Page:Oriental Stories Volume 01 Number 04 (Spring 1931).djvu/126

 us, and when we went to view the bodies that they had dragged within the shop of a merchant there, we could find only one. The villagers said that the ghost of the dead man was following the two miscreants; we couldn't get one of them to follow the pair with us. They were sure that the ghost of the missing body would assuredly slay any and all who entered the jungle on the track of the two men."

The Sergeant-Major chuckled.

"From the description those Malays of Klang gave me I knew that the missing corpse was yours; knew, too, that you weren't dead but merely stunned a bit. I knew you would follow those two until you dropped; so we hurried on as fast as we could pelt. We were all at sea when we came to the river."

Again he paused for some moments.

"I decided at last that you and the Malays that you followed had gone downstream; for you were all too lazy to go up against such a strong current." Mackenzie's smile robbed that last of its sting.

"So we followed the river banks until we came to this clearing, and here we found you and two dead men."

Chang struggled to one elbow.

"Great is my Tuan," he began weakly. "Not even Chang, the elephant, has such a mind. He can follow on a track like the cheta. I slew them both, for they hadsoiled my honor. One of them is the datu the Tuan is seeking."

"What!" Mackenzie was incredulous.

Chang nodded emphatically.

"That one lies but a little space away."

"So that dead beggar's the Orang Kaya Palawan, eh?" Mackenzie began. "We couldn't tell by the time we got here who he was. In this damp heat he was soon unrecognizable. So that was the Orang Kaya Palawan!"

Again he paused. "I told you not to get into any kongsi trouble," he grinned.

"Tuan, the dead shopkeeper was of my own tong," Chang began. "He fed me when I was hungry. I rested in his house when I was weary."

Mackenzie nodded slowly.

"I see, Chang," he said softly. "And so you took up his quarrel as your own. If you hadn't done that you would have lost 'face'."

Chang nodded mutely.

"I was only ragging you when I told you not to try to get our man," the Sergeant-Major went on. "But just the same, I'm damned glad you got him, even if he is dead."

Chang looked up at him with sudden interest.

"Tuan," he began, "concerning a certain matter. My brother writes me from Singapore that there are business matters that require my attention. I ask the Tuan's permission to go to attend to them. I shall return within one moon."

Mackenzie eyed him quizzically.

"Does the matter by any chance concern the new slave-girl that Ning Wo has acquired?" he asked with a dry smile.

Chang had the grace to look surprized.

"Great is my Tuan," he answered. "Nothing escapes his memory. For that reason is he the terror of all evil-doers in the broad lands of the Sultan." He stopped abruptly.

"Considering what you have done, Chang, I guess I'll have to let you go," Mackenzie began abruptly. "But, mind you, for just a month; not a day longer. I think you have earned the rest. The Lord Harry knows what I will do without you, though; you're the only cook I know that can make a meal fit for a white man to eat in this God-forsaken country."