, for some minutes before Ned spoke again.

"They will not kill us, will they?" he said.

"Kill us? No. I should just like to catch them at it. The brutes! To
take away my kris too. There's going to be a row about this as soon as
my father knows."

"Then you think it's all a mistake?"

"Of course it is. I shouldn't have wondered if they'd shut you up like
this, but you see they've shut up me."

"Well, you're of no more consequence than I am," said Ned, laughing in
spite of his trouble and a throbbing head.

"No more consequence than you? Why, I've done as much as I liked about
here for ever so long, and the people have treated me just as if I were
the rajah's son. It's all your fault."

"I suppose so," said Ned, dismally.

"But if they think they're going to do just as they like, they're
mistaken. Here!" he cried in Malay, "water."

There was a bit of a bustle out on the veranda, and two men came in with
brass basins and cotton cloths, which they held while, without
hesitation, Frank began to bathe his face.

It was a good example, and Ned followed suit, the cool, fresh water
feeling delightful to his heated brow.

"Done?" said Frank, as he wiped his hands.

"Yes."

"Take away, and bring breakfast," cried Frank, haughtily, to the men,
who bowed and went off with the water and towels.

"I'll let them see whether they're going to treat me like a prisoner,"
cried Frank.

"I wish I could be as bumptious as you are with them," said Ned, with a
faint smile.

"You don't try."

"I'm so anxious."

"Oh, it's of no use to be anxious," said Frank, gazing out of the door,
and then through the window with its bamboo lattice-work.

"Which house are we in?"

"I don't know. I was trying to make out, but you can only see trees. I
do believe they've taken us up the river somewhere. I don't know,
though. These houses are all alike. It isn't the Tumongong's, nor the
Muntrie's, nor the Maharajah Lela's. Yes, I believe they've taken us up
the river. The old chap has houses in all sorts of places out in the
jungle, where he likes to go and hide himself sometimes, but I don't see
any fun in his hiding us."

"Then they brought us up here. But how?"

"In a naga, of course."

"But in our sleep, or while we were insensible?"

"Insensible, if you like to call it so. They must have given us some
stuff. They've all kinds of dodges of that sort, bless 'em! You should
hear Doctor Barnes talk about the