“Yes, I see,” said Drummond, “you’re chaffing because I bounced a bit; but I’m blessed if you don’t have to bounce up here in the mountains if you want to hold your own. I should be nowhere amongst these hill-niggers if I didn’t act as if I thought I was the biggest pot under the sun. That’s one reason why I was so anxious about my boots. Why, if it hadn’t been for you two I couldn’t have shown my face before that party this morning. I wouldn’t have had them see me with my feet bandaged up like they were for anything. It would have been lowering the dignity of Her Majesty’s service in the eyes of the heathen.”
“Of course,” said Bracy, smiling; “but never mind that. You don’t believe in these fellows, then?”
“Oh yes, I do.”
“But just now you said—”
“What I say now, that they’re a set of impostors, pretending to be friendly so as to see what your regiment was like and how the defences looked.”
“There, Roberts!”
“All right, dear boy. Well, when they come again we must show them our boy-regiment, and how they’ve improved with the excellent practice we can make in firing.”
“That’s the way,” said Drummond cheerily. “They’ll soon come again with two or three other tribes, for they’ve all made up their minds to have us out of this old fort, palace, or whatever they call it.”
“And we shan’t go—eh?” said Bracy, with a quaint look in his eyes.
“Most decidedly not,” replied Drummond. “Now then, you’re not on duty. Come and have a look round. Hullo! this is your doctor, isn’t it?”