Chapter XXVIII: The Antidote

The Commissioner’s reply was brought to Armourer at a little before seven.

Like the greater proportion of official messages, it was at once highly satisfactory and intensely irritating.

The magistrate was ordered to proceed on his expedition against Abu-Samar with the least delay possible; at the same time, he was on no account to leave Jelandang before a suitable substitute had arrived there to take his place. A runner had been dispatched to Lindsay--whose _flying-column_ was understood to be somewhere in Armourer’s area--instructing him to proceed immediately to Jelandang. Armourer was to hand over his duties to him and to take command of his men--who numbered eleven. Cases of ammunition and rations would be placed on the morning train, and the magistrate was advised to have bearers waiting at the nearest halt in readiness to receive them.

The Commissioner was endeavouring to get in touch with Battiscombe, and Armourer was enjoined to leave a suitable guide at Jelandang who would proceed to Battiscombe, as soon as his party had been located, and bring him along in support of the main body.

He folded the letter carefully and thrust it into the upper pocket of his tunic. Leaning on the verandah-rail, he watched the bustle of preparation in the clearing below.

A small army of natives, borrowed from a neighbouring village, had replaced Vance’s coolies. Short, sturdy men, most of them nude from the waist upwards, who chattered and laughed amid a pyramid of cases, as if about to embark upon the greatest joy-ride in their experience. A sturdy corporal, with an expressionless face, was methodically obtaining order from chaos. Sembilan, as fresh as if he had slept the round of the clock, was grooming Trevor’s pony, while Armourer’s mount, already attended to, had wandered to where the grass appeared to offer the most nutriment. At the foot of the steps a couple of men were cleaning rifles.

Armourer was turning the contents of Stewart’s letter over in his mind. It was a comprehensive document, concise and well thought out, and it gave the magistrate grim satisfaction to reflect that somebody besides himself had lost many hours of slumber over the Abu-Samar affair.

The delay irritated him. He had planned, toiled, strained every nerve to get away with the dawn, and now he found himself compelled to cool his heels until Lindsay chose to roll up. But argue with himself as he might, he could not deny the wisdom of waiting for those eleven additional men. Then there was the question of the cases to be fetched from the railway. The train was due at the halt at ten minutes past eleven. More than probably it would be late--and the goods had to be handled and brought across to the starting-point. More delay! It meant postponing their departure until after lunch, and perhaps till the evening, if Lindsay lost his way. With the knowledge that Samar had men hanging about in the trees, he intended to move in as compact a body as possible and run no risk of having his supply-column cut off.

Chong-Si brought in the tea.

Armourer poured out two cups and, opening the door of his own room, carried them to where Trevor still slept. The planter stirred as the mosquito-curtains parted, and looked up sleepily.

“Hullo, old son!”

“Hullo!” responded the magistrate. “How d’you feel?”

Trevor sat up.

“O.K. thanks. What’s the time?”

“Somewhere around half-past seven.”

Trevor slid his feet to the ground and took his cup. He stirred it thoughtfully.

“Suppose we’ll be pushing off soon?”

Armourer shook his head.

“I don’t see the slightest hope of starting before evening. Stewart wants me to wait for my relief to arrive. That in itself is damnably annoying, but he’s bringing us eleven men, for which I suppose we ought to be thankful. Then there’s a lot of junk to be fetched from the railway. It won’t be there before eleven, and I thought, if you didn’t mind, that you might take the bearers over and see they don’t hang about on the way.”

Trevor felt for the slippers he had brought over in his haversack. “Right you are! I’m game.”

“I shall leave two of my own fellows with the new chap and a third to join Battiscombe and bring him along after us as soon as the Commissioner locates him. That leaves us fifteen men--eleven of Lindsay’s and four of mine. Jimmy’s probably taken half a dozen on his little jaunt, so we ought to have ample for the job.”

Trevor blinked.

“Got plenty of ammunition?”

“I’ve a fair supply already--and there’s more on the way.”

“And the brown girl?”

Armourer nodded his head towards the verandah.

“She’s still out there. As far as I can gather, she seems fit and shows no signs of wanting to go back on her bargain. If we can get away in the cool of the evening, we should make good progress before nightfall. I haven’t the remotest idea how far we have to go, but it’s going to be forced marching for everybody until we come in contact with Abu-Samar’s outposts.”

He took Trevor’s empty cup and, having disembarrassed himself of both, perched himself on the foot of the bed.

“I’ve been trying to reason myself into a sensible state of mind regarding Mrs. Battiscombe’s predicament,” he continued. “She’s in an unholy mess, of course, but I am inclined to believe she’s in no immediate danger. You yourself can testify that she had no end of a rotten trip into the backwoods. From the little I know of the effects of hypnotism, I understand that it leaves people pretty weak. She was only convalescent when she bolted from here and, although Jimmy insists that she has a wonderful constitution, I’m convinced that this last experience has brought on the fever again.”

“Yes,” agreed Trevor, “I fancy you’re right there. Even if she went away in some sort of a trance, she must have come to her senses by now, and be scared into the bargain.”

