"I should not be able to order those who offended me to be punished." "Not at all," the captain replied quietly.

"Your powers as a ruler would not be interfered with in any way, as long as they were properly exercised.

You would have the power of executing ill doers in accordance with the custom of your country; but the murder of a person who had committed no crime whatever is not to be permitted, and anything like wholesale cruelty and tyranny would be sternly repressed." For some time the rajah sat without speaking; then he said, with an evident effort of self control, "I must think all this over; it is all new to me." "By all means do so," the captain replied.

"The matter is an important one, and you will do well to consider it in all lights before you take a step that, once taken, cannot be undone." "I don't like the fellow's looks, Doctor," the captain said; "he intended to use us as a cat's paw against his neighbors." "I think that he is a thoroughly bad lot, sir; and if he accepted the terms, I should be very sorry to be appointed Resident, for I should not feel that my life was worth a day's purchase." "Well, there is nothing to do but to wait until we get a definite answer from him; and my instructions are that, if I find that he is not a desirable man to have to deal with, I am to enter into negotiations with other rajahs, and to endeavor to do something to open the trade of the river and to render it safe for merchants who come up to trade.

If Hassan's account of this man's doings is correct, he is the main cause of the falling off in the trade, and, moreover, the author of the piracies of which we have had so many complaints; indeed, it is possible that when the Governor learns the true state of things, I may get an order to present an ultimatum to this fellow and to sink his piratical craft.