d then turned to look
appealingly at his wife.

"Oh, of course! You didn't tell me; it was she. Let's see. You are
the man that came to me months ago for--" The Doctor finished in
pantomime by making believe to take hold of his own jaw, apply a key,
and wrench out a tooth.

The man smiled and nodded, and the Doctor added a few words in the Malay
tongue; while the woman now sprang up and began to talk volubly in her
own language, uttering short, sharp sentences, which the Doctor
punctuated with nods and:

"Yes--yes--I see--I see--exactly. But, hang it all, my good woman!" he
exclaimed in English, "don't talk so fast. I only know a smattering of
your tongue.--She puzzles me, my dear. It's all tongue.--Who the
British Dickens wants to know that your little one is quite well again
and strong, at a time like this?"

He spoke again in Malay, and the woman nodded and began to gesticulate
again, in company with a fresh flow of words.

"Yes, yes, yes," said the Doctor; "I am very glad, of course.--Now, my
dear, this is not like you," he continued. "Remember you are a doctor's
wife.--Did you ever see such a woman, Archie?"

"Never, Doctor," replied the lad, coming forward out of the darkness to
take Mrs Morley's hand and kiss it.

"There, I am quite firm now, Henry," said Mrs Morley; and drawing the
native woman towards her, she kissed Dula on both cheeks.

"Now let's have a few quiet words together," said the Doctor.--"No, no,
Archie; what are you going to do?"

"I thought I ought to go and tell the Major, sir, at once."

"Not yet. Wait a bit, my lad. We must have a consultation here. I
feel as you do, my dear boy; I want to rush back with these people at
once. But this is a ticklish affair, and we must do nothing rashly.
You see, we have learned this. It's been a bad case, and we must run no
risks. We have learned this--for certain now. It was Suleiman's men
who carried Minnie off and nearly killed you, and, with all the native
cunning, he sent his people here to fetch me to doctor him for his
so-called tiger scratch. By Abernethy! if I'd known, I'd have poisoned
it so that it wouldn't have got well for a year.--No, I wouldn't," he
grunted. "I am getting a tongue as bad as that woman's. But steady,
steady! We know for certain that he carried her off; and this man,
being a fisherman, has been living at a spot up the river where our poor
darling has been taken and kept hidden. And just think of it,