"Is he so very bitter against you?" asked Nigel.
"Very," was the curt reply.
"Have you reason to think he would take your life if he could?"
"I am sure he would. As I told you before, I have thwarted his plans more than once. When he hears that it is I who have warned the Orang-Kaya against him he will pursue me to the death—and—and I must not meet him."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Nigel, with renewed surprise.
But the hermit took no note of the exclamation. Anxiety had given place to a frown, and his eyes were fixed on the ground. It seemed to Nigel so evident that he did not wish to pursue the subject, that he slightly changed it.
"I suppose," he said, "that there is no fear of the Dyaks of the village being unable to beat off the pirates now that they have been warned?"
"None whatever. Indeed, this is so well known to Baderoon that I think he will abandon the attempt. But he will not abandon his designs on me. However, we must wait and see how God will order events."
Next morning spies returned to the village with the information that the pirates had taken their departure from the mouth of the river.
"Do you think this is an attempt to deceive us?" asked the chief, turning to Van der Kemp, when he heard the news.