Léonie kept her bed for a couple of days with nervous fever. People at
Labuwangi said that the residency was haunted. At the weekly assemblies
in the Municipal Garden, when the band played and the children and the
young people danced on the open-air stone floor, there were whispered
conversations around the refreshment-tables touching the strange
happenings in the residency. Dr. Rantzow was asked many questions,
but could only tell what the resident had told him, what Mrs. van
Oudijck herself had told him, of her being frightened in the bathroom
by an enormous toad, on which she had trodden and stumbled. There
was more known through the servants, however; though, when one
spoke of the throwing of stones and the spitting of betel-juice,
another laughed and called it all babu-talk. And so uncertainty
prevailed. Nevertheless, the papers throughout the country, from
Surabaya to Batavia, contained curious, hinting paragraphs, which
were not very lucid but which suggested a good deal.
Van Oudijck himself discussed the matter with nobody, neither with his
wife and children nor with the officials or the servants. But on one
occasion he came out of the bathroom looking deathly pale, with eyes
staring wildly. He went indoors quietly, however, and pulled himself
together; and no one noticed anything. Then he spoke to the chief of
police. There was an old graveyard next to the residency-grounds. This
was now watched day and night; also the outer wall of the bathroom. The
bathroom itself was no longer used; they took their baths instead in
the visitors' bathroom.
As soon as Mrs. van Oudijck had recovered, she went to stay with
friends at Surabaya. She did not return. She had gradually, and
unostentatiously, without a word to Van Oudijck, made Oorip pack up her
clothes and all sorts of knick-nacks to which she was attached. Trunk
upon trunk was sent after her. When Van Oudijck happened to go to her
bedroom one day, he found it empty of all but the furniture. Numberless
things had disappeared also from her boudoir. He had not observed
the dispatch of the trunks, but he now understood that she would
not return. He cancelled his next reception. It was December; and
René and Ricus were to come from Batavia for the Christmas holidays,
for a week or ten days; but he cancelled the boys' visit. Then Doddie
was invited to stay at Patjaram, with the De Luce family. Although,
with the instinct of a full-blooded Hollander, he did not like the De
Luces, he consented. They were fond of Doddie there: she would have a
better time than at Labuwangi. He had given up his idea, the hope that
Doddie would not become Indianized. Suddenly, Theo also went away:
through Léonie's influence with commercial magnates at Surabaya,
he obtained a well-paid berth in an export-and-import business.
Van Oudijck was left all alone in his big house. As the cook and the
butler had run away, Eldersma and Eva constantly asked him to meals,
both to lunch and dinner. He never mentioned his house at their table
and it was never discussed. What he discussed confidentially with
Eldersma, as secretary, and with Van Helderen, as controller, these two
never mentioned, treating it all as an official secret. The chief of
police, who had been accustomed daily to make his brief report--that
nothing particular had happened, or that there had been a fire, or
that a man had been wounded--now made long, secret reports, with the
doors of the office locked, to prevent the messengers outside from
listening. Gradually all the servants ran away, departing stealthily
in the night, with their families and their household belongings,
leaving their huts in the compound empty and dirty. They did not even
stay in the residency. Van Oudijck let them go. He kept only Kario
and the messengers; and the prisoners tended the garden daily. Thus
the house remained apparently unaltered, outside. But, inside, where
nothing was looked after, the dust lay thick on the furniture, white
ants devoured the mats, mildew and patches of moisture came through
the walls. The resident never went about the house, occupying only his
bedroom and his office. His face began to wear a look of gloom, like
a bitter, silent doubt. He worked more conscientiously than ever and
stimulated his subordinates more actively, as though he were thinking
of nothing but the interests of Labuwangi. In his isolated position,
he had no friend and sought none. He bore everything alone, on his
own shoulders, on his own back, which grew bent with approaching age:
the heavy burden of his house, which was being destroyed, and of his
family life, which was breaking up amid the strange happenings that
escaped his police, his watchmen, his personal vigilance and his
secret spies. He discovered nothing. Nobody told him anything. No
one threw any light on anything.
And the strange happenings continued. A mirror was smashed by a
great stone. Calmly he had the pieces cleared away. It was not his
nature to believe in the supernatural character of possibilities;
and he did not believe in it. He was secretly enraged at being unable
to discover the culprits and an explanation of the events. But he
refused to believe. He did not believe when he found his bed soiled
and Kario, squatting at his feet, swore that he did not know how it
had happened. He did not believe when the tumbler which he lifted
broke into shivers. He did not believe when he heard a constant,
irritating hammering overhead. But his bed was soiled, his glass did
break, the hammering was a fact. He investigated all these facts,
as punctiliously as though he were investigating a criminal case,
and nothing came to light. He remained unperturbed in his relations
with his European and native officials and with the regent. No one
remarked anything in his behaviour; and in the evenings he worked on,
defiantly, at his writing-table, while the hammering continued and
the night fell softly in the garden, as by enchantment.
On the steps outside, the messengers crept together, listening and
whispering, glancing round timorously at their master who sat writing,
with a frown of concentration on his brows:
"Doesn't he hear it?"
"Yes, yes, he's not deaf."
"He must hear it."
"He thinks he can find it out through detectives."
"There are soldiers coming from Ngadjiwa."
"From Ngadjiwa!"
"Yes, he does not trust the detectives. He has written to the major
sahib."
"To send soldiers?"
"Yes, there are soldiers coming."
"Look at him frowning."
"And he just goes on working!"
"I'm frightened. I should never dare to stay, if I hadn't got to."
"I'm not afraid to stay, as long as he's there."
"Yes ... he's brave."
"He's plucky."
"He's a brave man."
"But he doesn't understand it."
"No, he doesn't know what it is."
"He thinks it's rats."
"Yes, he has had a search made for rats upstairs, under the roof."
"These Hollanders don't know things."
"No, they don't understand."
"He smokes a lot."
"Yes, quite twelve cigars a day."
"He doesn't drink much."
"No ... only his whisky-and-soda of an evening."
"He'll ask for it presently."
"No one has stayed with him."
"No. The others understood. They've all left."
"He goes to bed very late."
"Yes, he's working hard."
"He never sleeps at night, only in the afternoon."
"Look at him frowning."
"He never stops working."
"Messenger!"
"He's calling."
"Yes, excellency?"
"Bring whisky-and-soda."
One of the messengers rose, to fetch the drink. He had everything
ready to hand, in the visitors' wing, to avoid having to go through the
house. The others pressed closer together and went on whispering. The
moon pierced the clouds and lit up the garden and the pond as with a
humid vapour of silent enchantment. The messenger had mixed the drink;
he returned, squatted and offered it to the resident.
"Put it down," said Van Oudijck.
The messenger stood the tumbler on the writing-table and crept
away. The other messengers whispered together.
"Messenger!" cried Van Oudijck.
"Excellency."
"What have you put in this glass?"
The man trembled and shrank away at Van Oudijck's feet:
"Excellency, it's not poison; I swear it by my life, by my death;
I can't help it, excellency. Kick me, kill me: I can't help it,
excellency!"
The glass was a dull yellow.
"Fetch another tumbler and fill it before me."
The messenger went away, trembling.
The others sat close together, feeling the contact of one another's
bodies through the sweat-soaked cloth of their liveries, and stared
before them in dismay. The moon rose from its clouds, laughing and
mocking like a wicked fairy; its moist and silent enchantment shone
silver over the wide garden. In the distance, from the garden at the
back, a plaintive cry rang out, as though a child were being throttled.