The young Rajah, leaving his sister in the canoe, had
landed on the sand and had crept to the very edge of light thrown by the
fires by which the Illanuns were cooking. Daman was sitting apart by a
larger blaze. Two praus rode in shallow water near the sandbank; on the
ridge, a sentry walked watching the lights of the brig; the camp was
full of quiet whispers. Hassim returned to his canoe, then he and his
sister, paddling cautiously round the anchored praus, in which women's
voices could be heard, approached the other end of the camp. The light
of the big blaze there fell on the water and the canoe skirted it
without a splash, keeping in the night. Hassim, landing for the second
time, crept again close to the fires. Each prau had, according to the
customs of the Illanun rovers when on a raiding expedition, a smaller
war-boat and these being light and manageable were hauled up on the sand
not far from the big blaze; they sat high on the shelving shore throwing
heavy shadows. Hassim crept up toward the largest of them and then
standing on tiptoe could look at the camp across the gunwales. The
confused talking of the men was like the buzz of insects in a forest.
A child wailed on board one of the praus and a woman hailed the shore
shrilly. Hassim unsheathed his kris and held it in his hand.
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