THE MURDER OF THE HAWKER
eye-witnesses going on a similar errand, he persuaded him to give a qualified promise to help in denying Ngah Prang's complicity while convicting the others.
Needless to say that, from the moment the first disclosure was made and communicated to the police, resulting in the arrest of a number of those who had actually witnessed the crime, every smallest detail was gradually brought to light, the hawker's property, even his own clothes, gradually recovered, the money stolen from him traced, and no single link left wanting in the chain of evidence strong enough to convict and hang the guilty men. That indeed was the result.
I have told the story of this crime, which is devoid of sensational incident, because it will give some idea of the state of feeling in a real Malay kampong of poor labouring people far from any outside influence. The man murdered was a Malay; the idea that he was worth something which could be obtained by the insignificant sacrifice of his life seems to have at once suggested that Providence was putting a good thing in the way of poor people, and those who were not afraid determined that the opportunity was not to be lost. The murder is discussed practically in public; it is executed also
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