"We could not fare like this, my friend," he said, "if we took to the jungle or a boat."
"No, sir, no," replied Mr. Kenyon quickly. "I spoke last night on the impulse of the moment, but I have since thought that my idea was impracticable. I've been all about this wing of the palace too this morning, and I feel satisfied that we can hold it as long as we like if we do a little more to the defences. I'll talk with you, though, after breakfast."
The change from the hopeless despair of the past night was strange, and before long the two boys began to long for an opportunity to leave the table, for the disposition among their friends whom they had rejoined seemed to be one of crediting them with completely altering the state of affairs and making them the heroes of the hour.
At last the opportunity came, for the King rose, and those who had breakfasted hurried away to take the places of the guard.
"Let's slip out this way," said Harry, "or we shall meet the others as they come in, and I'm sick of it. Such rubbish! Why, it was all father, Sree, and you."
"Old Sree deserves pretty well all the credit," agreed Phra. "Let's go and see where he is."
They soon found him and Lahn on their way back from the gate, and hurried them in to where Mike had a second breakfast waiting, the old hunter smiling with content at the genuine eagerness the two lads displayed in regard to his comfort.
But before they had been there long Mike hurried in from attending on the second party at the King's table, to see that his native friends, as he called them, were all right.
"Of course we shall beat the enemy, Master Harry," he said; "but I had a look out from the top of the palace as soon as the sun rose, and you could see hundreds of thousands of them down by the river."
"Millions, Mike," cried Harry.