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In the plantation we saw a small raised hut, which we thought would do well for us to breakfast in, so I entered, and found inside a young woman with an infant. She handed me a jug of water, but looked very much frightened. However, I sat down on the doorstep, and asked for the provisions. In handing them up, Baderoon saw the infant, and started back as if he had seen a serpent.
"I lost my dear wife a year after our marriage, and was left with a little girl whose lovely face became more and more like that of her mother every day she lived. My soul was wrapped up in the child. After three years I went with her as a passenger to Batavia. On the way we were attacked by a couple of pirate junks. Baderoon was the pirate captain.
Flight, personal safety, formed no part of the pirate's plan. The guilty man had reached that state of depravity which, especially among the natives of that region, borders close on insanity. While the inhabitants of the village were hunting far a-field for him, Baderoon lay concealed among some lumber in rear of a hut awaiting his opportunity. It was not very long of coming.
After letting the chief of the village know that the news just received rendered it necessary that they should proceed at once to the next town but carefully refraining from going into particulars lest Baderoon should by any means be led to suspect their intentions the party started off about daybreak under the guidance of the Malay youth Babu.
Towards afternoon the various searching parties began to return, and all assembled in the market-place, where the chief man, with the hermit and his party, were assembled discussing the situation. "I will not now proceed until we have buried poor Babu," said Van der Kemp. "Besides, Baderoon will be sure to return. I will meet him now." "I do not agree viz you, mine frond," said the professor.
Vengeance would indeed have been wreaked on Baderoon at that moment if the hermit had caught him, but, as might have been expected, the murderer was nowhere to be found. He was hid in the impenetrable jungle, which it was useless to enter in the darkness of night. When daybreak enabled the towns-people to undertake an organised search, no trace of him could be discovered.
If he could only lay hold ob Baderoon an' stuff an' stick him in a moozeum, he'd do good service to my massa an' also to de whole ob mankind."
Nigel followed his example, wondering at what he had heard, and in a few minutes their steady regular breathing told that they were both asleep. Then Baderoon advanced and counted the bamboo planks from the side towards the centre of the house. When looking between the heads of the people he had counted the same planks above.
Nigel observed that the countenance of his friend Van der Kemp underwent a peculiar change on hearing this man's name mentioned. There was a combination of anxiety, which was unnatural to him, and of resolution, which was one of his chief characteristics. "Is Baderoon the enemy whom you saw on the islet on our first night out?" asked Nigel, during a ramble with the hermit that evening.
Towards afternoon the various searching parties began to return, and all assembled in the market-place, where the chief man, with the hermit and his party, were assembled discussing the situation. "I will not now proceed until we have buried poor Babu," said Van der Kemp. "Besides, Baderoon will be sure to return. I will meet him now." "I do not agree viz you, mine frond," said the professor.
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