virtual ruler of the land. As to old Tunku Allang,
his fears at first had known no bounds. It is said that at the intelligence of
the successful storming of the hill he flung himself, face down, on the bamboo
floor of his audience-hall, and lay motionless for a whole night and a whole
day, uttering stifled sounds of such an appalling nature that no man dared
approach his prostrate form nearer than a spear's length. Already he could see
himself driven ignominously out of Patusan, wandering abandoned, stripped,
without opium, without his women, without followers, a fair game for the first
comer to kill. After Sherif Ali his turn would come, and who could resist an
attack led by such a devil? And indeed he owed his life and such authority as he
still possessed at the time of my visit to Jim's idea of what was fair alone.
The Bugis had been extremely anxious to pay off old scores, and the impassive
old Doramin cherished the hope of yet seeing his son ruler of Patusan. During
one of our interviews he deliberately allowed me to get a glimpse of this secret
ambition. Nothing could be finer in its way than the dignified wariness of his
approaches. He himself - he began by declaring - had used his strength in his
young days, but now he had grown old and tired.... With his imposing bulk and
haughty little eyes darting sagacious, inquisitive glances, he reminded one
irresistibly of a cunning old elephant; the slow rise and fall of his vast
breast went on powerful and regular, like the heave of a calm sea. He, too, as
he protested, had an unbounded confidence in Tuan Jim's wisdom. If he could only
obtain a promise! One word would be enough!... His breathing silences, the low
rumblings of his voice, recalled the last efforts of a spent thunderstorm.
    I tried to put the subject aside. It was difficult, for there could be no
question that Jim had the power; in his new sphere there did not seem to be
anything that was not his to hold or to give. But that, I repeat, was nothing in
comparison with the notion, which occurred to me, while I listened with a show
of attention, that he seemed to have come very near at last to mastering his
fate. Doramin was anxious about the future of the country, and I was struck by
the turn he gave to the argument. The land remains where God had put it; but
white men - he said - they come to us and