Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/257

 and supply the driving-power which impels them to good or to evil.

One day Kalop of the Harelip presented himself before the Dato' Maharaja Perba, as the latter lay smoking his opium pipe upon the soft mats in his house, and informed him that, as he had come to seek permission to leave Pahang, he had brought a present "a thing trifling and unworthy of his notice"--which he begged the chief to honour him. by accepting.

"When do you go down river?" inquired the Dâto' for the Jělai Valley is in the far interior of Paliang, and if a man would leave the country by any of the ordinary routes, he must begin his journey by trav- elling downstream at least as far as Kuala Lipis.

"Your servant goes upstream," replied Kulop Sumbing.

The Dato' gave vent to an expression of incredu- lous surprise.

"Your servant returns the way he canie," said Kúlop.

The Dato' burst out into a torrent of excited expostulation. It was death, certain death, he said, for Kalop to attempt once more to traverse the Sâkai country. The other routes were open, and no man would dream of staying him if he sought to reluru to his own country by land or sea. The course he meditated was folly, was madness, was an impossi- bility. But to all these words Klop of the Harelip turned a deaf ear. He knew Malayan chieftains and all their ways and works pretty intimately, and he