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Chapter Sixteen. Into the Blue |
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Where is Matche? We need him now as interpreter, but he is not to be found. Afraid of the revenge of Pangsha, he is hiding himself at the farthest end of the column, but Chingmak speaks Kalyo Kengyu tolerably well, and the conversation is carried on through him and our Chang dobashi. |
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Mistrustingly the Pangsha men glance at the bayonets of the sepoys, but Mills reassures them, saying they are lambu, sacrosanct negotiators, and need have no fear. The message they bring seems astonishingly friendly. The goat is a present of welcome from Pangsha, who are greatly pleased at our visit. They will treat us as elder brothers -- no, as their own fathers. Never have they thought of fighting against us, for peace and friendship have always been their wish. |
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It sounds all very gratifying -- all too gratifying perhaps -- and Mills replies that we, too, are anxious for peace, and only seek the captured girl from Saochu. |
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At this the envoys pull long faces, for it is just this slave girl that they cannot give us -- she has been sold a long time ago far over the mountains to the East. |
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Can it be true? Did not the Noklak people tell Chingmak that yesterday the girl was still in Pangsha? But they deny this; they say they did not visit Noklak yesterday. The raids on Saochu and 138) Kejok -- yes, they raided the two villages -- but there is no need to quarrel over a few captured heads. To our questions why they have so far sent us insulting challenges and threatened all the villages who befriended us with destruction, they only produce all sorts of completely inadequate excuses. |
