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Dato Kali Pandapatan rode in silence. Occasionally he gazed down into the deep valleys or off in the direction of Ganassi Peak, but the sorrowful, patient expression never left his face. Where was Piang? For three days the boy had been missing, and Kali guessed only too easily what had taken him away in such haste. A few days before little Papita had mysteriously disappeared.
Kali Pandapatan bent over the still little form. Anxiously he watched the eyelids quiver, the lips part. A sigh of relief broke from the chief, and he murmured softly: "Little brother, you have the strength of a packda; the cunning of the civet-cat, and the wisdom of the mina-bird. May your days be long."
Dato Mandi, Dato Kali Pandapatan, and Governor Findy were conversing on the steps of the dancing platform. "Kali says that Piang mysteriously disappeared about noon to-day," explained Mandi in excellent English. "Who is this Piang, Mandi?" asked the governor. "Piang is the idol of the Buldoon tribe.
The two Filipinos were disloyal employees of the government, already suspected of being the instigators of unrest among the Moros. Sicto was a deserter from Kali's ranks and was wanted by that august chief for many serious offenses. Dato Kali Pandapatan scorned to report Sicto to the authorities. A Moro dato is supreme and has the right to punish his subjects according to his own lights.
Prosperity and honor had come to Dato Kali Pandapatan and his people under the rule of General Beech and Governor Findy, and Piang had been raised to the post of official interpreter. Sicto, the disturber, had been seized in Zamboanga on the charge of complicity in the plot on Governor Findy's life; he had attempted to escape, and there were varying reports as to the results.
Only once he seemed to smile when the little slave girl, Papita, timidly touched his arm. The rebuke that fell upon her from the others, brought a frown to the boy's face, but he continued to advance until he stood beside Dato Kali Pandapatan and Pandita Asin. Here, like a sentinel giant, bereft of his nearest kin, one monster tree remained standing.
Twined in his long black hair was a wreath of scarlet fire flowers; every face brightened as he fled past. "You have again brought the sign, Piang. When do we fight?" asked Kali Pandapatan. The fire-tree has not yet bloomed in the enemy's country, and we may yet pass through safely," Piang replied. "You have spoken," said the dato and laid his palms on the youth's head.
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