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THE DRAGON TATOO
They were lucky because the one shop in the Kampong was owned by a very good towkay. His name was Lim Chee Long. It was never too late to knock at his door for an extra candle, or aspirins, or a bottle of kerosene. Usually he would still be working, the only one of his family still awake. Such a man ought to have been rewarded for all the help he gave to the people of Kampong Semut, and for being such a good, hard-working man. But that was not what happened. Far from it, trouble came to him, instead. One night, when at last the shop was locked up, and he was going to bed, there was a knock at his door. Without thought, or fear, he went to open the door. The men who pushed him aside and rushed in, had their faces covered with cloths. They had knives in their hands: knives which shone in the soft light of the candle. Chee Long was pushed up against the wall-a knife was pressed against his throat and a voice said, "Open up your safe, quickly, if you value what is left of your life, old man." "How can I?" said Chee Long. "The keys are upstairs. I have nothing down here to open it with." "Go and get them," said one of the men. He pushed Chee Long towards the stairs with the point of his knife. Poor Chee Long did not know what he could do. His poor wife was already asleep, upstairs. If she woke up and screamed out, the men might kill her. His children too, who were sleeping in the bed by the wall. His wife did wake up. She screamed and jumped out of her bed. The men hit her, and she fell to the floor. There was nothing that Chee Long could do to help her. He opened his safe, and the men took the money. Then they went. As soon as they had gone Chee Long ran upstairs. His children had slept through all of the trouble, and were safe. His wife lay on her bed, her eyes red with crying. He comforted her as best he could and then hurried off to call the police. Inspector Ali came back with him. "Have you seen any of the men before?" he said. "Their faces were covered with cloths," replied Chee Long. "I have no idea who they were." "I would know one of them ," broke in his wife. "When he came over to hit me I tore his shirt. He had a dragon tattooed on his chest. Is that any help to you?" "Indeed it is," answered the Inspector. "That is just the sort of thing that I hoped thay you would tell me." The next morning Inspector Ali visited the Tua Kampong to ask for his help. "I have been Tua Kampong for more that eight years now," said this good man, "and I have never known such a thing to happen in this village. Sometimes one man, who does not know any better, will take away a bucket or a broom that has been left out at night by a house. But never before have we had men like these who steal money and hurt people. This must never happen again. We must find them and punish them." "That is just what I am trying to do," answered the Inspector, "and I hope that you can help me." "What can I do?" asked the Tua Kampung. "I didn't see the men and I didn't hear them. I was asleep all the time. How can I help you?" "Tell me, have you ever seen a man with a dragon tattooed on his chest?" replied the Inspector. "Chee Long's wife noticed that one of the thieves had this, and it should help us to find him." The Tua Kampong looked uncomfortable. He dropped his eyes and would not answer the Inspector's question. "Come now," said that good policeman. "If you want the village to be safe for your children and your wife, if you want to sleep soundly at night, tell me what you know." "Well," came the answer, at last, slowly, and so quietly that the Inspector had to lean forward to hear it, "I do know of one such tattoo; but I am sorry to have to tell you about it, for I am sure that this boy did not break into Chee Long's house last night. He is a good boy, and I think of him more as a son than anything else. He is one of the men working for the timber company." "If he is a good boy, then he is quite safe with me," said the Inspector. "You must tell me his name," said the Inspector. He has nothing to worry about if he is innocent. "It is Rosland," said the Tua Kampong. "He lives up at the timber camp, about a mile away from here." Away went the Inspector at once, to question Rosland. "Come in. The door is not locked," called out Rosland. Then, when he saw the Inspector, he said, "Police! ..........What can I do to help you?" The Inspector gave him a steady look. Then he said, "I should be glad if you would come down the police station with me, to answer some questions about last night's robbery." Rosland's face fell. "Me? Answer questions about a robbery? I don't understand," he said. "Last night in the Kampong there was a robbery," the Inspector said. "Theives broke into the shop and hurt Chee Long 's wife. One of the men who did it had a dragon tattooed on his chest." Rosland's face grew white. "But I have a tattoo just like that," he said. "Look!" he opened his shirt and the Inspector could see it was true. "But I did not break into Chee Long's shop," went on Rosland. "He is like a father to me, always kind, and always helping me. I would do nothing to harm him. I would do everything I could to help them!" "Where were you last night?" questioned the Inspector. "Can you prove that that you were nowhere near the Kampong at about half past ten last night?" Rosland was quiet. "And what has happened to your hand?" went on the Inspector. Rosland held out his hand, and looked at it. "Oh! That! It's only a cut I got from my parang when I was working yesterday, out in the forest.' "Or did you get it from the knife you held against Chee Long's throat?" asked the Inspector grimly. "Come along with me Rosland. You have a lot of questions to answer, and the answers must be good ones." Rosland turned to his friend Karim, who was in the room with him. "Come with me," he siad, "You are my friend and you know that I would not hurt Chee Long, who is good to me. Please come with me, Karim." Karim nodded and the two men went down to the police boat, which was waiting in the river below. The journey to the police station was not a long one, but even so, Rosland and Karim never finished it. The boat struck a log, and in the excitement that followed, Rosland and Karim jumped overboard, swam under the water to the bank, and escaped. Once in the forest they were safe, for they knew their way through all its secret paths and hidden ways. At last the two men stopped running, and lay down under the bushes to rest. They fell asleep.................... When they woke up, Rosland turned to his friend and said, "We can't go back home, Karim. The police will be waiting for us. They will be quite sure that I am the man who hurt Chee Long, because of the cut on my hand, and