Page 45 - Malay sketches

THE MURDER OF THE HAWKER

eye-witnesses going on a similar errand, he per-
suaded him to give a qualified promise to help in
denying Ngah Prang's complicity while convicting
the others.
Needless to say that, from the moment the first
disclosure was made and communicated to the
in the arrest of a number of those
police, resulting
who had actually witnessed the crime, every smallest
detail was gradually brought to light, the hawker's
even his own
property, clothes, gradually recovered,
the money stolen from him traced, and no single
link left wanting in the chain of evidence strong
enough to convict and hang the guilty men. That
indeed was the result.
I have told the of this crime, which is
story
because
devoid of sensational incident, it will give
some idea of the state of feeling in a real Malay
kampong of poor labouring people far from any
outside influence. The man murdered was a
Malay ;
the idea that he was worth something which could
be obtained by the insignificant sacrifice of his life
seems to have at once suggested that Providence
was putting a good thing in the way of poor people,
and those who were not afraid determined that the
opportunity was not to be lost. The murder is
discussed practically in public ; it is executed also
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