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"This is good. Mataram make. Old, too," he went on. "Hai!" broke in Babalatchi, eagerly. "I got it when I was young. He was an Aru trader, a man with a big stomach and a loud voice, and brave very brave. When we came up with his prau in the grey morning, he stood aft shouting to his men and fired this gun at us once. Only once!" . . . He paused, laughed softly, and went on in a low, dreamy voice.

So I was busy, but managed to dismast the hantu prau and wrap it up in matting, so that it went aboard with the plunder. Nothing happened. Then I called myself a grandmother, and sailed for Batavia. Two nights later, a very singular thing happened. The mate this one with the sharp eyes is a quiet chap; seldom speaks to me except on business.

At one time a shower fell in the clearing, but only pattered on my ceiling of broad leaves. After a period of drowsiness, something moved and glittered on the water, close to the bank; and there bobbed the ghost prau, the gilt and vermilion flags shining in the firelight. She had come clear in on the flood, a piece of luck. I got up, cut a withe of bamboo, and made her fast to a root.

"A 'reasonable' time, massa, is such an oncertain time wariable, so to speak, accordin' to the mind that t'inks upon it! Hows'eber, if you's promised, ob coorse dat's an end ob it; for w'en a man promises, he's bound to stick to it." Such devotion to principle was appropriately rewarded the very next day by the arrival of the trading prau in which the professor had embarked.

I shall send Dain off to-night in a canoe, by the hidden channels, on board the prau. His father is a great prince, and shall hear of our generosity. Let the prau take him to Ampanam. Your glory shall be great, and your reward in powerful friendship.

The captain's glass revealed one to be the pirate prau with all sails set, for a wind had come up with the dawn. The other we welcomed with a cheer, for it was the Bangor. Enfeebled and nearly famishing, we headed toward it and rowed for life. How we regretted having left our sails on the island.

When the moon was full he returned in his shining prau before the walls of Malacca, He brought from Ophir, of gold more than enough; of the pearls of Ceylon he brought a chupah full to the brim. He robbed his great palace, that he might lay at the feet of the Portuguese a fortune such as Solomon only ever saw.

Soon after daylight on the 7th, finding our prau had received no damage, we sailed on with uncertain winds and squalls, threading our way among islands and reefs, and guided only by a small map, which was very incorrect and quite useless, and by a general notion of the direction we ought to take.

"I hear 'im, massa," whispered the negro, "but das not su'prisin' plenty boats about." "This boat approaches the island, and I can tell by the sound that it is a large prau. If it touches here it will be for the purpose of spending the night, and Malay boatmen are not always agreeable neighbours.

There, on the fore-deck of the prau, old Lingard found her under a heap of dead and dying pirates, and had her carried on the poop of the Flash before the Malay craft was set on fire and sent adrift.