A tumult arose.
When it subsided Daman stood up in a cloak that wrapped him to his feet
and spoke again giving advice.
The white men sat on the sand and turned their eyes from face to face
as if trying to understand. It was agreed to send the prisoners into the
lagoon where their fate would be decided by the ruler of the land. The
Illanuns only wanted to plunder the ship. They did not care what became
of the men. "But Daman cares," remarked Hassim to Lingard, when relating
what took place. "He cares, O Tuan!"
Hassim had learned also that the Settlement was in a state of unrest
as if on the eve of war. Belarab with his followers was encamped by his
father's tomb in the hollow beyond the cultivated fields. His stockade
was shut up and no one appeared on the verandahs of the houses within.
You could tell there were people inside only by the smoke of the cooking
fires. Tengga's followers meantime swaggered about the Settlement
behaving tyrannically to those who were peaceable. A great madness had
descended upon the people, a madness strong as the madness of love, the
madness of battle, the desire to spill blood. A strange fear also had
made them wild. The big smoke seen that morning above the forests of
the coast was some agreed signal from Tengga to Daman but what it meant
Hassim had been unable to find out.
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