Then the fierce sinister yell of “Amok! amok!” drowned the woman’s moans, and sent every Malay’s hand to the handle of his kris.
“Amok!” sprang from every man’s lips, while women and children, and those too aged to take part in the wild saturnalia of blood that was to follow, scattered like doves before a hawk.
With the rapidity of a Malayan tiger, the crazed man leaped from one to another, dealing deadly strokes with his merciless weapon, right and left. There was no gleam of pity or recognition in his insane glance when he struck down the sister he had played with from childhood, neither did he note that his father’s hand had dealt the blow that dropped his right arm helpless to his side. Only a cry of baffled rage and hate escaped his lips, as he snatched his falling knife with his left hand. Another blow, and his father fell across the quivering body of his sister.
“O Allah, the all-merciful and loving kind!” he sang, as the blows rained upon his face and breast. “O Allah, the compassionate.”
The golden handle of his kris shone like a dying coal in the centre of a circle of flamelike knives; then with one wild plunge forward, into the midst of the gleaming points, it went out.
“Sudah!—It is finished,” and a Malay raised his steel-bladed limbing to thrust it into the bare breast of the dying man.
The young Prince stepped out into the firelight and raised his hand. The long, shrill wail of a tiger from far off toward Mount Ophir seemed to pulsate and quiver on the weird stillness of the night.
Noa opened his eyes. They were the eyes of a child, and a faint, sweet smile flickered across the ghastly features and died away in a spasm of pain.
A picture of their childhood days flashed through the mind of the Prince and softened the haughty lines of his young face. He saw, through it all, the wharf below the palace grounds,—the fat old penager dozing in the sun,—the raft they built together, and the birch-colored crocodiles that lay among the sinuous mangrove roots.
“Noa,” he whispered, as he imperiously motioned the crowd back.