ENTY NINE.

HOW ALI FELL INTO A TRAP.

They were very delightful days at the residency for the English party.
The heat was certainly great, but the arrangements made as soon as they
were settled down, warded that off to a great extent. The men enjoyed
the life most thoroughly, especially as for sanitary reasons Doctor
Bolter forbade that either the soldiers or the Jacks should be exposed
to too much exertion.

The days were days of unclouded sunshine as a rule, and when this rule
was broken, the change was to a heavy thunder-storm, with a refreshing
rain, and then the skies were once more blue.

Fruit and flowers, and various other supplies, were brought now in
abundance, especially since Dullah had been allowed to set up a trading
station at the island. He monopolised the whole business, the various
boats that came rowing straight to him; but he did it all in so pleasant
a manner, that no one could complain. To the English people he was
suavity itself. His courtesy--his gentlemanly bearing was the talk of
the whole place; and regularly every morning one of his Malay slaves or
bond-servants used to carry up and lay in the residency verandah a large
bunch of deliciously fresh orchids, or pitcher-plants, or a great branch
of some sweet-scented flowering shrub, for which he always received the
ladies' thanks in a calm, courteous way that quite won their confidence.

Dullah's reed hut, with its bamboo-supported verandah, became quite a
favourite resort, and he very soon provided it with a frontage each way.
In the one verandah he arranged to supply the resident, the ladies, and
officers; and in the other the soldiers and sailors, and received his
supplies from the boats.

Sometimes the ladies walked down to buy fruit, sometimes it was the
officers; but the two best customers were Tom Long and Bob Roberts, the
former spending a great deal in flowers, to send to the residency--a
very bad investment by the way--for the rapid rate at which they faded
was astounding. Once his duty--as he called it--done, in sending a
bunch of flowers, Tom Long used to indulge himself with fruit.

Bob Roberts had given up sending flowers, so he had more money to spend
upon his noble self in fruit, and he spent it where he was pretty well
sure to encounter Tom Long, whenever he could get leave to run across to
the island.

Bob's way of addressing Dullah was neither refined nor polite, for it
was always, "Hallo, old cock," and at firs