"It is the judgment of God," Van Schouten pronounced solemnly. He looked at Peter Gross sharply.
"Now this Koyala," he asked, "where is she?"
"I do not know. In the hills, among her own people, I think. She will not trouble you again."
The governor stared at his resident. Gradually the stern lines of his face relaxed and a quaintly humorous glint came into his eyes.
"So, Mynheer Gross, the woman deceived you?" he asked sharply.
Peter Gross made no reply. The governor's eyes twinkled. He suddenly brought down his fist on the table with a resounding bang.
"Donder en bliksem!" he exclaimed, "I cannot find fault with you for that. The fault is mine. I should have known better. Why, when I was your age, a pretty woman could strip the very buttons from my dress coat—dammit, Mynheer Gross, you must have had a heart of ice to withstand her so long."
He flourished a highly colored silk handkerchief and blew his nose lustily.
"So you are forgiven on that count, Mynheer Gross. Now for the other. It appears that by your work you have created a much more favorable feeling toward us among many of the natives. The hill Dyaks did not rise against us as they have always done before, and some of the coast Dyak tribes were loyal. That buzzard, Lkath, stayed in his lair. Furthermore, you have solved the mysteries that have puzzled us for years and the criminals have been muzzled. Lastly, you were the honey that attracted all these piratical pests into Bulungan harbor where Kapitein Enckel was able to administer them a blow that will sweep those seas clear of this vermin for years to come, I believe. You have not done so badly after all, Mynheer Gross. Of course, you and your twenty-five men might have come to grief had not Sachsen, here, heard reports that caused me to send the Prins Lodewyk post-haste to Bulungan, but we will overlook your too great confidence on the score of your youth." He chuckled. "Now as to the future."
He paused and looked smilingly into the eyes that looked so gratefully into his.