“yes, resident, i accuse the opium farmer of a gross attempt at bribery.”
such were the words with which mr. meidema concluded [322]his detailed account to mr. van gulpendam of what had taken place at his house that morning.
“avast! mr. meidema, steady a bit! you are going ahead much too fast. can you be quite sure that the five thousand guilders were concealed in that parcel of silk samples for the purpose of bribery?”
“i have already told you, resident, that what he came for was to induce my wife to exert her influence over me in favour of lim ho. yes, most decidedly. i know that the money was intended for a bribe.”
“but, mr. meidema,” observed the resident, “would it not be much more charitable to suppose that lim yang bing, who is, by nature, a kind and generous man, really felt some concern at your financial difficulties?”
“my financial difficulties!” exclaimed meidema, fairly white with rage. “i should like to find out who spreads those absurd rumours. i am not rich, i admit; but if every man’s affairs were in as good order as mine! then—”
“let us not get out of our course, my dear sir,” remarked van gulpendam, interrupting him at the right moment.
“very good, resident, i do not wish to do so; but who gives that confounded chinaman any right to trouble himself about my private affairs. what right has he to offer my wife and daughters presents of five thousand guilders?”
“but, can you be sure it was meant for a gift?”
“what else could the money have been meant for?” asked meidema.
“well, i don’t know,” replied van gulpendam, “but might not the notes have got mixed up with the samples of silk purely by accident? you ought to know how carelessly such fellows handle paper money, they sometimes have a whole bundle of it loose in their pockets. now i am persuaded, on the contrary, that when presently you meet lim yang bing the whole business will be explained to your satisfaction. i will send for him. have you any objection?”
“none whatever, resident; but the fellow may say or swear what he likes; it will not alter my opinion, and nothing will make me retract my charge against him.”
“don’t be in such a hurry to blow off steam, mr. meidema, just allow me to prick your chart for you, and you will soon see that you are out of your course altogether.”
hereupon van gulpendam called one of his oppassers, and ordered the man to mount, and to ride off full speed to the [323]opium farmer’s house. “tell him i want him to come to me at once.”
the two gentlemen had hardly spent half-an-hour in conversation on the ordinary topics of the day, when an elegant carriage, drawn by two splendid persian horses, dashed up to the gate of the residential mansion. a few moments later a servant announced the opium farmer.
“show him in,” said the resident.
lim yang bing sauntered into the room with his usual listless air and with the stereotyped smile on his lips. the oppasser had already told him that he would find the assistant resident of police with his excellency, and he looked upon this as a good sign; and had no doubt but that his troublesome smuggling question would be settled off-hand. he therefore greeted the gentlemen with great cordiality. “tabeh, kandjeng toean, toean!”
the resident pointed to a chair, and as soon as lim yang bing was seated, he began:
“babah, assistant resident meidema, fancies that he has reason to complain of your conduct.”
“no, no!” exclaimed meidema, interrupting his superior officer, “i do not fancy anything of the kind, i actually do lodge an accusation against him.”
both gentlemen spoke in malay, and the chinaman was thus able to understand all that was said.
“and what cause of complaint may he have?” asked the celestial, with his imperturbable smile.
“you ask me,” replied meidema, “what i accuse you of? i will tell you. i accuse you of offering me a bribe—to me, the head of the police!”
“i, kandjeng toean?” asked the chinaman, with well acted surprise. “when could i have done such a thing?”
“not much more than an hour ago,” was the reply. “just now, this very morning at my own house!”
“the toean assistant resident must be poking fun at me. it is true that i met him a little while ago; but i had not the honour of exchanging so much as a single word with him.”
“i know that well enough,” interrupted meidema impetuously; “but did you not this morning call at my house?”
the chinaman looked upon the interview as a farce, in which every actor had to play his part. he had often acted in such little plays himself and had performed pretty creditably on such occasions. he continued therefore; “oh, yes, kandjeng [324]toean, i did pay your ladies a visit, it was to invite you and them to the wedding, just in the same way, and for the same purpose, as i called at the residence to invite the njonja and his excellency.”
“indeed!” said meidema, sarcastically, “i suppose you came to offer silk dresses to the njonja resident? eh?”
lim yang bing winced under the blow; and his sallow face grew several shades paler. it was beginning to dawn upon him that matters were serious after all, and, in some confusion, he glanced at the resident; but van gulpendam, who was seated directly opposite to the assistant resident, could not, just then, make him any sign; yet lim yang bing thought he could detect an encouraging expression in the resident’s eye.
