CHAPTER VIII

KOYALA'S WARNING

For a moment no one spoke. Koyala, poised lightly on her feet, her slender, shapely young figure held rigidly and her chin uptilted, gazed steadily at Van Slyck. Her black eyes blazed a scornful defiance. Before her contempt even the proud Amsterdammer's arrogance succumbed. He reddened shamefacedly under his tan.

"I am here, Kapitein Van Slyck," Koyala repeated clearly. She stepped toward him and reached out a slender, shapely arm, bare to the shoulder. "Here is my arm, where are your manacles, _kapitein_?"

"Koyala!" Muller gasped huskily. His big body was trembling with such violence that the veranda shook.

"This is my affair, _mynheer_," Koyala declared coldly, without removing her eyes from Van Slyck. She placed herself directly in front of the captain and crossed her wrists.

"If you have no irons, use a cord, _kapitein_," she taunted. "But bind fast. The Argus Pheasant is not easily held captive."

Van Slyck thrust her roughly aside.

"Let's have done with this foolishness," he exclaimed bruskly.

"What folly, _mynheer kapitein_?" Koyala demanded frigidly.

"You had no business eavesdropping. If you heard something unpleasant you have only yourself to blame."

Koyala's eyes sparkled with anger.

"Eavesdropping, _kapitein_? I came here with a message of great importance to _mynheer_ the _controlleur_. Even the birds cock their ears to listen when they hear the hunter approach, _kapitein_."

Turning her back with scornful indifference on Van Slyck, she crossed over to Muller and placed both her hands on his shoulder. Another fit of trembling seized the acting resident and his eyes swam.

"You will forgive me, will you not, _mynheer_, for taking such liberties in your house?"

"Of--of course," Muller stammered.

"I heard a little of what was said," Koyala said; "enough to show me that I have a good friend here, a friend on whom I can always rely."

Van Slyck caught the emphasis on the word "friend" and smiled sardonically.

"Well, _Sister_ Koyala," he remarked mockingly, "if you and _Brother_ Muller will be seated we will hear your important message."

Muller plumped heavily into a chair. Things had been going too rapidly for him, his heavy wits were badly addled, and he needed time to compose himself and get a fresh grip on the situation. There was only one other chair on the veranda. Perceiving this, Van Slyck sprang forward and placed it for Koyala, smiling satirically as he did so. Koyala frowned with annoyance, hesitated a moment, then accepted it. Van Slyck swung a leg over the veranda rail.

"Your message, my dear Koyala," he prompted. He used the term of endearment lingeringly, with a quick side glance at Muller, but the _controlleur_ was oblivious to both.

"The message is for Mynheer Muller," Koyala announced icily.

"Ah? So?" Van Slyck swung the leg free and rose. "Then I am not needed. I bid the dear bother and sister adieux."

He made an elaborate French bow and started to leave. The embarrassed Muller made a hasty protest.

"Ho, _kapitein_!" he cried, "do not leave us. _Donder en bliksem!_ the message may be for us both. Who is it from, Koyala?"

Van Slyck was divided between two desires. He saw that Muller was in a panic at the thought of being left alone with Koyala, and for that reason was keenly tempted to get out of sight as quickly as possible. On the other hand he was curious to hear her communication, aware that only a matter of unusual import could have called her from the bush. Undecided, he lingered on the steps.

"It was from Ah Sing," Koyala announced.

Van Slyck's indecision vanished. He stepped briskly back on the porch.

"From Ah Sing?" he exclaimed. "Mynheer Muller and I were just discussing his affairs. Does it concern the new resident we are to have?"

"It does," Koyala acknowledged.

"Who is it?" Muller and the captain cried in the same breath.

Koyala glanced vindictively at Van Slyck.

"You are sure that you will not sell me to him, _mynheer kapitein_?"

Van Slyck scowled. "Tell us about the resident," he directed curtly.

Koyala's eyes sparkled maliciously.

"The new resident, _mynheer kapitein_, seems to have a higher opinion of me than you have. You see, he has already persuaded the governor to withdraw the offer he made for my person."

Van Slyck bit his lip, but ignored the thrust.

"Then he's one of us?" he demanded bruskly.

"On the contrary, he is a most dangerous enemy," Koyala contradicted.

"_Lieve hemel_, don't keep us waiting," Muller cried impatiently. "Who is it, Koyala?"

"A sailor, _mynheer_," Koyala announced.

"A sailor?" Van Slyck exclaimed incredulously. "Who?"

"Mynheer Peter Gross, of Batavia."

Van Slyck and Muller stared at each other blankly, each vainly trying to recall ever having heard the name before.

"Pieter Gross, Pieter Gross, he must be a newcomer," Van Slyck remarked. "I have not heard of him before, have you, _mynheer_?"

"There is no one by that name in the colonial service," Muller declared, shaking his head. "You say he is of Batavia, Koyala?"

"Of Batavia, _mynheer_, but by birth and upbringing, and everything else, a Yankee."

"A Yankee?" her hearers chorused incredulously.

"Yes, a Yankee. Mate on a trading vessel, or so he was a year ago. He has been in the Indies the past seven years."

Van Slyck broke into a roar of laughter.

"Now, by the beard of Nassau, what joke is Chanticleer playing us now?" he cried. "He must be anxious to get that Yankee out of the way."

Neither Koyala nor Muller joined in his mirth. Muller frowned thoughtfully. There was the look in his eyes of one who is striving to recollect some almost forgotten name or incident.

