The Malayan character has been aptly described as volcanic. The pent-up fire of his nature slumbers long sometimes beneath his calm, imperturbable, dignified exterior; but the fire lies smouldering within, and upon occasions it bursts out, carrying destruction before it.
In this case Tom Long’s folly—worse, his insult to the master of the sampan—roused the fiery Malay on the instant to fury, as he realised the fact that the youth he looked upon as an infidel and an intruder had dared to offer to him, a son of the faithful, such an offence; then with a cry of rage, he sprang at the ensign, bore him backwards to the bottom of the boat; and as the midshipman started up, it was to see the Malay’s deadly, flame-shaped kris waving in the air.
Chapter Seven.
How Dick related the Visit.
With a cry of horror Bob Roberts leaped forward, and caught the Malay’s wrist in time to avert the blow, the Kling starting forward the next instant, and helping to hold the infuriate Asiatic; while Tom Long struggled up and leaped ashore, where a knot of soldiers and sailors were gathering.
“Don’t say anything, Tom,” cried Bob. “Here you—tell him he did not mean to offend him,” he continued to the Kling, who repeated the words; and the Malay, who had been ready to turn on the midshipman, seemed to calm down and sheathed his kris; while the Kling spoke to him again with the result that the offended man sat himself down in the boat, gazing vindictively at the young ensign ashore.
“Here, no more durian to-day, thank you,” said Bob, handing the Kling a dollar. “And look here, you sir; don’t let that fellow get whipping out his kris on any of our men, or he’ll be hung to the yard-arm as sure as he’s alive.”
“He much angry, sahib,” said the Kling, whose swarthy visage had turned of a dirty clay colour. “Soldier sahib hurt him much.”