“and,” continued meidema, with increasing vehemence, “that you offered the njonja resident a roll of bank-notes also. did you not?”
as he spoke these words, he flung the money down before him on the writing-table as if it burned his fingers.
at this the chinaman turned livid—for a moment he was utterly confounded.
“there! you see, resident!” continued meidema, pointing to the farmer. “you see! why, guilt is written in every line of the fellow’s face!”
at these words lim yang bing recovered his presence of mind, he jumped up at once, snatched up the crumpled notes, spread them out before him, and began deliberately to count them, “one, two, three, four—ten.” then slowly raising his expressionless eyes to meidema’s face, he asked:
“does the toean assistant resident really intend to accuse me of attempting to bribe him?”
“yes, babah, i do most decidedly accuse you of it.”
“but, may i ask, why then does not the kandjeng toean give me back the whole sum?” asked the chinaman, very composedly, and with the usual smirk on his lips.
“the whole sum?” cried meidema, utterly taken aback, “what on earth can the fellow mean?”
“yes, toean,” replied lim yang bing, “i said, the whole sum. i have felt for some time that the toean assistant resident is by no means kindly disposed to me or mine; but i think it is not quite fair of him to fling me back a small part of my money, and so to try and ruin me, while he keeps back the greater part for himself.”
all this he said without showing the slightest emotion, without [325]the slightest heat, without so much as even raising his voice; but in the drawling sing-song way in which chinamen generally speak; and with the obsequious smirk which chinese features always wear when the owner is addressing a superior.
“babah!” shouted meidema trembling with rage, “take care of yourself, don’t go too far!”
but lim yang bing felt his advantage, and was not to be intimidated. with the same false smile and in the same drawling tones he continued:
“but i clearly see what the toean assistant resident is aiming at. the greater part of the present which i took the liberty of offering to the njonja he keeps for himself, and to that he intends to add the fine which lim ho will have to pay, should he be found guilty of smuggling instead of ardjan. it is not at all a bad idea, i admit; but i leave it to the kandjeng toean to say whether he thinks it quite fair and honest.”
meidema sat there as if thunderstruck. a terrible suspicion began to arise within him. yes! his money matters were not by any means in a healthy state. his housekeeping was an expensive one, all that, he felt, was true enough. could his wife under the hard pressure of circumstances—could she have been induced to yield to the temptation, might she possibly not have told him the whole truth? might she perhaps have mentioned to him only part of the bribe she had received, just to see how he would take it? yes! that must be it—his wife and his daughters! yes! now it flashed across him that they seemed much confused when he came in. and then the line of conduct which he had adopted before the resident who, he felt, was no friend to him—with an awful imprecation he sprang to his feet:
“babah!” he exclaimed, “you are an impudent liar!”
“if the toean assistant resident becomes abusive,” said lim yang bing with the same imperturbable calmness, “then i must request the kandjeng toean to give me leave to retire.”
“mr. meidema,” said van gulpendam sternly, “i must beg of you to moderate your language.”
“how much do you say there was in that packet?” asked meidema, in despair.
“i offered the njonja assistant resident ten bank notes of a thousand, and ten of five hundred guilders.”
poor meidema fairly moaned with anguish and dismay.
“is that true?” he asked again, with faltering tongue.
“i swear it!” was the quiet reply. [326]
“oh! i must go and get to the bottom of this!” cried the wretched man, as he frantically rushed from the room.
the chinaman and the resident watched him with a curious smile.
“splendidly parried, babah!” cried van gulpendam admiringly, and then muttering to himself, he said: “i wonder what port that obstinate fool will make for in this storm.”
“perhaps the kandjeng toean will now allow me to retire?” asked lim yang bing, with much humility.
“certainly, babah, certainly, let me not detain you.” and, after the usual compliments had been exchanged, the chinaman took his leave.
“deep fellow that chinaman, devilish deep! aye, aye, those who dabble in opium must have their wits about them, they must know how to trim their sails!”
foaming with rage, meidema got home. he could not wait until his carriage had reached the door; it had scarcely got into the grounds, before he jumped out crying to the coachman, “wait for me!”
he traversed the fore and inner galleries at a bound, and when he reached the back-room where the ladies of his family were still sitting at their needlework, he flew up to his wife, who, noticing at once his excited state, rose from her chair. he grasped both her wrists in his iron grasp, and, exerting all his strength, he forced her down on her knees before him.
all this had passed so quickly that, although the two girls had also sprung up, yet neither of them understood what was going on.
“there!” roared the infuriated husband, “there! that is your proper position! and now answer me. where is the rest of the money?”
“what money?” asked his wife in alarm.
“the ten thousand guilders!” thundered meidema.
“what ten thousand guilders?” asked his unhappy wife, still on her knees. “meidema! let go my wrists, you are hurting me!”
