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I kicked his hat into the courtyard, and he went after it, and that was the last of him till he showed up with Abdulla. How could I know that he could do harm in that way? Or in any way at that! Any local rising I could put down easy with my own men and with Patalolo's help." "Oh! yes. Patalolo. No good. Eh? Did you try him at all?" "Didn't I!" exclaimed Almayer.
He was alluding to that man Bulangi, who lives up the sea reach, and who had sent me word that a strange ship was anchored outside which, of course, I repeated to Patalolo. He would not believe. Kept on mumbling 'No! No! No! like an old parrot, his head all of a tremble, all beslobbered with betel-nut juice. I thought there was something queer about him.
Patalolo wagged his aged head doubtingly, and Babalatchi withdrew with a shocked mien and put himself forthwith under Lakamba's protection. The two men who completed the prau's crew followed him into that magnate's campong. The blind Omar, with Aissa, remained under the care of the Rajah, and the Rajah confiscated the cargo.
No doubt he thought at the time mostly of personal gain; but, received with hearty friendliness by Patalolo, he soon came to like the ruler and the people, offered his counsel and his help, and knowing nothing of Arcadia he dreamed of Arcadian happiness for that little corner of the world which he loved to think all his own.
And I did not care to take the child with me it being late so I sent a message to Patalolo to say that we ought to consult; that there were rumours and uneasiness in the settlement. Do you know what answer I got?" Lingard stopped short in his walk before Almayer, who went on, after an impressive pause, with growing animation.
It was very quiet. Not a shot was fired, and there was hardly any shouting. They tumbled those brass guns you presented to Patalolo last year down the bank into the river. It's deep there close to. The channel runs that way, you know. About five, Willems went back on board, and I saw him join Abdulla by the wheel aft.
An unscrupulous rival here would destroy your trade in a year. It would be ruin. Now Lingard's long absence gives courage to certain individuals. You know? I have heard much lately. They made proposals to me . . . You are very much alone here. Even Patalolo . . ." "Damn Patalolo! I am master in this place." "But, Almayer, don't you see . . ." "Yes, I see.
The Rajah Patalolo gives him rice, and the pale woman his daughter cooks it for him, for he has no slave." "I saw her from afar," muttered Lakamba, disparagingly. "A she-dog with white teeth, like a woman of the Orang-Putih." "Right, right," assented Babalatchi; "but you have not seen her near. Her mother was a woman from the west; a Baghdadi woman with veiled face.
Meantime he pervaded the settlement, squatting in the course of each day by many household fires, testing the public temper and public opinion and always talking about his impending departure. At night he would often take Lakamba's smallest canoe and depart silently to pay mysterious visits to his old chief on the other side of the river. Omar lived in odour of sanctity under the wing of Patalolo.
In the early days of the settlement, before the ruler Patalolo had shaken off his allegiance to the Sultan of Koti, Lakamba appeared in the river with two small trading vessels. He was disappointed to find already some semblance of organization amongst the settlers of various races who recognized the unobtrusive sway of old Patalolo, and he was not politic enough to conceal his disappointment.
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