Page 114 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

the Peace, who showed his devotion to duty by
the hours on a metal
punctually striking huge gong.
The night was far advanced, when suddenly he
heard a child crying in the house of the Malay
revenue clerk. Then there was the noise of foot-
and the voice of the man
steps calling to his wife,
but no answer. After a few minutes there was the
sound of approaching feet, a shout from the Malay,
followed by the man himself.
"
The constable called out, What is the matter,
"
Che Mat ?
Che Mat replied, " I was asleep, but awoke hear-
ing the child crying for its mother. I could not see
her anywhere, and she did not answer when I spoke.
Then 1 got up and saw at once the door of the
house was open, but she is nowhere to be seen.
"
Have you heard anything of her ?
The constable had heard nothing, but there was
evidently something uncanny about this disappear-
in a such as
ance, for, village this, where the houses
are more in the water than on land, where the path-
less mangrove is the background, and the waters of
the river the foreground, there are few places left in
which to look for any one or anything with any
chance of finding them.
The man on guard roused his comrades, and, as
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