“no, i shall not let you go until you have told me where you have hidden the money.”
“what money are you talking about?”
“the ten thousand guilders you had from the opium farmer!”
“father,” said gesina, “let mother go, and listen to me, i will tell you all about it.” [327]
“you!” roared her father without releasing his wife whom he still kept kneeling before him.
“i took the parcel from lim yang bing,” continued the young girl. “it was i who opened it, and we all admired the samples of silk. at that time, i swear to you, father, there were no notes in it. i swear it by all that i hold dear! when mother refused to listen to his conditions, he put the parcel back into his pocket. later on, mother consented to speak to you about lim ho and to consult you about the silk, then, the babah flung the parcel on the table and hurried away.”
“but the ten thousand guilders!” cried meidema impatiently.
“let me finish what i have to say, father,” continued the young girl. “as soon as he was gone i again took up the samples. and now i come to think of it, they were not the same we had admired before. at the time, however, i did not notice the change. i took one of the samples and spread it on my knee to bring out the effect of the colours, and then—the notes fell out of the packet to the floor.”
“fifteen thousand guilders!” said the father who had been listening with impatience but had not lost a word.
“no, father, not fifteen thousand; there were ten five hundred guilder notes. there were no more than that,” replied the girl in a firm and steady voice.
“is that the truth?” asked her father as he fixed his eye on his wife and children.
but there was so much honesty and innocence in the eyes of his twins; and his wife looked up at him so firmly and trustfully, that further doubt was impossible, while all three as with one mouth and in one breath said:
“that is the truth.”
then the wretched man raised his wife from the floor where she was still on her knees before him. he clasped her in his arms and, as he pressed her to his heart, he cried in a lamentable voice:
“my god! my god! i am a miserable wretch! i have dared to suspect my darlings—the only ones i love upon earth!”
and, stretching out his arms, he flung them round the neck of his wife and children as sobbing, he cried: “oh, my dearest ones, can you ever forgive me?”
standing thus, the four formed a group which would have charmed a sculptor; but which must have filled with rapture [328]the heart of any true friend of man. the wife, the daughters, overwhelmed the man, who a moment before had so brutally treated them, with kisses and caresses. oh, they could so well place themselves in his position—they could so well understand why he had been blinded by passion!
“was i not right?” said matilda, “when i feared that the parcel boded us no good.”
“but do tell me, meidema,” asked his wife, “what can have happened that has so terribly unnerved you?”
“that beastly chinaman,” he cried, “actually declared in the resident’s presence that he had given you not five but fifteen thousand guilders.”
“good god, how infamous!” exclaimed mrs. meidema.
“infamous, yes most infamous! but what can one expect from a wretched speculator in opium? such a fellow as that is capable of any infamy.”
“but,” asked the anxious mother, “may not all this do you a deal of harm?” she had some little insight into the intrigues carried on in dutch india.
“yes,” sighed meidema, “no doubt it will. if i had to do with honest people, it would not trouble me much; but now!—however, i must see what i can do. my carriage is still at the door—i am off straight to the resident.”
“that’s a queer story of yours, mr. meidema.”
such was the only remark which mr. van gulpendam thought proper to make when meidema had most indignantly given him a full account of what had occurred. while he spoke, the resident had been sitting most attentively listening to his words; but the expression of his countenance showed no sign of sympathy. now and then there was even a slight motion of impatience and an incredulous smile. that studied indifference and almost insolent smile exasperated the already over-wrought assistant resident to such a degree that, when at length his superior officer made his most unfeeling remark, he could not help crying out with indignation:
“a queer story you call it, resident. you mean, i suppose, a most infamous business!”
“he, he, he! mr. meidema, not quite so fast if you please.”
“but, resident, what do you mean—do you not then think it a most infamous business?”
“oh, yes, most certainly i do; but the question is for whom?”
“for whom? is that the question, resident? then it appears to me you do not believe me.” [329]
“don’t be in a hurry, mr. meidema, just listen quietly to me.”
“but, resident, this is a matter which demands an instant explanation. if you do not take my word—”
“now, mr. assistant resident, i beg you will allow me to speak.”
these words mr. van gulpendam uttered with that measured tone of voice, and with that dignity which only a resident knows how to assume. they brought about an immediate and entire change in his subordinate’s demeanour. meidema at once mastered his excitement, he replied not a single word; but only bowed in sign that he was ready to listen.
