“But I say, Dick.”
“Ay, ay, sir.”
“How did the dinghy get loose? You must have gone to sleep.”
Dick rubbed his ear. “Well, sir, suttunly I think I must have shut one eye; but how the dinghy got loose is more than I can say, unless them spiteful niggers cut us adrift. But you get aboard. We ain’t been missed.”
But Dick was wrong: they had been missed, and the sentry had reported the coming of the naga-boat; so that as soon as Bob had changed his wet clothes for dry, he had to go to the captain’s cabin and relate the whole affair. Those on board merely supposing that they had gone down the river to fish, it was a remark made aloud by the young chief Ali that had started a train of ideas in the first lieutenant’s head that something was wrong.
“Ah,” said Captain Horton, “that was well done of the young chief. But it seems to me that we’ve a lot of ugly scoundrels about to deal with, and we must take care, gentlemen, we must take care.”
“Yes, Captain Horton,” said the first lieutenant, “and we will. But are there no fish there for us, Roberts, eh?” he continued.
“Yes, sir, there are,” said Bob. “I’ve caught you a capital dish. And very nearly got turned into ground bait for my pains,” he said to himself, as he went out to find Dick. “I say, Dick,” he said, as he met him with the basket of fish, “did you think about crocodiles when you were in the water?”
“No, sir, never once; there was too much to think about beside.”
“So there was, Dick,” said Bob. “There’s sixpence: go and ask them to give you a glass of grog to keep out the cold, but first change your things. I’ll take the fish.”