"Well, I only wish there were more on board of your opinion, for that would give more chances to us who like to stretch our legs ashore for a change." "I can stretch my legs here if I want to," the Scotchman said quietly, "and am not anxious to do more.

I suppose, if there are expeditions against the Malays, I shall have to go with them; but the fewer of them there are the better I shall be pleased." The talk was more serious aft, where the doctor and first lieutenant were dining with the captain.

It ended by the latter saying, "Well, Doctor, if what your friend Hassan said be true, we are likely enough to have our hands pretty full, and shall have to watch this fellow Sehi as sharply as we do his neighbors.

He is not under our protection yet, and if he sends his prahus down the river to plunder on the coast, as Hassan says, he is not the sort of character likely to do us credit, and the position of a British Resident with him would be the reverse of a pleasant one.

However, we must hope that he is not as black as he is painted.