Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/63

Rh uncle's room empty; and, by the light of the oil lamp, she perceived that the pillow on the mat, which her uncle, true to native taste, would make his sleeping couch, had never been pressed that night.

Quite perplexed as to what step to take next, the bewildered girl regained her own apartment, and probably would have remained there in fear and trembling till daybreak, but for a footstep which she heard cautiously stepping along the passage, and which caused her again to venture forth to watch unseen the movements of the man whom she had dimly perceived entering the room of Elberfeld. In a few minutes her vigilance was repaid; the door re-opened, and her uncle appeared within a few paces of where she stood, shaded by a projecting wall, a paper in his hand, and a dark sinister expression on his face. Meeda's first impulse had been to rush up to him and acquaint him with what she had seen, but second thoughts