STORY OF VANDA SANDERIANA 75 



and the smell were past bearing. Roebelin took his arms 

 and strolled out till supper was ready. 



I do not know what he discovered. On returning he 

 found a serious palaver, the savages arguing coolly, the 

 Chinamen raving. Sam Choon rushed up, begging him to 

 act as umpire ; and whilst eating his supper Roebelin learned 

 the question in dispute. Sam Choon, as we know, had debts 

 to collect in this village, for cloth and European goods, to 

 be paid in jungle produce — honey, wax, gums, and so forth. 

 The Subanos did not deny their liability — the natural man is 

 absolutely truthful and honest. Nor did they assert that 

 they could not pay. Their contention was simply that the 

 merchandise had been charged at a figure beyond the market 

 rate. Another Chinaman had paid them a visit, and sold 

 the same wares at a lower price. They proposed to return 

 Sam Choon's goods unused, and to pay for anything they 

 could not restore on this reduced scale. It was perfectly 

 just in the abstract, and the natural man does not conceive 

 any other sort of justice. Sam Choon could not dispute that 

 his rival's cloth was equally good ; it bore the same trade- 

 mark, and those keen eyes were as well able to judge of 

 quality as his own. But the trader everywhere has his own 

 code of morals. Those articles for which the Subanos were 

 indebted had been examined, and the price had been discussed, 

 at leisure ; an honest man cannot break his word. Such 

 diverse views were not to be reconciled. Roebelin took a 

 practical course. He asked whether it could possibly be 

 worth while to quarrel with these customers for the sake of 

 a very few dollars ^ At the lower rate there would be a 

 profit of many hundreds per cent. But the Chinaman, 

 threatened with a loss in business, is not to be moved, for a 

 while at least, by demonstrations of prudence. 



Meantime the dispute still raged at the Council fire, for 

 the crew also were interested. Suddenly there was a roar. 



