But if you don't go away in time, I will
shoot you before it grows too dark to take aim. Not till then, Number
One, but I will do it then. Now--finish!'
"'All right,' I said. 'Finish as far as I am concerned; but you can have
no objections to the mem putih coming over to stay with the Orang Kaya's
women for a few days. I will make a present in silver for it.' Orang
Kaya, is the head man of the village, Lena," added Heyst.
She looked at him in astonishment.
"You wanted me to go to that village of savages?" she gasped. "You
wanted me to leave you?"
"It would have given me a freer hand."
Heyst stretched out his hands and looked at them for a moment, then let
them fall by his side. Indignation was expressed more in the curve of
her lips than in her clear eyes, which never wavered.
"I believe Wang laughed," he went on. "He made a noise like a
turkey-cock."
"'That would be worse than anything,' he told me.
"I was taken aback. I pointed out to him that he was talking nonsense.
It could not make any difference to his security where you were, because
the evil men, as he calls them, did not know of your existence. I did
not lie exactly, Lena, though I did stretch the truth till it cracked;
but the fellow seems to have an uncanny insight. He shook his head. He
assured me they knew all about you. He made a horrible grimace at me.
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