It would not do to let it be seen that they had any hand in introducing a new element into the social and political life of Sambir.
There was always a possibility of failure, and in that case Lingard's vengeance would be swift and certain.

No risk should be run.

They must wait.
Meantime he pervaded the settlement, squatting in the course of each day by many household fires, testing the public temper and public opinion--and always talking about his impending departure.
At night he would often take Lakamba's smallest canoe and depart silently to pay mysterious visits to his old chief on the other side of the river.

Omar lived in odour of sanctity under the wing of Patalolo.
Between the bamboo fence, enclosing the houses of the Rajah, and the wild forest, there was a banana plantation, and on its further edge stood two little houses built on low piles under a few precious fruit trees that grew on the banks of a clear brook, which, bubbling up behind the house, ran in its short and rapid course down to the big river.
Along the brook a narrow path led through the dense second growth of a neglected clearing to the banana plantation and to the houses in it which the Rajah had given for residence to Omar.

The Rajah was greatly impressed by Omar's ostentatious piety, by his oracular wisdom, by his many misfortunes, by the solemn fortitude with which he bore his affliction.