en, I hope I have done right."

"And what are you going to do now?" said Captain Horton.

"Wait to see our adversary's next move. Meanwhile, gentlemen, extra
caution will do no harm, for we have touched the Malays in one of their
most sensitive places."

"We? You mean those young scamps of boys," said Captain Horton.

"Oh, it's _we_ all the same," said Major Sandars. "Well, what's to be
done?"

"I should, without seeming to do anything, put on a few extra sentries,
Major Sandars," said the resident; "and, Captain Horton, I should be
ready for action at a moment's notice, and be cautious about who came on
board, and what prahus anchored near."

"Quite right--quite right, Linton," said Captain Horton. "You had no
business to be a civilian. You ought to have been in the service."

The resident smiled, and they separated, as Mr Linton said, to wait for
the enemy's next move.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

HOW SULTAN HAMET VISITED HIS FRIENDS.

The enemy, as the resident termed the sultan's party, made no move for a
couple of days, during which all went on as usual. There was the usual
morning parade in the fort, and the soldiers gardened, idled, smoked,
and told one another it was "jolly hot"--a fact that needed no telling.
On board the "Startler" the men were beat to quarters, and went through
their drill in the cool of the morning, before hammock rails, the
sentries' rifles, and the breeches of the glistening guns grew too hot
to be touched with impunity. So hot was it, that, like the burnt child
who fears the fire, Bob Roberts was exceedingly cautious about placing
his hands in any spot where they were likely to be defiled by the pitch
that cannot be touched without those consequences; for from between
seams, and the strands of well-laid cables, it oozed, and even bubbled
out, beneath the ardent wooing of the tropic sun.

It was a listless life, but a pleasant one, for such strict discipline
was observed, and stringent rules laid down by the medical officer of
the corvette and the detachment, that the men kept in excellent health.
They had plenty of amusements; fruit was abundant, and they had taken
quite a taste for the coarse country tobacco, which many of the soldiers
smoked after the Malay fashion, rolled up a la cigarette in the roko, or
outer sheath of the palm leaf or the plantain. Some, too, adopted the
Malay's plan of rapidly cutting a pipe from a short joint of bamboo,
which, with a hole bored