"In the dessa," scornfully exclaimed the lady, "oh, no doubt. Not a bit of it--she has been on the tramp with that Ardjan of her's."
"Pardon, madam!" cried the poor girl, who understood Dutch quite well enough not to lose a syllable of her mistress's words.
"And now," Laurentia went on, all in a breath, "now she has came home with quite a romantic tale. She pretends that she has been carried off, forsooth, by Lim Ho, and that she has passed the night in a ship. Just fancy that."
At the name of Lim Ho, and at the mention of the word "ship," the Resident pricked his ears. The captain of the Matamata, the guardship, had sent in a report in which he had said that the Kiem Ping Hin had been cruising about the coast. That schooner-brig belonged to the opium farmer, who was shrewdly suspected of being in close league with the opium smugglers. Hence the attention of the Resident was so suddenly arrested.
"What ship?" asked van Gulpendam, somewhat hastily.
"How should I know what ship?" replied his wife. "You had better ask that wretched girl."
"Pardon, madam!" cried Dalima, as she was still cowering in great terror on the floor of the pandoppo.
"Come, Dalima," said van Gulpendam, with some kindness in his voice, "come now, my girl, just tell us what has really happened to you."
"Allah, master, they have caught Ardjan. Have pity!"
"They have caught Ardjan, you say," interrupted van Gulpendam, "who have caught him?"
"Babah Than Khan and babah Liem King," replied the girl, weeping bitterly.
"Oh ho," muttered her master to himself, and then turning to the girl again, he said, aloud, "Where did they lay hands on him?"
"In the Moeara Tjatjing, toean," was the reply.
"In the Moeara Tjatjing," said van Gulpendam, musingly; "what brought him there, I wonder?"
"He had just escaped with me," sobbed Dalima.
"That's it, now what did I tell you!" almost shrieked Laurentia.
"From the ship," added poor Dalima, between her sobs.
"Aye, no doubt!" cried her mistress. "Run away from this house. That is nearer the truth!"
"For goodness sake," said the Resident, apart to his wife, "let the girl get under weigh, or else we shall never get to land," and turning to Dalima, he said: "Now come, first of all, let us hear how you got on board the ship."