The chief looked at his friend in surprise.  “Well,” he said, “you have a good judgment, and understand your own affairs.  But you have already rendered me good service, and I will help you to fly—­though such is not the habit of the Dyaks!  There is a trader’s vessel to start for Sumatra by the first light of day.  Will my friend go by that?”

“I am grateful,” answered the hermit, “but I need no help—­save some provisions, for I have my little canoe, which will suffice.”

As this colloquy was conducted in the native tongue it was unintelligible to Nigel, but after the interview with the chief the hermit explained matters to him, and bade Moses get ready for a start several hours before dawn.

“You see we must do the first part of our trip in the dark, for Baderoon has a keen eye and ear.  Then we will land and sleep all day where the sharpest eye will fail to find us—­and, luckily, pirates have been denied the power of scenting out their foes.  When night comes we will start again and get out of sight of land before the next dawn.”

“Mine frond,” said the professor, turning his moon-like goggles full on the hermit.  “I vill go viz you.”

“I should be only too happy to have your company,” returned the hermit, “but my canoe cannot by any contrivance be made to hold more than three.”

“Zat is no matter to me,” rejoined Verkimier; “you forget zee trader’s boat.  I vill go in zat to Sumatra.  Ve vill find out zee port he is going to, ant you vill meet me zere.  Vait for me if I have not arrived—­or I vill vait for you.  I have longed to visit Sumatra, ant vat better fronds could I go viz zan yourselfs?”

“But, my good friend,” returned the hermit, “my movements may not exactly suit yours.  Here they are,—­you can judge for yourself.  First I will, God permitting, cross over to Sumatra in my canoe.”

“But it is t’ree hoondert miles across, if not more!”

“No matter—­there are plenty of islands on the way.  Besides, some passing vessel will give me a lift, no doubt.  Then I will coast along to one of the eastern ports, where I know there is a steamboat loading up about this time.  The captain is an old friend of mine.  He brought me and my companions the greater part of the way here.  If I find him I will ask him to carry my canoe on his return voyage through Sunda Straits, and leave it with another friend of mine at Telok Betong on the south coast of Sumatra—­not far, as you know, from my home in Krakatoa.  Then I will proceed overland to the same place, so that my friend Nigel Roy may see a little of the country.”

“Ant vat if you do not find your frond zee captain of zee steamer?”

“Why, then I shall have to adopt some other plan.  It is the uncertainty of my movements that makes me think you should not depend on them.”

“Zat is not’ing to me, Van der Kemp; you joost go as you say.  I vill follow ant take my chance.  I am use’ to ooncertainties ant difficoolties.  Zey can not influence me.”