ed home to England for me to come here directly. He couldn't
fetch me, you know. The ould one, as Tim calls him, wouldn't let him
go. You know him?"

"Yes."

"Well, they sent me out, and after they'd carried me on board, the
captain of the steamer told one of the passengers that it was a shame to
have sent me, for I should die before I was half-way out. It made me so
wild, that I squeaked out that he didn't know what he was talking about,
and he'd better mind his own business. And he didn't either, for I
began to get better directly, and the old skipper shook hands with me,
and was as pleased as could be, one day just before we got to Singapore;
for I had climbed up into the foretop and laughed at him, I'd got so
much stronger. Then I had to go up to Malacca, and there old Bang-gong
met me."

"Who?"

"Tumongong, and brought me up here, and now I'm as strong as you are."

"Yes, you look wonderfully brown and well."

"And you took me for a nigger! What a game!"

"Of course it was very stupid of me."

"Oh, I don't know. But, I say, I am glad you've come. You won't be
able to go away again, but that don't matter. It's a jolly place, and
you and I and old Tim will go shooting and fishing, and--I say--I shall
come with you and your uncle collecting specimens."

"I hope so," said Ned, who began to like his new acquaintance. "But
don't you feel as if you are a prisoner here?"

"No; not a bit. I go where I like. Old Jamjah knows I shan't run away
from my people."

"Jamjar?"

"That's only my fun. I call him the Rajah of Jamjah sometimes, because
he's such a beggar to eat sweets. He asks me sometimes to go and see
him, and then we have a jam feed. I'm pretty tidy that way, but he
beats me hollow. Perhaps he'll ask you some day, and if he takes to you
and likes you, he gives you all sorts of things, for he's tremendously
rich, and always getting more. He wants to find gold and emeralds and
rubies if he can, to make him richer, but none of his people have the
gumption to look in the right place."

"That's why he wants my uncle to go on expeditions then."

"To be sure it is; and if he finds a mine or two for the old boy, he'll
make Mr Murray a rich man."

Ned looked at him thoughtfully, while the boy chattered on.

"He gave me these silk things I've got on, and lots more. It pleases
him to wear 'em. Make some of my old form chaps laugh if they saw me, I
know; but they're very comfortable when