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Updated: June 28, 2025
When grey dawn began to dispel the gloom of night, Nigel Roy awoke with an uncomfortable sensation of having been buried alive. Stretching himself as was his wont he inadvertently touched the head of Van der Kemp, an exclamation from whom aroused Moses, who, uncoiling himself, awoke Spinkie. It was usually the privilege of that affectionate creature to nestle in the negro's bosom.
Spinkie, as Moses had named him, was an intensely affectionate creature, with a countenance of pathetic melancholy which utterly belied his character, for mischief and fun were the dominating qualities of that monkey. He was seated on a water-cask when Nigel first caught sight of him, holding the end of his long tail in one hand, and apparently wiping his nose with it.
When the meeting and greeting were over, Van der Kemp explained that he would require his canoe by daybreak the following morning, ordered a few provisions to be got ready, and turned to leave. "You must get down, Spinkie, and watch the canoe for one night more," said the hermit, quietly.
And it seems to me that the speaking eyes of Spinkie, to whom I have just given a bit of biscuit, tell of a similar spirit."
Van der Kemp committed his little craft to the care of the captain, who, after vainly advising his friend to take a free passage with him to the Straits of Sunda, promised to leave the canoe in passing at Telok Betong. We may add that Spinkie was most unwillingly obliged to accompany the canoe.
Spinkie treated the question with calm contempt, turned his head languidly to one side, and scratched himself. "Unpurliteness is your k'racter from skin to marrow, you son of a insolent mother!" said Moses, shaking his fist, whereat Spinkie, promptly making an O of his mouth, looked fierce.
Van der Kemp himself was, as we have said, naturally quiet and silent, save when roused by a subject that interested him. As for Moses, although quite ready at any moment to indulge in friendly intercourse, he seldom initiated a conversation, and Spinkie, grasping the mast and leaning against it with his head down, seemed to be either asleep or brooding over his sorrows.
"Goin' to be bery dark, massa," remarked Moses as they glided past the shipping. "Shall I light de lamp?" "Do, Moses, but we shan't need it, for as we get nearer home the volcanic fires will light us on our way." "De volcanic dust is a-goin' to powder us on our way too, massa. Keep your hands out o' the way, Spinkie," said the negro as he fixed a small oil-lamp to the mast, and resumed his paddle.
Then, without saying a word to each other, they coasted along the shore of the island, and, finally, leaving its dangers behind them, made for the island of Java poor Spinkie sitting in his accustomed place and looking uncommonly subdued! Scarcely had they pushed off into Sunda Straits when the volcano burst out afresh.
Does not Spinkie prove it also, when, issuing at call, from its own pagoda in the sunniest corner of the Rakata garden, it forsakes cocoa-nuts, sugar-cane, fruits, and other delights, to lay its little head in joyful consecration on the black bosom of its benignant friend? And what of Moses' opinion of the new home? It may be shortly expressed in his own words
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