sultan was not meeting him in quite
a proper spirit, and he was rather suspicious, till a fresh embassy of
the principal chiefs arrived, and brought a formal invitation for the
resident and the officers to visit him upon a fixed day.

As before, an imposing force was got ready, and once more the march to
what Bob had nick-named Palm Tree Palace, took place, the middy coming
afterwards to Tom Long's room, and telling him how the affair had gone
off.

"It was no end of a game," he said to the young ensign, who was rapidly
gaining strength, the fancy that his wound was poisoned having passed
away. "We started just as we did last time, and marched through the
jungle till we came to the sultan's barns, where the men were drawn up,
and no end of the niggers came to wait on them, bringing them a kind of
drink made of rice, and plenty of fruit and things, while we officers
had to go into the sultan's dining-room--a place hung round with cotton
print--and there we all sat down, cross-legged, like a lot of jolly
tailors, with the sultan up at the top, the major on one side, and our
skipper on the other."

"But they didn't sit down cross-legged?" said Tom Long.

"Didn't they, my boy? But they just did; and it was a game to see our
skipper letting himself down gently for fear of cracking his best white
uniform sit-in-ems. Your major split some stitches somewhere, for I
heard them go. Then there was the doctor; you should have seen him! He
came to an anchor right enough, but when he tried to square his yards--I
mean his legs--he nearly went over backwards, and looked savage enough
to eat me, because I laughed."

"Poor old doctor!" said Tom Long, smiling.

"Oh, we were all in difficulties, being cast upon our beam-ends as it
were; but we got settled down in our berths at last, and then the dinner
began."

"Was it good?" said Tom Long, whose appetite was growing as he began to
get better.

"Jolly!" said Bob, "capital! I say, though, how hot this place is."

"Yes," said the ensign, "the lamp makes it hot; but the window is wide
open."

Bob glanced out into the darkness, to see the dark gleaming leaves, and
the bright fire-flies dancing in the air, while right before them lay
the smooth river, reflecting the brilliant stars.

"There was no cloth; but it was no end of fun. Mr Sultan is going in
for English manners and customs, and he mixes them up with his own most
gloriously. By way of ornaments there was a common