“i said just now,” began the resident, “?‘a queer story’ and now i repeat the words—yes, it is a very queer story, a very queer story indeed. i will for a moment suppose, mr. meidema, that you are an honest man.”
the assistant resident gnashed his teeth and writhed with inward passion at the insinuation; but he uttered not a sound. he had made up his mind, outwardly at least, to retain his composure, and to listen in silence.
without appearing to notice meidema’s evident anguish, the resident continued:
“i am ready to admit, for argument’s sake, that you are an honest man; but i think you yourself must allow that appearances are terribly against you. just put yourself in the position of a resident; put yourself in my place. i am bound by my office to inquire into these matters calmly and impartially, without fear or prejudice, and, i must add without sympathy either; and then just see on what side probabilities have been accumulating. it is known to everyone, that you are in serious money difficulties—that is an open secret—and, i must tell you, that in your public capacity as chief magistrate, that common report is most injurious to you. when a man is in grave pecuniary difficulties, it is almost impossible to make the public believe that he can be impartial, inaccessible to bribes and strictly honest. the temptations, you see, are too great. on the one side there are tempting offers, which always manage to find a way for themselves, on the other there are the claims of his family, claims which have a powerful voice, and which clamour to be heard. public opinion, therefore, needs must be against you. under these painful circumstances, the opium farmer comes to your house and offers presents, in the form of silk dresses, to your wife and daughters, and he offers further a [330]considerable bribe in the tangible shape of money. now, do you think that you can make anyone believe that all this could occur without there having been some previous relations between you, some quiet understanding to encourage such bare-faced proposals? surely not! you have told me with your own lips that the opium farmer came to invoke the aid of your wife. therefore, he must have had some good cause to believe that not only could her aid be purchased; but also that her intercession, when obtained, would be of some value to him. now, if you are compelled to grant me all this—why, then i say that you can hardly wonder if i come to the conclusion that she was not to-day solicited for the first time. at all events, you must allow that an impartial judge might very easily come to that conclusion. now this is not all, there is yet another point to be considered. you have yourself confessed that, at least for a time, you yourself believed mrs. meidema guilty. your description of the scene—the deplorable scene—which has just now taken place at your house, amply proves that. and, let me say in passing that i most strongly disapprove of such want of temper and of such want of self-control in my subordinates; but that in the particular case which i have now before me, i am willing to excuse it. however, as i was saying, the scene of which you gave me so graphic a description, amply proves that you yourself did not consider mrs. meidema above suspicion.”
poor meidema! he sat there before the pitiless inquisitor, pale as death, motionless as a statue. his bloodshot eyes gazed stonily at the resident who, with a kind of refinement of cruelty, seemed to delight in probing his wound to the quick. at that moment the wretched man sat there accusing himself more bitterly than van gulpendam or any one else on earth could have done. the voice of conscience is, to the upright man, the most terrible voice of all. yes—it was but too true, he had been guilty of suspecting the wife of his bosom, he had thought evil of his two innocent daughters. the resident was pitiless; but he was quite right. and then, alas! that was not the worst of it; his conscience had a still louder reproach to make. he had been so miserably weak that he had not been able to keep that foul suspicion to himself—he had not been man enough to keep it locked up in his own bosom. honest and loyal as he was himself, he had fancied that the truth—the whole truth—would have proved the strongest bulwark for innocence. thus, in a moment of blind honesty, he had, for [331]no other purpose than to bring out more strongly the innocence of his family, betrayed to his enemy the excess of violence into which his wild frenzy had led him. and now, the weapon to which he had fondly trusted for his defence, had turned in his hand; not against himself only, but also against those dear ones of whose perfect purity he had no longer the faintest shadow of a doubt. the thought was too terrible to bear, it was maddening—his eyes began to ache as though a red-hot iron were pressed upon them. but, unmindful of his sufferings, his pitiless tormentor quietly continued:
“from all this must we not then reasonably conclude, mr. meidema, that your wife, terrified—and very naturally terrified—at your unreasoning violence, must have confined herself to a simple denial after she had attempted to mislead you in the matter of the ten thousand guilders? you see,” continued the resident with a friendly smile, “after all, the best thing is, that we should give that aspect to a most lamentable occurrence; one cannot very well hold you responsible for the actions of your wife.”
at these words meidema could restrain himself no longer. “no!” shouted he, “that suspicion shall not be cast upon her—my wife is innocent!”
“mr. meidema,” said van gulpendam, in tones of mock sympathy, “let me implore you to take my advice, and to consider well what you are about. once you let go that anchor, i have no other alternative than—”
he paused, even he seemed to hesitate, even he recoiled from what he was about to say.
“no other alternative than—what?” asked meidema, with something of the listlessness of despair.
“than to consider you the guilty man and to hold that your family are in conspiracy with you.”
“resident!”