"Pieter Gross, Pieter Gross," he repeated thoughtfully. "Where have I heard that name before?"

"Do you remember what happened to Gogolu of Lombock the time he captured Lieutenant de Koren and his commando?" Koyala asked. "How an American sailor and ten of his crew surprised Gogolu's band, killed a great many of them, and took their prisoners away from them? That was Pieter Gross."

"_Donder en bliksem._ I knew I had reason to remember that name," Muller cried in alarm. "We have no Mynheer de Jonge to deal with this time, _kapitein_. This Yankee is a fighter."

"Good!" Van Slyck exclaimed with satisfaction. "We will give him his bellyful. There will be plenty for him to do in the bush, eh, _mynheer_? And if he gets too troublesome there are always ways of getting rid of him." He raised his eyebrows significantly.

"This Yankee is no fool," Muller rejoined anxiously. "I heard about that Lombock affair--it was a master coup. We have a bad man to deal with, _kapitein_."

Van Slyck smiled cynically.

"Humph, _mynheer_, you make me tired. From the way you talk one would think these Yankees can fight as well as they can cheat the brown-skins. We will fill him up with Hollands, we will swell his foolish head with praise till it is ready to burst, and then we will engineer an uprising in the hill district. Koyala can manage that for us. When Mynheer, the Yankee, hears of it he will be that thirsty for glory there will be no holding him. We will start him off with our blessings, and then we will continue our business in peace. What do you think of the plan, my dear Koyala?"

"Evidently you don't know Mynheer Gross," Koyala retorted coldly.

"Do you?" Van Slyck asked, quick as a flash.

"I have seen him," Koyala acknowledged. "Once. It was at the mouth of the Abbas River." She described the incident.

"He is no fool," she concluded. "He is a strong man, and an able man, one you will have to look out for."

"And a devilish handsome young man, too, I'll wager," Van Slyck observed maliciously with a sidelong glance at Muller. The _controlleur's_ ruddy face darkened with a quick spasm of jealousy, at which the captain chuckled.

"Yes, a remarkably handsome man," Koyala replied coolly. "We need handsome men in Bulungan, don't we, captain? Handsome white men?"

Van Slyck looked at her quickly. He felt a certain significance in her question that eluded him. It was not the first time she had indulged in such remarks, quite trivial on their face, but invested with a mysterious something the way she said them. He knew her tragic history and was sharp enough to guess that her unholy alliance with Ah Sing grew out of a savage desire to revenge herself on a government which had permitted her to be brought up a white woman and a victim of appetites and desires she could never satisfy. What he did not know, did not even dream, was the depth of her hate against the whole white race and her fixed purpose to sweep the last white man out of Bulungan.

"We do have a dearth of society here in Bulungan," he conceded. "Do you find it so, too?"

The question was a direct stab, for not a white woman in the residency would open her doors to Koyala. The Dyak blood leaped to her face; for a moment it seemed that she would spring at him, then she controlled herself with a powerful effort and replied in a voice studiedly reserved:

"I do, _mynheer kapitein_, but one must expect to have a limited circle when there are so few that can be trusted."

At this juncture Muller's jealous fury overcame all bounds. Jealousy accomplished what all Van Slyck's scorn and threats could not do, it made him eager to put the newcomer out of the way.

"What are we going to do?" he thundered. "Sit here like turtles on a mud-bank while this Yankee lords it over us and ruins our business? _Donder en bliksem_, I won't, whatever the rest of you may do. _Kapitein_, get your wits to work; what is the best way to get rid of this Yankee?"

Van Slyck looked at him in surprise. Then his quick wit instantly guessed the reason for the outburst.

"Well, _mynheer_," he replied, shrugging his shoulders indifferently, "it seems to me that this is a matter you are more interested in than I. Mynheer Gross does not come to displace me."

"You are ready enough to scheme murders if there is a _gulden_ in it for you, but you have no counsel for a friend, eh?" Muller snarled. "Let me remind you, _kapitein_, that you are involved just as heavily as I."

Van Slyck laughed in cynical good humor.

"Let it never be said that a Van Slyck is so base as that, _mynheer_. Supposing we put our heads together. In the first place, let us give Koyala a chance to tell what she knows. Where did you get the news, Koyala?"

"That makes no difference, _mynheer kapitein_," Koyala rejoined coolly. "I have my own avenues of information."

Van Slyck frowned with annoyance.

"When does he come here?" he inquired.

"We may expect him any time," Koyala stated. "He is to come when the rainy season closes, and that will be in a few days."

"_Donder en bliksem_, does Ah Sing know this?" Muller asked anxiously.

Van Slyck's lips curled in cynical amusement at the inanity of the question.

"He knows," Koyala declared.

"Of course he knows," Van Slyck added sarcastically. "The question is, what is he going to do?"

"I do not know," Koyala replied. "He can tell you that himself when he comes here."

"He's coming here?" Van Slyck asked quickly.

"Yes."

"When?"

"I am not in Ah Sing's councils," Koyala declared coldly.

"The deuce you're not," Van Slyck retorted irritably. "You seem to know a lot of things we hadn't heard of. What does Ah Sing expect us to do? Pander to this Yankee deck-scrubber until he comes?"

"We will do what we think best," Muller observed grimly.

Koyala looked at him steadily until his glance fell.

"You will both leave him alone and attend to your own affairs," she announced. "The new resident will be taken care of by Ah Sing--and by me."