“I next took the evidence of baboe Dalima—”
“Oh, yes, she also is locked up on a charge of opium smuggling; she has no doubt given her lover a most excellent character. Fine witnesses those of yours, Mr. Meidema, I must say. Have you any others?”
“Yes,” replied the Inspector, quietly, “I have examined the dessa people who were that night pressed to assist in Ardjan’s arrest.”
“And?” cried van Gulpendam, impatiently. “Come, look sharp!”
“And their story contradicts, on almost every point, that of the police oppassers.”
“Of course it does, those dessa dogs always hang together; but all that ought not to have satisfied you as Chief Inspector of Police.”
“No, Resident, it ought not, I confess; and what is more, it has not,” continued Meidema. “When the evidence appeared to me so very contradictory, I myself went down in person to Moeara Tjatjing, to inspect the boat in which Ardjan is said to have brought the opium ashore.”
“And you found nothing?” inquired van Gulpendam.
“Oh, yes, Resident, I did. I found the surf-boat, and I am fully satisfied that it was much too small to contain the captured opium.”
“If I remember rightly, Mr. Meidema,” observed van Gulpendam, “that boat is said to have held two persons, Ardjan and Dalima?”