THE PIRATE LEAGUE
As Sachsen left the room the governor snapped shut the silver cap on the
porcelain bowl of his pipe and regretfully laid the pipe aside.
"_Nu_, Mynheer Gross, what troops will you need?" he asked in a
business-like manner. "I have one thousand men here in Java that you may
have if you need them. For the sea there is the gun-boat, _Prins
Lodewyk_, and the cutter, _Katrina_, both of which I place at your
disposal."
"I do not need a thousand men, your excellency," Peter Gross replied
quietly.
"Ha! I thought not!" the governor exclaimed with satisfaction. "An army
is useless in the jungle. Let them keep their crack troops in the
Netherlands and give me a few hundred irregulars who know the cane and
can bivouac in the trees if they have to. Your Amsterdammer looks well
enough on parade, but his skin is too thin for our mosquitoes. But that
is beside the question. Would five hundred men be enough, Mynheer Gross?
We have a garrison of fifty at Bulungan."
Peter Gross frowned reflectively at the table-top.
"I would not need five hundred men, your excellency," he announced.
The governor's smile broadened. "You know more about jungle warfare
than I gave you credit for, Mynheer Gross," he complimented. "But I
should have known that the rescuer of Lieutenant de Koren was no novice.
Only this morning I remarked to General Vanden Bosch that a capable
commander and three hundred experienced bush-fighters are enough to
drive the last pirate out of Bulungan and teach our Dyaks to cultivate
their long-neglected plantations. What say you to three hundred of our
best colonials, _mynheer_?"
"I will not need three hundred men, your excellency," Peter Gross
declared.
Van Schouten leaned back in surprise.
"Well, Mynheer Gross, how large a force will you need?"
Peter Gross's long, ungainly form settled lower in his chair. His legs
crossed and his chin sagged into the palm of his right hand. The fingers
pulled gently at his cheeks. After a moment's contemplation he looked up
to meet the governor's inquiring glance and remarked:
"Your excellency, I shall need about twenty-five men."
Van Schouten stared at him in astonishment.
"Twenty-five men, Mynheer Gross!" he exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
"Twenty-five men, men like I have in mind, will be all I will need, your
excellency," Peter Gross assured gravely.
Van Schouten edged his chair nearer. "Mynheer Gross, do you understand
me correctly?" he asked doubtfully. "I would make you resident of
Bulungan. I would give you supreme authority in the province. The
commandant, Captain Van Slyck, would be subject to your orders. You will
be answerable only to me."
"Under no other conditions would I accept your excellency's
appointment," Peter Gross declared.
"But, Mynheer Gross, what can twenty-five do? Bulungan has more than one
hundred thousand inhabitants, few of whom have ever paid a picul of rice
or kilo of coffee as tax to the crown. On the coast there are the
Chinese pirates, the Bugi outlaws from Macassar and their traitorous
allies, the coast Dyaks of Bulungan, of Tidoeng, and Pasir, ay, as far
north as Sarawak, for those British keep their house in no better order
than we do ours. In the interior we have the hill Dyaks, the worst
thieves and cut-throats of them all. But these things you know. I ask
you again, what can twenty-five do against so many?"
"With good fortune, bring peace to Bulungan," Peter Gross replied
confidently.
The governor leaned aggressively across the table and asked the one-word
pointed question:
"How?"
Peter Gross uncrossed his legs and tugged gravely at his chin.
"Your excellency," he said, "I have a plan, not fully developed as yet,
but a plan. As your excellency well knows, there are two nations of
Dyaks in the province. There are the hillmen--"
"Damned thieving, murdering, head-hunting scoundrels!" the governor
growled savagely.
"So your excellency has been informed. But I believe that much of the
evil that is said of them is untrue. They are savages, wilder savages
than the coast Dyaks, and less acquainted with _blanken_ (white men).
Many of them are head-hunters. But they have suffered cruelly from the
coast Dyaks, with whom, as your excellency has said, they have an
eternal feud."
"They are pests," the governor snarled. "They keep the lowlands in a
continual turmoil with their raids. We cannot grow a blade of rice on
account of them."
"That is where your excellency and I must disagree," Peter Gross
asserted quietly.
"Ha!" the governor exclaimed incredulously. "What do you say, Mynheer
Gross?"
"Your excellency, living in Batavia, you have seen only one side of this
question, the side your underlings have shown you. With your
excellency's permission I shall show you another side, the side a
stranger, unprejudiced, with no axes to grind either way, saw in his
eight years of sailoring about these islands. Have I your excellency's
permission?"
A frown gathered on the governor's face. His thin lips curled, and his
bristly mane rose belligerently.
"Proceed," he snapped.
Peter Gross rested his elbows on the table and leaned toward the
governor.
"Your excellency," he began, "let it be understood that I bring no
accusations to-night; that we are speaking as man to man. I go to
Bulungan to inquire into the truth of the things I have heard. Whatever
I learn shall be faithfully reported to your excellency."
Van Schouten nodded curtly.
"Your excellency has spoken of the unrest in Bulungan," Peter Gross
continued. "Your excellency also spoke of piracies committed in these
seas. It is my belief, your excellency, that the government has been
mistaken in assuming that there is no connection between the two. I am
satisfied that there is a far closer union and a better understanding
between the Dyaks and the pirates than has ever been dreamed of here in
Batavia."
