Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/80

 boats had ceased to ply on the river through fear of me, and my followers were so few that I could not rush a town or even loot a Chinese kong-si house. As for the village people, they were as poor as I, and save for their womenfolk (whom, when I desired them, they had the good sense to surrender to me with docility) I never harassed them.

"Now, upon a certain day, my wives and my people came to me asking for rice, or for money with which to purchase it; but I had naught to give them, only one little dollar remaining to me. It is an accursed thing when the little ones are in want of food, and my liver grew hot within me at the thought. None of the womenfolk dared say a word when they saw that mine eyes waxed red; but the little children wept aloud, and I heard them and was sad. Moreover, I, too, was hungry, for my belly was empty. Wherefore, looking upon my solitary dollar, I called to me one of my men, and bade him go to the Chinese store and buy for me a bottle of the white men's perfume.

"Now when my wife—the mother of my son—heard this order, she cried out in anger: Are you mad, Father of Che' Bûjang, that you throw away your last dollar on perfumes for your lights of love, while Che' Bûjang and his brethren cry for rice?"

"But I slapped her on the mouth and said, 'Be still!' for it is not well for a man to suffer a woman to question the doings of men.

"That evening, when the night had fallen, I put on my fighting-jacket, upon which were inscribed