CHAPTER IX.
NJONJA MAHAL—THE THREE FRIENDS.
When Lim Yang Bing informed his son of the arrest of his accuser Pak Ardjan, and communicated to him some of the details of the capture, Lim Ho chuckled with delight. “That’s one good riddance, at all events,” quoth he, to himself. “Now, with a very little management on our part, that fellow will be found guilty and sent to the devil long before his son’s smuggling case can come on at all. The most dangerous witness will then be out of the way.”
Then, for a while, Lim Ho seemed lost in thought. He had made the njonja of the Resident a very handsome and valuable present of jewellery, in return for which he had got nothing but a mere empty promise that she would see what she could do for him in the way of inducing the girl to listen to his proposals. “Indeed! njonja mahal, an expensive lady,” he muttered. “By Kong, what will be her price if I should need her active help in the case of the girl’s refusal? Mercy on me! that will cost a pretty penny.”
But Pak Ardjan’s arrest gave another direction to his thoughts.
“No, the girl is not to be won, of that I am certain, she hates me too much to consent. But that is precisely the thing which makes her so attractive to me. She is an elegant, pretty girl! That’s true enough, but there are many other good-looking maidens in the dessas—That’s tame, I know all about them. No, no, to make the rebellious hussy bend to my will; to cover her, who detests me, with my kisses; to have her, who despises me, in my arms; and then—yes, then, when I am tired of her, and she is soiled and faded body and soul—then to be able to trample upon her, and fling her from me. That, look you, is the highly flavoured dish which, in my pursuit of her, I intend to enjoy. And, by Kong, I shall have my way, too. How? that I don’t know, just yet. By force or by cunning? that matters little—if needs be, by both!”
Thus he muttered to himself as, in his father’s house, he lay stretched out on a most luxurious divan, with his long Chinese pipe in his mouth, in which he was smoking the most fragrant tobacco the Celestial empire produces.
“By cunning?” he continued, after a few puffs at his pipe, “by cunning? Now, what is the most serious obstacle? The girl’s will, no doubt;—well, I shall know how to get over that, if I get the chance, that will have, I daresay, to be a matter of violence after all. Now what else is there? The njonja!—The baboe is in her service; but I think she will help me, especially if—” Here the wretch moved his hand in the manner so peculiar to the Chinese, when they count money, putting down at each gesture a little pile of coins, which always contains the exact number required, never one piece more or less. “Now, is there any one else in my way? Yes, there is Ardjan, who wants to marry her; but he is pretty well accounted for, he is safe enough in jail, and won’t very easily get out of the mess he is in, as he is charged with having smuggled a couple of pikols of opium. Long before he has been condemned, and has served his time, the deed must be done. Yes, long before that Dalima must have been mine! What, then—why, then? I sha’n’t give either of them another thought, then the question will be, what pretty one will next take my fancy,—from Ardjan, I have nothing to fear, even if he does escape punishment, the company will know how to deal with him. There is only one man left against whom I must be on my guard, that is Setrosmito, Dalima’s father. Oh, that cursed Javanese, he threatened me with his kris, did he? When I offered him five hundred rix-dollars for his daughter! Oh, I will pay him out for that. But how?—A thought strikes me—That arrest of Pak Ardjan seems to have been the easiest matter in the world. If Setrosmito could be made to fall into the same trap—if we could secure him—were it but for a few weeks!”
Springing up from his couch, Lim Ho ran to a small gong which stood by a pillar, supported on a very elegant foot of china, and with a small stick, which was carved in the shape of a crocodile’s head, the emblem of Ngoh, the water-god, he struck two sharp blows upon the clear-toned metal.