toring one man for
fever, putting all you fellows straight, and patching up squabbling
savages, my appetite often feels as if it wants a fillip. A doctor's is
an anxious life, my boy--more especially out here in a country like
this, amongst a very uncertain people, when a man feels that he has a
stake in the country."

"But you have no stake in the country, sir?"

"What, sir! I? Haven't I my wife and my sister's child?"

"Oh, I thought you meant something commercial, sir."

"What! I? Pooh, boy! I was alluding to the uncertainty of our
position here."

"Oh! Oh, I see, sir. That's all right enough. Here's Sir Charles with
a strong detachment of British infantry under his command, and the
native chiefs are bound to respect him."

"Tremendous!" said the Doctor, with a snort. "A couple of hundred men!"

"Three, sir."

"Three indeed! What about the men on the sick-list, and the
non-combatants that have to be counted in every squad? Why, if that
fellow Suleiman turned nasty, where should we be, out here in the depths
of this jungle?"

"Oh, there's no occasion to fear anything of that sort, sir."

"What! Not for a boy like you, Archie Maine, with a suit or two of
clothes, a razor, and hair-brush. You put on your cap, and you cover
all your responsibilities. What about the women, high and low, that we
have to look after?"

"Oh, they'd be all right, sir."

"Would they?"

"I say, Doctor, don't talk like that. You don't think that we have
anything to fear?"

"I don't know.--Well, fear? No, I suppose I mustn't mention such a
thing as fear; but we are hundreds of miles away from Singapore and
help."

"Oh no, sir. There's the river. It wouldn't take long for the gunboat
to bring up reinforcements and supplies; and then, even if Mr Sultan
Suleiman turned against us--which isn't likely--"

"I don't know," growled the Doctor.

"Well, sir, I think I do," said Archie, rather importantly. "Why, if he
did, there's our friend the Rajah Hamet. He would be on our side."

"Ah, that I don't know," said the Doctor again; and he tapped the table
with his nails. "This is all in confidence, boy. I don't think Sir
Charles has much faith in that young gentleman. But still, that's the
way that our Government worked things in India."

"I don't quite understand you."

"Read up your history, then, my boy. Our position in India has been
made by the jealousies of the different princes and our political folk