“Have you tried to obtain one?”
“Yes, I have,” was the reply. “The day before yesterday I went to Buitenzorg—yesterday I went on to Tjipannas—”
“And—?”
“I was told by the aide-de-camp on duty that his Excellency was ill in bed and could see no one.”
“You see!” exclaimed the Chief Justice. “What did I tell you?”
“But, my dear sir,” interposed Zuidhoorn, “the most scandalous proceedings are going on. For the sake of shielding a wealthy opium farmer, a poor devil of a Javanese—!”
“Has been falsely accused—and will in all probability, be found guilty in spite of his innocence,” remarked the Chief Justice with a cynical smile. “Oh, yes, we know all about it, you have put the whole question most clearly and most circumstantially before us. But what are we to do? We are powerless, and must bend our heads to the storm. You know summum jus, summa injuria.”
Mr. Zuidhoorn was leaning his head on his hand as his colleague spoke thus; and was vacantly, almost hopelessly, staring before him.
“Let me give you a friendly piece of advice, my dear colleague,” resumed the Chief Justice kindly; “the fact is you are not at all well—you are more seriously indisposed than you yourself are aware of. To-morrow you mean to sail in the Emirne, eh? Very well, my advice to you is to leave all these worries and bothers behind you in Batavia; fling off all these anxieties, and go to Europe to recruit your failing strength. In a couple of years’ time you will return with fresh vigour—a new man, in fact, in mind and body—and then you will for many years to come continue to be an ornament to a profession in which, allow me to tell you, very few can compete with you. And now you must excuse me. My time is very precious and— Oh, yes, one other recommendation let me give you before taking leave. For the future, pray take the greatest care never to meddle in any way, if you can possibly help it, with any of the complications and intrigues of the opium trade. I need hardly tell you that it is an imperium in imperio and, to this I may add, malum malo proximum; in all such matters, he who touches pitch must be defiled. And now—I can only wish you a quick and pleasant voyage and a happy time in the old country. Good-bye, my dear Zuidhoorn, good-bye. A pleasant journey to you!”
The two cases of opium smuggling, the one at the Moeara Tjatjing and the other arising out of the discovery in the hut of Pak Ardjan at Kaligaweh, did not come on at once before the court at Santjoemeh. Resident van Gulpendam was delighted when he heard from the Chief Justice at Batavia, that, owing to the scarcity of legal men at head quarters, there was no chance whatever of filling up, for some time to come, the vacancy caused by Mr. Zuidhoorn’s departure.