I shall rely much upon your report." Three days passed, and then a boat brought the messengers off to the ship.
"So you have made your journey safely ?" Harry said, through the interpreter.
"We met with no trouble by the way.

This is the answer that the rajah has sent." The letter was a satisfactory one.

The rajah expressed willingness to receive the officer whom the English lord had sent to him, and to guarantee his safety while at his town; but said that, owing to the troubled state of the country, he could not guarantee his safety on the road, but would send down an escort of twenty men to guard him on his way up, and the same on his return to the coast.
"And now," Harry said, when the interpreter had read the document, "tell me what passed." "When we said that we were messengers from an English lord, on board a ship with great guns, we were taken to the rajah's house.
He took the letter from us, and read it.

Then he asked some of those with him what they thought of the matter.

They answered that they could see no harm in it, and perhaps you might bring presents.
He then asked us how many would come up with you; and we told him four soldiers, as escort, and an interpreter.