The governor smiled derisively.
"You are mistaken, Mynheer Gross," he contradicted. "I almost believed
so, too, at one time, and I had Captain Van Slyck, our commandant at
Bulungan, investigate for me. I have his report here. I shall be glad to
let you read it."
He tapped a gong. In a moment Sachsen bustled in.
"Sachsen," the governor said, "Kapitein Van Slyck's report on the
pirates of the straits, if you please."
Sachsen bowed and withdrew.
"I shall be glad to read the captain's report," Peter Gross assured
gravely. A grimly humorous twinkle lurked in his eyes. The governor was
quick to note it.
"But it will not convince you, eh, _mynheer_?" he challenged. He smiled.
"You Yankees are an obstinate breed--almost as stubborn as we Dutch."
"I am afraid that the captain's report will not cover things I know,"
Peter Gross replied. "Yet I have no doubt it will be helpful."
The subtle irony his voice expressed caused the governor to look at him
quizzically, but Van Schouten was restrained from further inquiry by the
return of Sachsen with the report. The governor glanced at the
superscription and handed the document to Peter Gross with the remark:
"Read that at your leisure. I will have Sachsen make you a copy."
Peter Gross pocketed the report with a murmured word of thanks. The
governor frowned, trying to recollect where the thread of conversation
had been broken, and then remarked:
"As I say, Mynheer Gross, I am sure you will find yourself mistaken. The
Dyaks are thieves and head-hunters, a treacherous breed. They do not
know the meaning of loyalty--God help us if they did! No two villages
have ever yet worked together for a common aim. As for the pirates, they
are wolves that prey on everything that comes in their path. Some of the
_orang kayas_ may be friendly with them, but as for there being any
organization--bah! it is too ridiculous to even discuss it."
Peter Gross's lips pressed a little tighter.
"Your excellency," he replied with perfect equanimity, "you have your
opinion and I have mine. My work in Bulungan, I hope, will show which
of us is right. Yet I venture to say this. Before I have left Bulungan I
shall be able to prove to your excellency that one man, not so very far
from your excellency's _paleis_ at this moment, has united the majority
of the sea Dyaks and the pirates into a formidable league of which he is
the head. More than this, he has established a system of espionage which
reaches into this very house."
Van Schouten stared at Peter Gross in amazement and incredulity.
"Mynheer Gross," he finally exclaimed, "this is nonsense!"
Peter Gross's eyes flashed. "Your excellency," he retorted, "it is the
truth."
"What proofs have you?" the governor demanded.
"None at present that could convince your excellency," Peter Gross
admitted frankly. "All I have is a cumulative series of instances,
unrelated in themselves, scraps of conversations picked up here and
there, little things that have come under my observation in my sojourns
in many ports of the archipelago. But in Bulungan I expect to get the
proofs. When I have them, I shall give them to your excellency, that
justice may be done. Until then I make no charges. All I say is--guard
carefully what you would not have your enemies know."
"This is extraordinary," the governor remarked, impressed by Peter
Gross's intense earnestness. "Surely you do not expect me to believe all
this on your unsupported word, _mynheer_?"
"The best corroboration which I can offer is that certain matters which
your excellency thought were known only to himself are now common gossip
from Batavia to New Guinea," Peter Gross replied.
The governor's head drooped. His face became drawn. Lines formed where
none had been before. The jauntiness, the pompous self-assurance, and
the truculence that so distinguished him among his fellows disappeared
from his mien; it was as though years of anxiety and care had suddenly
passed over him.
"This discussion brings us nowhere, Mynheer Gross," he wearily remarked.
"Let us decide how large a force you should have. What you have told me
convinces me the more that you will need at least two hundred men. I
hesitate to send you with less than a regiment."
"Let me deal with this situation in my own way, your excellency," Peter
Gross pleaded. "I believe that just dealing will win the confidence of
the upland Dyaks. Once that is done, the rest is easy. Twenty-five men,
backed by the garrison at Bulungan and the hill Dyaks, will be able to
break up the pirate bands, if the navy does its share. After that the
problem is one of administration, to convince the coast Dyaks that the
state is fair, that the state is just, and that the state's first
thought is the welfare of her people, be they brown, black, or white."
"You think twenty-five men can do all that?" the governor asked
doubtfully.
"The men I shall choose can, your excellency. They will be men whom I
can trust absolutely, who have no interests except the service of Peter
Gross."
"Where will you find them, _mynheer_?"
"Here in Java, your excellency. Americans. Sailors who have left the
sea. Men who came here to make their fortunes and failed and are too
proud to go back home. Soldiers from the Philippines, adventurers, lads
disappointed in love. I could name you a dozen such here in Batavia
now."
The governor looked at his new lieutenant long and thoughtfully.
"Do as you deem best, _mynheer_. It may be God has sent you here to
teach us why we have failed. Is there anything else you need, besides
the usual stores?"
"There is one more request I wish to make of your excellency," Peter
Gross replied.
"And that is--"
"That your excellency cancel the reward offered for the arrest of
Leveque's daughter."
Van Schouten stroked his brow with a gesture of infinite weariness.
"You make strange requests, _mynheer_," he observed. "Yet I am moved to
trust you. What you ask shall be done."
He rose to signify that the interview was at an end. "You may make your
requisitions through Sachsen, _mynheer_. God speed you and give you
wisdom beyond your years."