r to go in search of help was to condemn the little garrison of
the fort to destruction.

And now as the hours slowly crept by, with the heat and inaction growing
more and more difficult to bear, every thought was directed to the envoy
they had sent out, and they waited anxiously for Ali's return, or for
some messenger with tidings at his hands.

Though the Malays refrained from attack so long as the occupants of the
station kept within their lines, any attempt at quitting the fort at
once drew fire. Consequently the supplies within had to suffice, and
middy and ensign thought gloomily of the past, when sampans brought
daily an abundance of delicious fruit, when flowers were abundant, and
fish in plenty was supplied.

Now it was bread or biscuit, and preserved meat either salt or tinned,
and preserved vegetables, and so much soup that Bob Roberts said a man
might just as well be living in a workhouse.

That evening he made up his mind to try for some fish, and aided and
abetted by Dick, a line was rigged up, and payed out over the steamer's
stern, the stream carrying down the baited hook, but only into a place
where there was no likelihood of a fish being caught. So another line
was attached, and another, and another--long sea-lines each of them,
till Bob Roberts sat fishing with the end of a line in his hand and his
bait about a quarter of a mile down the stream.

To his great delight he found the plan to answer, for before long he
felt a tug, and drew in a good-sized fish. This done, he rebaited, and
tried again, sometimes catching, sometimes losing, a couple dropping off
the hook just as they were raised up level with the deck.

It was about an hour before sunset that Bob Roberts set Dick to work
winding up the lines on the reels to dry, and then, having placed the
brilliantly scaled fish in the basket, he obtained leave from the
lieutenant, who looked longingly at the catch, and involuntarily made
the noise with his lips customary with some people at the sight of
anything nice.

"What are you going to do with those, Roberts?" he said.

"Take them to the ladies, sir."

"Ah! yes: of course, the ladies first. We ought to study the ladies.
But do you know, Roberts, I'm not a ladies' man, and I feel an intense
desire to have one of those fish--broiled."

"Yes, sir, of course; but I'll come back and catch some more."

"Yes, do," said Lieutenant Johnson, gazing longingly at the fish.
"There," he cried hast