Before parting, Wienersdorf attended once more to the wounded and supplied them each with a cocoanut shell filled with water to quench their burning thirst. Johannes in the meantime took possession of the Dutch flags carried by the two largest boats, protesting that he should make excellent use of them. He also secured the written instructions entrusted to Damboeng Papoendeh. These he found, with the official seal duly attached, safely stowed away in a bamboo box under the cushion of the chief. The boats were then left to the current and rapidly disappeared.
The first thing to be done after their departure was to bring the raft, which now carried its full cargo, from the lake into the river. This done they shook hands cordially and the clumsy craft, separated from its moorings, soon drifted away, carried along by the swift current. Our adventurers then took to their own boat, planting one of the Dutch flags on it, sent a lusty hurrah after the raft, dipped their oars in the water and soon disappeared from the view of the friends whose labors and troubles they had so bravely shared.
Johannes now reminded his comrades that since their track had become known everything depended upon speed. They owed their present deliverance to the merest accident, a second one might not perhaps occur so opportunely. He calculated that they would have an advantage of five days, in which they [[131]]might with a little more exertion cover a large distance and perhaps get beyond the reach of the Dutch. They therefore resolved to keep to the oars days and night.
The boat with which the Chinaman Baba Poetjieng had furnished the deserters was a splendid vessel. It was slenderly built and had a sharp bow which enabled it to glide smoothly and easily over the water.
“Thank goodness! that is over,” La Cueille said, when they were resting in the afternoon during the preparation of their dinner. “Events follow each other rapidly I must say. The day before yesterday we had one dance and last night another similar entertainment. It seems to me that all the head-hunters of Borneo are following us.”
“Nonsense,” Johannes replied. “Those of last night were the same ones that attacked us before. Do you imagine that they ever lost sight of us? Not a bit of it.”
“But who invented the stratagem of enticing them into that narrow passage, and whence came that light so suddenly? It seemed almost like a miracle.”
“For all this you may offer a prayer on behalf of Bapa Andong,” Johannes answered. “He had pounded a large quantity of rosin during the day and spread it on a sieve of rattan above a layer of oil contained in a plate. This he kept in readiness to light up with a little flame which I contributed in the shape of a box of matches.”
“But oh!” Wienersdorf cried, “what a destruction of human lives! This is a dreadful journey and who knows when and how it will end yet!” [[132]]
“Pray don’t let us dwell upon that subject just now,” said Johannes. “We are in the boat and must sail with her.”