“Take pity on me, gentlemen, take pity on me!” cried the wretched woman.
“Come along, will you!” shouted Singomengolo, furiously, as he tried by main force to drag her away.
“Let go that woman, I say—or else I’ll smash your skull in!” shouted Grenits, raising the butt of his rifle.
Meanwhile Grashuis had seized Singomengolo round the waist and was attempting to drag him backward.
“I am a bandoelan,” said the Javanese spy, somewhat haughtily; “I am a bandoelan; you gentlemen will be sorry for having threatened me and laid hands upon me.” And, turning to the woman, he said again, “Come along!”
“Once again, let her go,” cried Grenits, and this time in a tone of voice which plainly showed that he would stand no nonsense and was in deadly earnest. Indeed he was on the point of bringing down the butt of his gun crash upon the skull of the Chinaman, when he felt someone grasping his arm from behind and heard a voice whispering in his ear:
“Take care Theodoor, take care, it is a dangerous thing to meddle with those opium fellows.”
Theodoor looked round, and, to his great surprise, he saw that it was Mokesuep who thus warned him.
“You, Muizenkop!” cried he. “Where have you sprung from?”
“I lost my way,” was the reply. “But for heaven’s sake keep cool or you will get yourself into trouble.”