Page 77 - Malay sketches

THE STORY OF MAT ARIS

made to the officer in charge of it, but he was help-
less, for the outlaw was beyond his reach.
Eight years is, however, a long time, especially
to an Eastern, and travellers worth- robbing having
grown scarce, Mat Aris, in the consciousness of his
own rectitude, went to the Perak officer and asked
for work. That mistaken step resulted in his arrest
on the strength of the warrant issued eight years
before.
This time the was in
prisoner conveyed safety
to Kuala
Kangsar, where he was duly tried.
It is one thing to give information against a man
who is free, willing, and able to resent it, and quite
a different thing to say what you know when that
man is in the toils. There was a witness who was
to know what had
likely happened to Sahit, and that
was Pah Patin the Sakai, but Pah Patin did not
speak, and Mat Aris and Salamah were the only
other people who knew what he could say. At
least that appeared to be so, for who else would be
to know what at in the
likely happened night depths
of the jungle miles from the nearest habitation?
As for Salamah, like the Sabine women, she
seemed to have reconciled herself to her
captor.
But the strange part of this story is that, impos-
sible as it may seem, there was a witness who
61