'It is as thou wilt, O Pĕnghûlu,' said the oldest man of the party, answering for
his fellows, 'we follow thee whithersoever thou goest.'
'It is well!' said the Pĕnghûlu. 'Come let us go.' No more was said, when this
whispered colloquy was ended, and the party set down to the trail again silently
and with redoubled caution.
The narrow track, which the wounded tiger had followed, led on towards the
river bank, and presently the high wattled bamboo fence of a native compound
became visible through the trees. Pĕnghûlu Mat Saleh pointed at it. 'Behold!' was
all he said. Then the party moved on again, still following the tracks of the tiger,
and the flecks of red blood on the grass. These led them to the gate of the
compound, and through it to the ’lâman or open space before the house. Here
they were lost at a spot where the rank spear-blades of the lâlang grass had been
beaten down by the falling of some heavy body. A veritable pool of blood
marked the place. To it the trail of the limping tiger led. Away from it there was
no tracks, save those of the human beings who come and go through the rank
growths which cloak the earth in a Malay compound. 'Behold!' said Pĕnghûlu
Mat Saleh once more. 'Come, let us ascend into the house.' And so saying he led
the way up the stair-ladder of the dwelling where Haji Äli lived with his two
sons Äbas and Äbdulrahman, and whence a month or two before Patimah had
fled during the night-time with a deadly fear in her eyes, and the tale of a strange
experience faltering on her lips.
Pĕnghûlu Mat Saleh and his people found Äbas sitting cross-legged in the outer
apartment preparing a quid of betel-nut with elaborate care. The visitors squatted
on the mats, and the usual customary salutations over, Pĕnghûlu Mat Saleh said:
'I have come in order that I may see thy father. Is he within the house?'
'He is,' said Äbas laconically.
'Then make known to him that I would have speech with him.'
'My father is sick,' said Äbas in a surly tone, and at the word a tremor of
excitement ran through Pĕnghûlu Mat Saleh's followers.
'What is that patch of blood in the lâlang before the house?' asked the Pĕnghûlu
conversationally, after a short pause.
'We slew a goat yesternight,' replied Äbas.