t Dullah looked very serious;
but as soon as his aide and companion interpreted to him the words, he
smiled and seemed perfectly satisfied, always greeting the young
midshipman with a display of his white teeth, for he considered his
comparison to a fighting-cock, of which birds the Malays are
passionately fond, quite a compliment.

The result was that for a small sum Bob was always sure of a choice
durian, which he feasted upon with great gusto, while Tom Long came and
treated himself to mangosteens.

Dullah always behaved to the young ensign with the greatest politeness,
that young gentleman returning it with a sort of courteous condescension
which said plainly enough that Dullah was to consider himself a being of
an inferior race.

But Dullah accepted it all in the calmest manner, smilingly removing the
malodorous durians which Bob maliciously contrived to place near the
seat Tom Long always occupied, and waiting upon the ensign as if he were
a grandee of the first water.

And here, as a matter of course, the subject of the approaching
tiger-hunt was discussed, Dullah, by means of his companion, becoming
quite animated about the matter, and enlarging as to the number and
beauty of the tigers that would be shot.

Both Tom Long and the middy were having a fruit feast one day, when Ali,
who had been off to the steamer, and then came on to the island, made
his appearance in search of his two friends, Dullah quietly disappearing
into the back of his hut, to attend to some of the sailors who had come
in, while his companion waited upon the young officers.

Of course the tiger-hunt was the principal subject of discussion, and
Ali promised to arrange to have one of the largest of the sultan's
elephants fitted with a roomy howdah, so that they three could be
together.

"I can manage that," he said, "through my father, and we'll have a grand
day."

"But shall we get any tigers?" asked Bob.

"No fear of that," was the reply. "I'll contrive that we shall be in
the best part of the hunt."

"That will be close to the sultan, of course?"

Ali's dark eyes were raised inquiringly to the speaker's face, but
seeing that this was not meant sarcastically, he said drily,--"No; I
shall arrange to be as far away from the sultan's elephant as I can."

Bob looked at him keenly.

"What, isn't he fond of tigers?" he said sharply.

"My father is the sultan's officer, and greatly in his confidence," said
the young man quietly.