?" said Ali, whom these mysteries of the English
tongue somewhat puzzled. "Do you mean what he has had to eat?"

"No, no;" said Bob, laughing. "I mean his heart."

"Show people his heart?" said Ali, thoughtfully. "Oh yes, I see; I
understand. You mean he is cold outside, and proud, and does not show
people what he really thinks--like a Malay?"

"Yes, that's what I mean," said Bob, smiling. "But that's like a Malay,
is it? They say one thing, and mean another, do they?"

"Yes," said Ali, gravely--"to their enemies--to the people who try to
cheat, and deceive them. To their real friends they are very true, and
full of faith. But it is time now that I should go."

"I say, though, stop a minute," said Bob sharply. "Are your people
really good friends to us?"

"Yes," said the visitor, "I hope so. I believe so. They are strange at
first, and do not like English ways, like I. Afterwards they will do
the same as I do. Good-bye."

"But about our shooting?" said Bob. "May I bring Tom Long?"

"I should like to know En-sign Long. He is very brave, is he not?"

"Pretty bobbish, I believe," said the middy.

"Is he bobbish, too, like you. Are you not Bob Bobbish?"

"No, no, I'm Bob Roberts," said the middy, laughing. "I mean, Tom Long
is as brave as most fellows."

There was a short consultation then as to time and place of meeting;
after which the young Malay passed over the side into his boat, rowed by
four followers, and was quickly pulled ashore.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

HOW THE SULTAN WAS PUT OFF WITH WORDS.

There was a good deal of communication now between the sultan and the
resident, and rumours began flying about that the former proposed paying
a visit to the residency; but the days glided by, and it did not take
place. The men who had been wounded were rapidly recovering; and after
several attempts to find the missing prahus, it was announced one
evening, in a quiet way, that there was to be another expedition down
the river, for information had been brought in by a Malay boatman, who
had been employed to act as a scout, that the two vessels were lying-up
in a creek on the left bank of the river. It would therefore be quite
easy for the steamer to float down stream off where they lay, and either
send in boats to the attack or to shatter them by sweeping the mangroves
with the steamer's great guns, for the prahus lay behind a thick grove
of these trees some twenty or thirty yards across, qui