I haven't been out of the Emma since.
IX
The letter went on to enlarge on the intrigues of Tengga, the wavering
conduct of Belarab, and the state of the public mind. It noted every
gust of opinion and every event, with an earnestness of belief in their
importance befitting the chronicle of a crisis in the history of an
empire. The shade of Jorgenson had, indeed, stepped back into the life
of men. The old adventurer looked on with a perfect understanding of
the value of trifles, using his eyes for that other man whose conscience
would have the task to unravel the tangle. Lingard lived through those
days in the Settlement and was thankful to Jorgenson; only as he lived
not from day to day but from sentence to sentence of the writing, there
was an effect of bewildering rapidity in the succession of events that
made him grunt with surprise sometimes or growl--"What?" to himself
angrily and turn back several lines or a whole page more than once.
Toward the end he had a heavy frown of perplexity and fidgeted as he
read:
--and I began to think I could keep things quiet till you came or those
wretched white people got their schooner off, when Sherif Daman arrived
from the north on the very day he was expected, with two Illanun praus.
He looks like an Arab. It was very evident to me he can wind the two
Illanun pangerans round his little finger.
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