ced to every member then in it, with that punctilious
formality which X. had observed in Batavia. The hotel at Bandong was the
best which the traveller had yet visited, and, contrary to expectation,
dinner was warm and comforting. The others of the party, however, Usoof
and Abu, were not so fortunate, for they had no means of getting
anything to eat. It was not permitted them to go out after dark without
lights, and they could not get lights. Added to this it was raining
hard. The hotel apparently could not supply natives with food at such an
hour, and it was necessary for them to go and look for it. This sad
story greeted X. when his own dinner was done. But the kind President of
the Landraad cut the knot of this dilemma and soon provided a caterer,
protector, and guide for the hungry pair.

As usual next morning, the time fixed for the train to leave was very
early, and other trains were starting too, and of these Abu selected
the one on the point of departure for Maos in which to stow all the
portable luggage--no small amount--and this was only rescued as the
train was actually on the move. This, of course, necessitated hurried
action, making those who hurried hot. Then the scene at the ticket
window was scarcely to be described. For a country where, in public,
such a gulf is fixed between Europeans and natives, it is a strange
thing to find the one aperture for the purchase of tickets, besieged by
a serging clamouring throng of both races, and no one had any idea of
waiting his turn. X. attempted to force his way to the little window,
but as he stopped to observe the rules of the game, as played in
civilized countries of the West, he was each time passed over, when the
tickets were almost in his grasp. At length, disgusted at having to take
part in such a scene, he retired. Then Usoof, with much insinuation of
elbows and words in Javanese (words such as his mother may not have
approved), managed to obtain tickets just in time to catch the train.
This train duly landed them at the familiar little station, where, as
before, the ponies waited them to carry them up that hill of wonderful
views. At the station the traveller parted with his companion, the
invalid officer, after accepting a kindly invitation to lunch with him
at Buitenzorg on his way through to Batavia.

No need to repeat myself in describing those few extra days spent at the
cottage in the hills. And they also resembled the last ones in that they
went to