“be calm, pray be calm! remember it is not i who choose the alternative—you yourself force it upon me. once again, let me remind you of your financial difficulties; let me remind you of the animosity which, in your report, you plainly show to lim ho. in that paper you eagerly seize upon every little circumstance which can possibly be adduced to prove him guilty; and you as carefully avoid everything which might point to ardjan as the culprit. in fact you screen the javanese in every way you possibly can. taking all these things into consideration, the words spoken just now by the opium-farmer [332]must needs give us food for reflection. you remember what he said, do you not? his words were blunt and cruel, i admit; but he seems to have had justice on his side. ‘he wants,’ said the chinaman, ‘to keep for himself the greater part of the present which i offered to the njonja, and he intends in addition to secure the fine which lim ho will have to pay if he be found guilty.’ a fine which we know could not be screwed out of ardjan. and when, in connection with those words we come to examine the 23rd clause of the opium act, why, then i do not think that many words will be needed to convince you that you must not venture to reckon upon either my sympathy or my support.”
meidema, poor wretched man, was utterly crushed and annihilated. without uttering a sound, he sat vacantly staring at his chief.
“no, no,” continued van gulpendam, “i can see no alternative. either you are guilty or your wife is guilty, perhaps both are equally culpable. you have, however, still time to make a choice; it is not yet too late, but that choice must be made quickly, now, at once; for i have made up my mind to telegraph to headquarters this very day.”
to telegraph! poor meidema only heard the one dreadful word “telegraph.” he knew well what that word implied; he knew well in what an arbitrary and off-hand way the fate of subordinates is decided at batavia. already he saw himself dismissed and disgraced, shunned as a social leper by every respectable man; his wife and children wandering about in poverty, exposed to hunger and untold misery. just then, as if he had been able to read the unhappy man’s thoughts, the resident said: “come, mr. meidema, decide, make up your mind, there must be no delay.”
“what must i do, resident?” moaned the poor man, now fairly at his wits’ end.
“what must you do? it is clear enough what you have to do. there is your report; it has just been handed to me along with the other papers relating to the business of the court at which on tuesday next i intend to preside. take it; here it is; do with it what you will.”
he thrust the document into meidema’s hand—who took it, gazed at it for a moment with meaningless stare, then made some gesture with his hands as though he would tear it up; but—before he could accomplish the fatal deed, his brain seemed to whirl and he fell heavily to the ground. [333]
a doctor was sent for at once. when he made his appearance, he found meidema lying back in a chair surrounded by the entire household of the residence, but utterly unconscious; and all around the floor was strewed with fragments of paper.
the physician spoke of brain fever, and he ordered the patient to be removed to the hospital.
“there is no danger, i hope, doctor?” asked the resident, in tones of the deepest sympathy.
“my dear sir,” replied the medical man, “there is the very gravest danger. it is a very sad case, it will surprise me much if the man does not go mad—that is if he gets over this attack at all.”
the resident thereupon at once drove off to break the fatal news as gently as possible to mrs. meidema.
the evening papers contained the following paragraph:
“we are grieved to state that assistant resident of police, w. d. meidema, was this morning suddenly taken seriously ill. it seemed at first as if he were suffering from some acute form of brain fever; but after careful examination, our zealous and able medical officer has come to the conclusion that it is a case of ‘melancholia attonita.’ it is his opinion that no relief can be hoped for unless the patient be at once removed to europe. there he will probably have to pass a considerable time in some asylum in which he can have the care which his peculiar malady requires. if we are rightly informed, our resident at once telegraphed to batavia; so that it is probable there will be no delay in obtaining the necessary leave of absence. mr. van gulpendam has further exerted himself to the utmost in obtaining a passage to europe for the sorrow-stricken family in the noah iii. which is to sail for patria on the day after to-morrow. mrs. van gulpendam also is untiring in her attention, and entirely devotes herself to assist the afflicted family by word and deed. both the resident and his wife have once again shown how cordial is their sympathy with their subordinates, and how thoroughly they have their welfare at heart. our best wishes accompany mrs. meidema and her children, and we heartily pray that the assistant resident may speedily be restored to health.”
the correspondent had been well informed. this much is certain, that on the 14th of july the ship noah iii. left her anchorage, and under the influence of the eastern monsoon, left the harbour of santjoemeh and was quickly out of sight.
van gulpendam had, in the overflowing kindness of his [334]heart, accompanied his friends to the ship’s side. he had warmly pressed mrs. meidema’s hand and uttered the kindliest sentiments at parting. then, when the ship was but a speck on the horizon, he uttered a deep sigh of relief, and with a pleasant smile, he muttered to himself: “come, i have managed that pretty neatly.”
