nd wealth to gild his ease. And yet, as he sat there dreaming, his
death was ever drawing nearer to him, unfeared and unsuspected.

Shortly before sunset, at the hour when the kine go down to water, a
party of Rawa men came to Che' Jahya's house. These people are a race of
Sumatran Malays, and members of their tribe have been mercenaries and
hired bravos in the Peninsula, beyond the memory of man. They came to
Che' Jahya, they said, to offer their services to him; and, in their
coming, he saw the first evidence of that authority over men and things,
of which he had sat dreaming through the hot hours of the day. He
received them courteously, and had rice and spiced viands placed before
them, inviting them to eat, and, in doing so, he almost unconsciously
assumed the tone and manners of a great chief. All partook of the meal
in heartiness and good fellowship, for the Rawa people have no fine
feelings about abusing hospitality, and a meal, come by it how you may,
is a meal, and as such is welcome. When the food had been disposed of,
and quids of betel nut and cigarettes were being discussed, the talk
naturally turned upon the war, which had so recently closed. Che' Jahya,
still living in his Fool's Paradise, and intoxicated by his new honours
and importance, was blind to any suspicions of treachery, which, at
another time, might have presented themselves to him. He spoke
condescendingly to his guests, still aping the manners of a great chief.
He dropped a passing hint or two of his own prowess in the war, and when
Baginda Sutan, the Headman of the Rawa gang, craved leave to examine the
beauties of his _kris_, he handed his weapon to him, without hesitation,
and with the air of one who confers a favour upon his subordinate.

This was the psychological moment for which his guests had been waiting.
So long as Che' Jahya was armed, it was possible that he might be able
to do one of them a hurt, which was opposed to the principles upon which
the Rawa men were accustomed to work; but as soon as he had parted with
his _kris_, all the necessary conditions had been complied with. At a
sign from their Chief, three of the Rawa men snatched up their guns, and
a moment later Che' Jahya rolled over dead, with three gaping holes
drilled through his body. There he lay, motionless, in an ever-widening
pool of blood, on the very spot where, so few hours before, he had
dreamed those dreams of power and greatness--dreams that had then soared