ajah Suleiman to say that they had
had a long night march so as to reach Campong Dang before sunrise, on
account of the heat, and asking that they might be furnished with
refreshments for His Highness, and be given permission for the elephants
to be brought into camp by their mahouts, to be placed in the shade of
the trees by the parade-ground while the grass-cutters went out for
their food.

Messages then began to pass to and fro, and invitations were sent to the
Rajah and his officers to join the officers' mess at breakfast and rest,
as it would be hours before the military evolutions would begin.

The excitement and bustle quickly calmed down; pickets were stationed,
with orders that none of the Malays were to come into camp; and the
mess-men were almost ready to announce breakfast, when the Doctor came
bustling on to the scene, and one of the first people he stumbled
against was Archie.

"Oh, here you are," he cried, hastily fastening one or two buttons of
his white flannels. "Just the fellow I wanted to see."

"Morning, Doctor. How are you?" replied the lad.

"Bad. Up nearly all night with a couple of sick people, and I was at
last just sinking into a pleasant doze when those wretched bugles began
to ring out. All your doing."

"My doing, sir?"

"Yes--upsetting our regular routine. It will be just as I expected when
the Major arranged for tins absurdity. As if Her Majesty couldn't have
a birthday without everybody going mad with a desire to get sunstroke."

"Have some breakfast, sir," said Archie quietly. "You will feel better
then."

"Better, sir? Bah! Nothing the matter with me now. Eh, what? Is the
coffee ready? Can't be. These princes and potentates haven't all come
in yet, and I suppose we shall have to wait for them."

"No, you won't, sir. Captain Down and some more of us who will have to
be on duty have got a snug corner to ourselves, and we are going to have
a snatch meal before going out."

"Oh," said the Doctor in a more mollified tone. "Then there is somebody
here blessed with brains! Who was it--Down?"

"No, sir; if I must confess," cried Archie, "it was I."

"Oh," said the Doctor. "Then you must have been thinking of number one,
sir."

"No, Doctor. My fellow, Peter Pegg, got me a cup of coffee an hour
ago."

Matters soon settled quietly down, and the swarthy-looking Rajah
Suleiman, in gorgeous array and attended by quite a staff of his
notables--Maharajah Lela, Tum