And he, in his turn, caught hold of one of Daan Dercksz' buttons:
"What have you heard?"
"I've heard everything," Daan Dercksz repeated. "Heard it all ... in India. I know ... I know everything."
"You know ... everything? Oh? Oh? You know everything?... What ... what do you know?"
"About ... about Mamma.... About Takma.... About ..."
They stood staring into each other's startled eyes.
"About my father," said Daan Dercksz; and his frightened voice sank to a hesitating whisper. "About my father. What you know too. What you have always known. That Takma, that night, when he was with my mother, snatched my father's own weapon from him: a kris which the Regent had given him the day before...."
"You know?" cried the doctor. "You know? Oh, my God! Do you know that? I ... I have never said a word. I am eightee-eight years of age ... but I've ... I've never said a word."
"No, you never said anything ... but Mamma's baboe ..."
"Ma-Boeten?"