THE STORY OF MAT ARIS
made to the officer in charge of it, but he was helpless, for the outlaw was beyond his reach.
Eight years is, however a long time, especially to an Eastern, and travellers worth robbing having grown scarce, Mat Aris, in the consciousness of his own rectitude, went to the Perak officer and asked for work. That mistaken step resulted in his arrest on the strength of the warrant issued eight years before.
This time the prisoner was conveyed in safety to Kuala Kangsar, where he was duly tried.
It is one thing to give information against a man who is free, willing, and able to resent it, and quite a different thing to say what you know when that mam is in the toils. There was a witness who was likely to know what had happened to Sâhit,and that was Pah Patin the Sakai, but Pah Patin did not speak and Mat Aris and Salâmah were the only other people who knew what he could say. At least that appeared to be so, fir who else would be likely to know what happened in the depths of the jungle miles from the nearest habitation?
As for Salâmah, like the Sabine women, she seemed to have reconciled herself to her captor.
But the strange part of the story is that impossible as it may seem, there was a witness who
61
