CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"Yes, Excellency," said Davidson in his placid voice; "there are more
dead in this affair--more white people, I mean--than have been killed in
many of the battles in the last Achin war."
Davidson was talking with an Excellency, because what was alluded to in
conversation as "the mystery of Samburan" had caused such a sensation in
the Archipelago that even those in the highest spheres were anxious to
hear something at first hand. Davidson had been summoned to an audience.
It was a high official on his tour.
"You knew the late Baron Heyst well?"
"The truth is that nobody out here can boast of having known him well,"
said Davidson. "He was a queer chap. I doubt if he himself knew how
queer he was. But everybody was aware that I was keeping my eye on him
in a friendly way. And that's how I got the warning which made me turn
round in my tracks. In the middle of my trip and steam back to Samburan,
where, I am grieved to say, I arrived too late."
Without enlarging very much, Davidson explained to the attentive
Excellency how a woman, the wife of a certain hotel-keeper named
Schomberg, had overheard two card-sharping rascals making inquiries from
her husband as to the exact position of the island. She caught only a
few words referring to the neighbouring volcano, but there were enough
to arouse her suspicions--"which," went on Davidson, "she imparted to
me, your Excellency.
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