In the middle of the night a native Malay youth named Babu arrived at the village and demanded an interview with the chief.

That worthy, after the interview, conducted the youth to the hut where his visitors lived, and, rousing Van der Kemp without disturbing the others, bade him listen to what the young man had to say.

An expression of great anxiety overspread the hermit's usually placid countenance while Babu was speaking.
"It is fate!" he murmured, as if communing with himself--then, after a pause--"no, there is no such thing as fate.

It is, it must be, the will of God.

Go, young man, mention this to no one.