expedition, and departed again spending all the profits of the legitimate
trade on his mysterious journeys. Almayer struggled with the
difficulties of his position, friendless and unaided, save for the
protection given to him for Lingard's sake by the old Rajah, the
predecessor of Lakamba. Lakamba himself, then living as a private
individual on a rice clearing, seven miles down the river, exercised all
his influence towards the help of the white man's enemies, plotting
against the old Rajah and Almayer with a certainty of combination,
pointing clearly to a profound knowledge of their most secret affairs.
Outwardly friendly, his portly form was often to be seen on Almayer's
verandah; his green turban and gold-embroidered jacket shone in the front
rank of the decorous throng of Malays coming to greet Lingard on his
returns from the interior; his salaams were of the lowest, and his hand-
shakings of the heartiest, when welcoming the old trader. But his small
eyes took in the signs of the times, and he departed from those
interviews with a satisfied and furtive smile to hold long consultations
with his friend and ally, Syed Abdulla, the chief of the Arab trading
post, a man of great wealth and of great influence in the islands.

It was currently believed at that time in the settlement that Lakamba's
visits to Almayer's house were not limited to those official interviews.
Often on moonlight nights the belated fishermen of Sambira saw a small
canoe shooting out from the narrow creek at the back of the white man's
house, and the solitary occupant paddle cautiously down the river in the
deep shadows of the bank; and those events, duly reported, were discussed
round the evening fires far into the night with the cynicism of
expression common to aristocratic Malays, and with a malicious pleasure
in the domestic misfortunes of the Orang Blando--the hated Dutchman.
Almayer went on struggling desperately, but with a feebleness of purpose
depriving him of all chance of success against men so unscrupulous and