Harry and his two companions took their seats in it,
rowed off to the brig.

"Welcome back, Lindsay!" Fairclough shouted, as the canoe
approached; "we could hardly believe our eyes, when we saw you come
down to the canoe. We have been in a terrible fright about you. The
natives brought off news that the escort that had been sent down to
take you to Johore were, every one, killed; and that, as there were
no signs of any of your party, it was certain that you had been
carried off. We sent a boat ashore, every morning, armed to the
teeth; but they reported that the place was almost entirely
deserted, and the two or three men left there said that no news,
whatever, had been received of you."

By this time, Harry had gained the deck.

"Where is your escort?" Fairclough asked.

"I am sorry to say that they were all murdered. However, my story
is a long one and, although the rajah sent down some food with the
escort he gave me, I am desperately thirsty, and will tell you all
that happened when I have wetted my whistle."

Fairclough told Hardy to come with them below, and Harry's story
was told in full, over sundry cups of tea, which Harry preferred to
stronger beverages.

"That was an adventure, indeed," Fairclough said, when Harry had
brought his story to an end. "I would have given anything to have
been with you in that siege. I own I should not have cared about
being a prisoner in that fellow's camp, especially as you were
disarmed, and could not even make a fight for it. That affair with
the leopard would have been more to my taste; though, if I had been
in your place, with nothing but your knife and Abdool's, I doubt
whether I should have come out of it as well as you did; but the
other business was splendid, and those Malays of the rajah's must
have fought well, indeed, to beat off a force six times their own
strength."

"The great point is that I have obtained his ratification of the
tumangong's grant, whenever it may be made."

"That is satisfactory, of course; but it would not have, to my
mind, anything like the importance of your series of adventures,
which will be something to think over all your life. I wish I had
been there, with my crew, to have backed you up; though I am afraid
that most of them would have shared the fate of your Malay escort,
in that sudden attack in the forest."

"Yes; with all their pluck, they could scarcely have repulsed such
a sudden onslaught though, certainly, the killing wo