“Resident,” said Verstork, “may I beg leave to inquire against what you have been warned?”
Van Gulpendam looked up over the sheet of paper he held in his hand, and fixing his eye on the controller’s face which was turned to the light, he said, with an assumed air of dignity:
“Mr. Verstork, you really ought to try and cure yourself of the bad habit you seem to have contracted of interrogating your superiors. Believe me that kind of thing makes a very bad impression. I do not mind telling you what warning I have received, not, mind you, because you demand the information; but because I consider it only fair that you should know. It will probably bring you to the conclusion that you had better take back this report and modify it altogether.”
“Modify my report, Resident?” exclaimed Verstork; but, without noticing the interruption, van Gulpendam continued:
“I have been informed that you intend to represent matters in such a light as to make it appear that a successful attempt has been made on the honour of this Javanese girl.
“But, Resident,” said Verstork, very gravely, “this question concerns a person who is in your service, who is the baboe—I may almost say—the companion, of your own daughter.”
“And who, as such,” said van Gulpendam, interrupting him, “ought to be a person of unblemished character. I quite agree with you there. Unfortunately, she is nothing of the kind. Only a few days ago she was roaming about outside the house for the whole night, and then came in with a long rigmarole about a forcible abduction of which she pretended to have been the victim. Now again, for the second time, she is out at night, and this time she is found in the possession of opium. She is the daughter of a smuggler—you know that as well as I do, seeing that on Saturday last there was a murder committed in her father’s house, of which, luckily, you sent me timely notice. She is engaged to be married to another opium smuggler; and now it has been proved that she is a smuggler herself. At present she is safe under lock and key, and I am glad of it, as it will spare me the trouble of driving the brazen-faced slut out of my premises.”
“But, Resident,” resumed Verstork, as soon as his chief paused for a moment to take breath, “when we came running up to her cries for help, she was naked, bleeding, her hair dishevelled. Everything in fact pointed to—”
“A desperate resistance to the police,” broke in van Gulpendam. “I know all about that. Did you examine her?”
“No, I did not.”