because I ran away from them. But if I had gone to the police station with them, things would be no better. Not only have I a dragon tattooed on my chest, but I did not get home until after twelve o'clock last night." "That was late," said Karim. "What happened to you?" "I was out fishing," said Rosland. "The tide was just right, and I thought I would stay and try for a big one. I wasn't lucky, and when I stopped and came home, it was late." "What can we do?" asked Karim. "We can't hide from the police for ever. How can we prove that you did not break into Chee Long's house?" "I don't know," answered Rosland. "I wish I did." He sat still, saying nothing for a time, and, then suddenly has face brightened, and he turned to Karim. "There is only one man who could have done this thing. He would stop at nothing. He would steal from his friends or family. He would certainly steal from Chee Long. You know who that is, Karim." "Yes, I know," answered his friend. "You mean Mundim of Kampong Sega. But if Mundim really did steal the money how can we ever make the police believe that it was him?" Rosland though for a while. Then a smile, the first for a long time, came over his face. "Listen to me," he said. "You remember that pearl I bought from the trader who had just come from Sabah? Well, this is what we will do. Listen well, Karim. We must be sure that we make no mistakes.............." A few hours later Rosland and his friend walked into Kampong Sega. They went into the coffee shop there, and waited quietly. In a little while Mundim came in with some of his friends. "Come over here Mundim," called Rosland. "Come and see what I've got." He tool out the pearl and showed it to Mundim. "Where did you get it from?" asked one of Mundim's friends. "How much did it cost?" asked another. "There are plenty where that came from too!" Rosland went on. "The man must have twenty, at least," broke in Karim. "He had them in a case. There really must have been twenty. He kept the case locked, and hidden. But I saw where he put it!" "Where? Where did he put it? Who has got all those pearls?" asked Mundim. Karim smiled a little to himself. "Such a silly place. I would never have thought of looking there for it!" Mundim got up and stood over Rosland. His voice was very quiet and it was as cold as the blade of a knife. "Who has the pearls, and where are they kept?" he said. "Answer me now, Rosland. I am not a man to play games with." "He put them behind the water barrel," answered Rosland quickly. "It was old Chee Long. Someone broke into his shop last night, and stole his money. But they did not know that he had pearls, too. They left those behind." Mundim did not say anything more. He went across to a table in the shadows, at the back of the shop, and began talking to his friends. Rosland and Karim finished their drinks, and left the shop. They made their way as quickly as they could, back to the safety of the quiet jungle paths and the great trees. That evening, as darkness was falling, and all the women were busy cooking, a dark shadow slipped into Kampong Semut. It went to the back of Chee Long's shop. It disappeared. After that, other shadows came and went, and then all was quiet again. Then after a time, lamps were turned down, candles were blown out, all was peaceful; everyone was sleeping. All except Chee Long, his lamp was still burning, as it always did, while he worked on. Then the shadows came again. There were about seven of them this time, close together. They moved quickly. They made no sound. They went to Chee Long's door. Then came the sound of a knock. The door opened; light burst out from it, onto the shadows outside. They were shadows no longer. They were men whose heads were covered with cloths. They went forward. The door shut. For some minutes there was no sound: everything was as it had been at the back of the house. Still all was quiet. Then, suddenly, came the noise of shouting, of fighting, of things falling. Lights went on in the other houses. Children started crying, dogs barked, cocks began to crow. People camej out of their houses and looked across to Chee Long's shop. At last the door opened. First of all, out came Inspector Ali. Behind him came his policemen, and each one of them had a companion! Gone were the cloths that had covered the heads of the men who had knocked at Chee Long's door. Everybody could se who they were now. First of all came Mundim. He did not walk proudly, as was his usual way. His head was down; his eyes looked only at the ground. He did not swing his arms as he walked along. How could he? He was handcuffed to a policeman! The same was true of his friends. Rosland was standing with Karim, not far away. Inspector Ali went up to him, and held out his hand. "All's well that ends well!" he said as he shook the young man's hand. "Thank you for your help, Rosland. Without it we would never have caught these men. It was a first class story about the pearls, and Mundim believed every word of it! He had a gun with him, and he made Chee Long take him out to the water barrel, in the kitchen. He told the old man that he was going to shoot him, if he didn't hand over the pearls. It was then that we all jumped out of our hiding places, and the fight began. We have caught them in the act, and prison is going to be their home for a long time to come. Let's hope they will learn how to be better behaved while they are there!" Then Chee Long came forward and clapped Rosland on the back. "Thank you, my boy," he said. "But for your help I should have lost all that money. Inspector Ali has searched Mundim, and found it hidden in the belt he wears under his shirt. It is all there, quite safe. "I have got it all back. My savings are safe again." "But what about the dragon tattoo?" asked Rosland. What made them think that the thief had a tattoo?" "Oh! That's easy," answered the Inspector. "Look," and he pulled Mundim's shirt to one side. There was the dragon! Chee Long's wife had been right. Mundim had a tattoo, just like Rosland's. That night the lights stayed burning for a long, long time. Some of them were only put out when they were no longer needed, and dawn had sent away the darkness. Everybody was too excited to sleep. Everybody wanted to hear what had happened. It was a good night for Rosland. He was happier than he had ever been before. He was free. The police no longer suspected him; he had helped to put away a gang of men who would stop at nothing; and he had made a lot of new friends. When, at last, things were quieter, he turned to his friend and said, "Thank you, Karim. From now on, any good fortune that I have, will be yours too! I shall share it with you. Thank you for your help, good friend."
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