you can see
over their roofs," said Mr Braine; and he then turned and spoke to the
officers, who replied to him in Malay.

"His highness is waiting to give you audience," he continued. "Mr
Murray, I do not like to force advice upon a stranger, but I should like
to say, for your own sake and that of your young friend, try to accept
the position in which you find yourself, however hard it may be. And,"
he added in a whisper, looking sharply at Ned, "whatever you see, do not
laugh. Eastern gentlemen are extremely sensitive to ridicule."

"I shall not laugh," said Ned quietly; and then he began thinking about
the punctilious ways of his companions till they had passed the last
houses, entered a patch of forest, and from that came suddenly upon a
clearing where a spacious bamboo house stood half hidden by a clump of
umbrageous trees, beneath one of which was drawn up a group which at the
first glance made the boy wonder whether he was gazing at a scene in
real life, or some imaginary picture from an eastern tale.

The first figure upon which Ned's eyes rested was seated in the centre
of the group, on a quaintly made stool, and his gorgeous dress
immediately suggested that this must be the great man himself whom they
had come to see. For he was evidently got up expressly for the
occasion, with his courtiers carefully arranged about him, some standing
behind and on either side, but for the most part squatted down on the
sandy ground in the position affected by eastern people, though here and
there one could be seen right down cross-legged _a la turque_.

The rajah was the only one in European costume, and at the first glance
at the man, with his heavy fat sensual-looking face and lurid eyes, Ned
recalled his companion's words: "Whatever you see, do not laugh."

He felt at once the value of the advice, as his eye ran over the chief's
costume, for he was gorgeously arrayed in a military tunic and trousers
undoubtedly made in London to order, the tailor having had instructions
to prepare for his highness a dress that would be striking and
impressive, and from this point of view he had done his work well. The
trousers were blue with gold stripes, of the most elaborate floral
pattern, such as decorate levee uniforms; and, after the fashion of our
most gaily-dressed hussars of fifty years ago, there were wonderful
specimens of embroidery part of the way down the front of the thigh.
But the tunic was the dazzling part of the