Lord Jim

Brown hopes to delay until Jim gets back, thinking Jim will be the best person to work with. He plans to work with Jim for a while, believing Jim must be clever to have gotten so far—but ultimately, Brown hopes to stab Jim in the back. In the meantime, however, he needs Kassim to remain unaware.

At one point, to show the power of himself and his men, Brown asks his second-in-command to shoot a random Malay villager dead from a great distance. Brown wants to inspire terror in the Malay because he knows they outnumber his forces 200 to one.

Kassim goes back to Dain Waris and warns him that Brown’s warship is coming up the river, but he downplays its power and says the Bugis should prepare to oppose it. People of the village sense that there will soon be bloodshed. Rajah Allang is in a constant state of fear and indecision, but old Doramin remains steady.

One of Brown’s men remembers that there is some tobacco left in their longboat and asks if it’s OK to go back and get it at night. Brown allows it. The man returns successfully, but suddenly there’s a flash, and the man says he’s been hit. More rifles sound as Brown’s men fire back. A voice calls out telling everyone to stop firing.

With Cornelius translating, Brown confirms that he hears the voice telling them to stop. The voice says there will be no peace for Brown and his men. He says he is a Bugis who was related to the man Brown randomly murdered earlier. This Bugis undertook a lot of danger to give this message to Brown, but he manages to get away unharmed. The wounded man continues to shout, but Brown refuses to help him.

Eventually the wounded man dies. There’s a sound from the nearby village, and Brown asks Cornelius what’s happened. Cornelius says Jim must be back and that he’ll come talk to Cornelius. Cornelius says that Jim isn’t afraid of anything, meaning it will be easy for Brown to kill him and frighten the villagers.