Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/360

 "for my mother is sick and I must needs return to tend her."

Then the Sultan stood upon his feet and stamped.

"What manner of warrior is this?" he cried in- dignantly, pointing at Tungku Panglima. "He is a warrior fashioned from offal!"

Thus publicly admonished, Tungku Panglima de- tailed about a hundred of his followers to go and kill To Kaya; but after they had gone some fifty yards in the direction of the mosque they returned to him on some trivial pretext and though he bade them go many times, they repeated this performance again and again.

Suddenly old Tungku Dâlam came hurrying into the palace yard, very much out of breath, for he was of a full habit of body, binding on his kris as he ran.

"What is this that men are saying concerning To Kaya Biji Děrja running amok in the palace? Where is he?" he cried.

"At the mosque," twenty voices replied.

"Ya Allah!" exclaimed Tungku Dâlam in a tone of relief, mopping the sweat from his forehead. "Men said he was in the palace. Well, what steps are you Taking to slay him?"

The assembled chiefs maintained a shamed silence and old Tungku Dalam cursing them roundly, selected forty men with guns, and leading them him- self, passed out at the back of the royal enclosure to the house of Tungku Chik Paya, which is situated close to the mosque.

On the low wall which surrounds the latter build-