats were spread for the comfort of the white passengers. Here the Chinese served a lunch he had evidently prepared at Lans- dell’s. When it was cleared away, and his packing was finished, he went aside alone and lay down. ‘Smoking again, I suppose,” Barker grumbled to Lansdell. The Malays did not rest. The fighting cocks were brought out, washed, and made ready for a fight. The pit was a natural hollow fenced by the paddlers themselves. Two birds were chosen, keen-bladed spurs were fastened upon the feet of both cocks, the blades were plentifully rubbed with lemon to make the wounds smart, and the contest was on. One after another a trio of defeated fowls were decapitated in a businesslike way by one of the Malays, who used his mandau, The number of birds being thus quickly reduced, the sport came to an end. Then the boatmen fished, using large squares of calico, and not taking the trouble to throw small fish back into the river, but callously allowed them to die among the ferns, where they came slipping out of the cotton sheet. All the while they kept up a noisy chattering and moved about actively; from time to time certain of them made sure they were being watched, when they rolled their dark, bloodshot eyes in the direction of the party seated upon the mats. ‘“They’re like children,” Lansdell ex- plained. ‘“‘ Love to show off, and are never CO GIOok