The magistrate placed a hand on either knee.

“That’s just how I figure it out. You see, Trevor, that all this confounded delay, although intensely annoying, means that we shall have time to collect our wits and organise. We shall move as a well-equipped, well-provisioned column, instead of straggling along in little detachments that might come to grief if suddenly surrounded and cut off by Samar’s men. They’ll get to work with their poisoned darts in any case, and it’s quite on the cards we’ll have Abu’s collection of insects to contend with as well; but some of us are bound to get through. Then there’s the _moral_ effect of a determined punitive force. Whatever influence our friend has over the tribesmen, they’re bound to get uneasy when they begin to learn that Mrs. Battiscombe’s abduction has been regarded, not from the point of view of ransom, but in a far more serious light.”

Trevor began spreading the contents of his haversack over the bed. “I’ll get dressed at once,” he announced, “and you’d better turn in for a spell.”

Armourer smiled.

“I shan’t attempt to sleep before lunch,” he said. “If by that time I see no prospect of an early departure, I may try and squeeze in a couple of hours. There’s a deuce of a lot of spade-work to be got through yet.”

The planter was surveying his mud-stained garments of the night before.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to borrow some clothes. If you happen to have a suit that’s shrunk in the wash so much the better! You’re a good deal bigger than me.”

“I’ll see what Chong-Si can do for you,” laughed the magistrate.

He shouted for the servant.

“There’s one thing to be thankful for,” declared Trevor, “and that is that Jimmy Battiscombe isn’t anywhere in the neighbourhood. He’s gone through a lot lately and this last bit of news would about bowl him over.”

Chong-Si appeared at the door.

“The _Tuan_ Trevor wants some clothes,” said his master. “Bring everything you can find and let him choose for himself.”

The Chinaman reflected for a moment and began pulling open drawers and diving into the inner mysteries of a zinc-lined trunk.

When Trevor met the train he found, not only the cases he had come there to collect, but the genial professor and his pretty daughter.

Standen was in great spirits.

“Morning, Trevor!” he shouted from the coach. “So you’ve been raked into this little affair too?”

The younger man hurried forward to assist Joyce.

As soon as both were on _terra firma_, Trevor turned to Standen.

“You know what’s happened?” he suggested.

The professor nodded.

“The Commissioner sent me news last night, and I made arrangements to return immediately. It’s a regrettable state of affairs, of course, and I feel extremely anxious about Mrs. Battiscombe, but the incident has brought the Samar business to a head, and I suppose that’s something.”

“Give me your _barang_,” said Trevor; “my men can carry it up with the rest of the stuff. How d’you do, Miss Standen? You’ve arrived just in time to see the start of what promises to be a really interesting adventure.”

A man poked his head from a window and called.

“Say, Trevor, tell Armourer that young Lindsay’s on his way now and should be at his place this afternoon. He’ll understand.”

The planter waved an arm.

“All right, Barnes, and many thanks. He’ll be glad to hear it. You keeping fit?”

“Fit as a fiddle. You look well.”

The train moved on.

They were on their way up the slope, with a straggling line of bearers behind them, when the professor spoke again.

“I suppose there is such a thing as luck,” he declared suddenly. “Abu-Samar’s had it all on his side up to within the last couple of days--and now it’s swung round to ours.”

Trevor glanced up sharply, a puzzled expression on his face. “It’s swung round, has it?”

“Absolutely.” He tapped a large water-bottle which was slung from his shoulder on a leather strap. “Everything depends on the contents of this flask. I hit on it yesterday, after countless futile experiments, and went down to Jesselton to put it to the test. Joyce and I are joining your expedition--myself because I believe my presence is essential, and my daughter because she refuses point-blank to be left behind. Whatever horrors our black magician may have in store for us, I am ready for him.”

Trevor gasped. “You don’t mean to say you’ve found an antidote?”

Standen patted the younger man’s shoulder.

“There’s not the least doubt about it.” He beamed all over his face. “That’s puts a different complexion on affairs, doesn’t it?”

“By Jove, it does!” murmured Trevor. “It ought to prove the turning-point of everything.”

Joyce laughed.

“Poor old daddy!” she said. “He’s _so_ pleased with himself. Everybody’s been praising him and trotting round after him--and he does just love being praised and trotted round after! He’s tried his marvellous discovery on monkeys and native criminals, and he’s so delighted with his new toy that I really believe he’d have experimented on me, if I’d let him!”

The professor shook his head delightedly.

“There’s a daughter for you, Mr. Trevor! Her sole object in existence is to hold her poor old father up to ridicule--but we’ve found the antidote, my boy, and that’s all that really matters.”

Lindsay reached Jelandang at four and at five-thirty Armourer rode out, at the head of his column, with a fierce sun on its downward course and a pleasant breeze shaking the topmost leaves of the palms.

Joyce rode between her father and Trevor, and Lindsay, leaning over the verandah-rail with two rebellious terriers tethered beside him, watched them off.