H. Bedford-Jones

“ With much labor, the two men got their brown-holed canvas unlashed from the broken bow of the boat, and hauled it up, spreading it across the tangle of mangrove roots. Carnahan produced palm and needle and line; their rolled-up pea-jackets were produced from the bow, where they had been packed into the seams as makshift calking, and were cut up into ragged patches to cover the holes in the sail. Winters was a poor hand at sailmaking. ”

“ Brains cannot prevent accidents of fortune, if one considers them as such and denies any providential interventions. Brains could not prevent the boat drifting on a concealed mugger while the sail was being quenched overside ”

“ Here we’re out o’ trouble and layin’ a straight course for the Peak, where the schooner is standin’ by to pick us up. That’s what comes of havin’ brains, mate! All we got to do is to split the loot. All this preacher talk about——”
“You mean,” queried Winters, “that we’ve evaded retribution? Of course. Your’re dead right there, Carnahan; nothing can touch us now. It’s the poor inefficient fools who slip up somewhere and get caught, and then talk about retribution and hell.”
“Sure,” agreed the other, with his obscene laugh. “If you’ve got brains, you can get away with anything—anything! ”

“ Winters nodded. “Sure. And the woman there is his wife. Maybe she’s got to spend the night that way, tied up to him. Then in the morning they’ll cut him loose and let him go out to sea. That sounds logical, anyhow. What’s the old boy talking—Malay?”
The wizard seemed to be pronouncing incantations. Carnahan growled in disgust.
“Yes, but it’s High Malay, and no white man can fathom that lingo. Hello! They’re off.”
The Malays, one and all, were vanishing back upon the jungle paths. The saffron proa floated alone upon the stream with its burden of the dead, and the thread that ran ashore. ”

“ And it was her blood——”
“Oh, give me a match and stop being a fool!” sneered Winters, then broke into a hearty laugh. “We’ll paddle over there, load the loot aboard, and trade boats, eh? They’ll not discover it until morning. By that time we’ll be aboard the schooner and they can chase until hell freezes for all we care.”
Carnahan lighted his pipe and his scowl vanished.
“Yes,” he assented with a sigh of relief. “Yes, we’re all right, I guess. Can’t keep us from fallin’ on our feet, eh? Brains, that’s what it is!”
Winters gestured toward the scene at which they were gazing. ”

“ Thorough workmen dislike to see their pains expended for nothing.
Quite naturally, it did not occur to either of them that there might be any connection between the saffron lanchang there before them, and the nonappearance of the Hollanders.
“What I don’t like,” said Carnahan suddenly, “is the sails on that craft. Silk! ”

“ The two men fell to discussing the matter earnestly, as befitted men whose lives hung upon the decisions involved. All that afternoon they had seen no sign of human life, either white or native, upon the wide reaches of the river, until reaching this spot. ”

“ Sometimes they use turmeric, sometimes saffron. But believe me, when any skipper in these here cussed seas lamps one o’ them yellow boats drifting past, he gives it lots o’ seaway.”
“Shouldn’t think the gov’ment would stand for it,” opined the mate.
“They don’t, especially the Dutch, which thinks nothin’ of blowing the bottom out of a cholera junk and drownin’ all aboard, sooner’n get the infection on land. No, them Dutch and others, they waste no time with the yellow proas! They just give ’em a shot or two and down they go. ”