Money was wanted and men were wanted, and he had obtained enough of both
in two years from that day when, pistols in his belt and a cabbage-leaf
hat on head, he had unexpectedly, and at early dawn, confronted in
perfect silence that mysterious Belarab, who himself was for a moment
too astounded for speech at the sight of a white face.
The sun had not yet cleared the forests of the interior, but a sky
already full of light arched over a dark oval lagoon, over wide fields
as yet full of shadows, that seemed slowly changing into the whiteness
of the morning mist. There were huts, fences, palisades, big houses
that, erected on lofty piles, were seen above the tops of clustered
fruit trees, as if suspended in the air.
Such was the aspect of Belarab's settlement when Lingard set his eyes
on it for the first time. There were all these things, a great number
of faces at the back of the spare and muffled-up figure confronting him,
and in the swiftly increasing light a complete stillness that made the
murmur of the word "Marhaba" (welcome), pronounced at last by the chief,
perfectly audible to every one of his followers. The bodyguards who
stood about him in black skull-caps and with long-shafted lances,
preserved an impassive aspect. Across open spaces men could be seen
running to the waterside.
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