dy, merrily. "I think my
husband rules over the rajah."

"Only when he is ill, my dear, and he is the most refractory patient I
ever had."

"And you see there is a certain etiquette to be observed here,"
continued Mr Braine. "We would do everything we could to help you to
procure your provisions, and say God speed to your journey, but we are
helpless."

"Indeed!" said Murray, flushing. "You mean that as we have come we must
ask the rajah's permission to go: I shall do nothing of the kind.
Gentlemen, we will start at once."

Mr Braine made a deprecatory sign,--

"Excuse me," he said. "You speak like one of us--like an Englishman,
but my good sir, this is not England, and we are beyond the range of the
law courts and the police. I say this is not England, nor is it
Singapore. We are not many hundred miles from where the English rule is
well in force, but here, to all intents and purposes, we are completely
in the power of a barbarous chief."

"But this is absurd!" cried Murray; "surely the Governor of the Straits
Settlements would crush out any piece of oppression directly, or any
outrage on a British subject."

Mr Braine smiled.

"The British lion is very strong, sir," he said; "but he is well fed and
drowsy. He knows that he has only to lift his paw, or perhaps only to
lash his tail, to get rid of troublesome animals or stinging insects,
but it is very hard to get him to do this. No doubt if Rajah Sadi were
to behave very badly, the war-steamer on the station here would come up
the river as far as she could, and then send an expedition in boats with
plenty of jacks and marines, and perhaps a few soldiers, but not until
there had been a great deal of red-tape unwound, declarations sent to
and from London, and perhaps a year would have passed before the help
came. Then the rajah would be punished, if they could catch him, and
his stockade and village be burned. But most probably he would know
from his people when the expedition was coming, and mount his elephants
with his court, and go right away into the jungle, after sending his
prahus and other boats up one of the side-streams where they could hide.
Then the expedition would return and so would the rajah; the bamboo
houses would be rebuilt, and matters go on just as before."

"You are making out a very bad case, sir," said Murray, biting his lip
to keep down his annoyance, "but I shall not hesitate as to my plans."

"You mean that you will go on