The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1890-11-27
AMID HAMMERED ORIENTAL

i
the case, it was the only thing that he
could do. But Pambe Serang had been
hanged by, the neck till he is dead, and
nobody cares whether he was right OF
wrong
Three years ago, when the Elsass-Lo
| thrngen steamer Saarbruck was coaling
| at Alden, and the weather was very hot
indeed, Nurkeed, the big fat Zanzibar
stoker who fed the second right furnace
| 80 feet down in the hold, got leave to 60
ashore. He departed a "Seedee boy,
as they call the stokers; he returned the
| full blooded Sultan of Zanzibar-his
Highness Sayyid Burgash-with bottle
in each hand Then he sat on the fore
hatch grating eating salt fish and onions
| and singing the songs of a far country.
The food belonged to Pambe, the Sc
| rang, or head man of the Lascar sailors.
He had just cooked it for himself,
he came back Nurkeed's dirty black fin
gers were spading into the rice. "a Sc
rang is a person of importance, far above
a stoker, though the stoker draws better
| pay. He sets the chorus of "Hya!
HULA! Hee-ah Heh!" when the cap
tain's gig is pulled up to the davits; he
heaves the lead, too; and sometimes,
when all the ship is lazy, he puts ON his
whitest muslin and big red sash and
plays with the passengers, children on
the quarter deck. Then the passengers
give him money, and he saves it for an
orgie at Bombay, Calcutta, or Pulu Pc
nang.
"Ho! you fat black barrel, y ou're eat
ing my food!" said Pambe, in the Other
Lingua Franco. which begins where the
Levant tongue stops, and runs from Port
Said eastward till east is west and the
sealing brigs of the Kurile Islands gos-
sip with Hakodate junks.
"Son of Eblis monkey face, dried
sharks liver, pig man, I am the Sultan
Sayyid Burgash and the commander Of
all this ship. Take away your garbage,
and Nurkeed thrust the empty pewter
rice plate into Pambe's hand. Pambe
beat it into basin over Nurkeed's
woolly head. Nurkeed drew his sheath
knife and stabbed Pambe in the leg.
Pambe drew his sheath knife; but Muir
keed dropped down into the darkness of
the hold and spat through the grating at
Pambe, who was staining the foredeck
with his blood
Only the big white moon saw these
things; for the officers were looking
after the coaling and the passengers
were tossing in their close cabins "All
right, said Pambe-and went forward
to tie up his leg-"we will settle the ac-
count later. He was Malay, born in
India, married once in Burmah, where
his wife had cigar shop on the Shwe
Dagon road; once in Singapore to Chi
nese girl, and once in Madras, to Mo-
hammedan woman who sold fowls. The
English sailor can not, owing to postal
and telegraph facilities, marry so pro-
fusely as he used to do; but native sail
ors can, being uninfuenced by the bar
barous inventions of the Western saw
age. Pambe was good husband when
he happened to remember the existence
of wife; but he was also a very good
Malay, and it is not wise to offend a
Malay, because he does not forget any
thing. Moreover, in Pambe's case blood
had been drawn and food spoiled. Next
morning Nurkeed rose with a blank
mind He was no longer Sultan of Fan
zibar, but very hot stoker. So he went
on deck and opened his jacket to the
morning breeze, till sheath knife came
like flying fish and stuck into the wood
from his right armpit He ran down
below before his time, trying to remem-
Der what he could have said to the owner
of the weapon. AT noon, when all the
ships Lascars were feeding, Nurkeed
advanced into their midst, and being
placid man, with a large regard for his
ing: Men of the ship, last night was
drunk, and this morning know that I
behaved unseemly to some one OF an
other of you. Who was that man, that
may meet him face to face and say
that was drunk?"
Pambe measured the distance to MUIR
keed's naked breast If he sprang at
him., he might be tripped up, and blind
blow at the chest sometimes only means
n cash ON the breast bone. Ribs are
difficult to thrust between, unless the
subject is asleep So he said nothing,
nor did the other Lascars Their faces
dropped all expression, as
is the custom of the Oriental when there
is killing on the carpet or any chance of
trouble. Nurkeed looked long at the
white eyeballs. He was only an African
and could rot read characters. A big
sigh-almost a groan-broke from him
and he went back to the furnaces. The
Lascars took up the conversation where
he had interrupted it. They talked of
the best methods of cooking rice.
Nurkeed suffered considerably during
the run to Bombay from lack of fresh
air. He only came on deck to breathe
when all the world was about; and even
then heavy block once dropped from a
derrick within foot of his head, and
an apparently lsshed grating on which
he s t his foot began t. turn over with
the Intention of dropping him on the
cased cargo Is feet below; and one in
night the sheath knife
dropped from the fo'cs'le, aui this time
it drew blood. So Nurkeed made COM
plant; and, when the Saarbrucll reached
Bombay, fed and buried himself among
500, 600 people, and did not sign articles
till the ship had been month gone from
the port. Pambe waited too; but his
Bombay wife grew clamorous. and he
was forced to sign in the SpicIeren to
Hong Kong, because he realized that all
play and no work gives Jack ragged
shirt. In the foggy China Seas he
thought great deal of Nurkeed, and
when Elsass- Lothringen steamers lay in |
port with the Spicheren inquired after
him and found he had gone to England
via the Cape on the Gravelotte. Pambe
went to England on the Worth The
Spicheren met her by the More Light
Nurkeed was going out with her to the
Calicut coast.