Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/320

 fancy that he saw Awang more clearly than anything else on earth.

In the fullness of time I was transferred from Malaya to another part of the Empire, distant from it a matter of some nine thousand miles, and shortly afterward Ûmat elected to return to his own country, taking his Pahang wife and his several children with him. He had saved a little money-some of it come by none too honestly, I shrewdly suspect- and in Kelantan he entered into possession of cer- tain ancestral lands. I still hear tidings of him occasionally, and I learn that he has blossomed out. into a sort of minor headman, his authority being mainly based upon his intimate knowledge of the curious ways of white men. It is hardly likely that he and I will ever meet again, but I shall always recall with tenderness and gratitude the man who. having eaten my rice when I was in prosperity and at ease, held that it was "not fitting" to quit me in time of trouble.