in a blow-up. These imitation Scotch niggers in their
plaid sarongs, as they call them, will be getting up a big quarrel with
my men with their bounce and contempt for my well-drilled, smart
detachment. Here's every common, twopenny-halfpenny Malay looking down
upon my fellows, while there isn't one among my lads who isn't a better
man than their Rajah. There will be a row some day; won't there,
Archie?"

"I expect so, sir," replied the lad, who was listening to the
conversation, and felt rather amused.

"I sincerely hope, Major, that you give strict injunctions to your
officers and men about doing everything to avoid coming into collision
with the natives and their traditions."

"You leave me alone for that, sir. I think I know what to do with my
lads. You would like me to confine them to barracks, I suppose?"

"Well, I should be very strict with them, sir."

The Major grunted.

"I know," he said. "Some of you diplomatic people think British
soldiers ought to be kept shut up in cages until they are wanted to
fight. Don't you criticise me, sir. I have had a good many years with
my lads, and they are pretty well in hand. If you come to criticising,
you will set me doing the same with your methods. I shouldn't have let
that French chap--Count, as he calls himself--go off so easy as you did
the other day."

"What could I do, sir? He is a friend of Rajah Suleiman, and his guest.
I communicated with the Rajah, and he answered for him at once,
complained of his arrest, and demanded that he should be allowed to
return to the Palace at once."

"Palace!" growled the Major. "Why, my lads could knock up a better
palace in no time with some bamboo poles and attap mats."

"The natives are accustomed to simplicity in the building of their
homes," said the Resident coldly.

"Oh yes, I know," growled the Major; "but I want to know what that
fellow was sneaking about our cantonments for in the dead of the night."

"My dear sir," said the Resident, "his explanations were quite
satisfactory. He is here studying the natives preparatory to writing a
book about the manners and customs of these people, and he is collecting
various objects of natural history, as he showed us."

"Yes; half-a-dozen moths with all the colour rubbed off their wings. Do
you mean to tell me that that chap is catching those insects for
nothing?"

"I am not ashamed to say that when I was young I used to collect
butterflies, and if I am