Gray did not stir; and fortunately he was quite concealed by the overhanging bank, as a Malay, down upon his hands and knees, leaned over the edge and looked up and down the river.
For the moment Gray felt that he must be seen, and his hand stole involuntarily towards his breast in search of a weapon; but he was in utter darkness beneath the bank, and the man’s eyes were more directed outward.
The result was that the Malay, who, kris in hand, had crept cautiously from Dullah’s hut right up through the undergrowth and long grass to where he believed the Englishman to be fishing, drew cautiously back, and crept once more away.
Gray remained motionless for a few moments, and then, convinced that this meant ill to him, he began to wade cautiously along towards where the sampans lay in the stream, some thirty yards away.
He moved very slowly, so as to make no plash in the water, which sometimes, as the river shallowed, came only to his waist, while at other times it nearly reached his chin; and had he not clung tightly to the water-washed roots and depending bushes, he must have been swept away.
Gray had gone about half the distance; and as he neared the sampans, whose forms he vainly tried to make out in the darkness, to his horror, he found that something was moving towards him in the water.
Quick as lightning he drew the long keen dirk from his belt, and stood ready to thrust, for it was either a crocodile or some large animal, he felt sure; but directly after he stood holding on by his left hand to a bunch of tangled root hanging from the bank, and felt his heart seem to stand still, for, to his surprise, he plainly made out that it was a man, wading in the opposite direction, and evidently for a similar purpose to his own.
It was, in fact, one of the Malays from the nearest sampan, who, while a companion had undertaken to stalk the Englishman from the shore, as he sat there asleep, had set off from the boat, meaning to get there at the same time as his friend, but had miscalculated the period it would take.
He was now coming along cautiously, and had nearly reached Gray in the darkness before he became aware of his presence.
As soon, though, as he made out that it was the Englishman who was before him, he made a lunge forward, striking at Gray with his kris; but the latter avoided the blow and prepared to close with his antagonist, feeling as he took a step back, that the result would probably be death for both, for they must be swept away by the swift stream.