“It seems, young gentlemen,” continued the resident, “that while you were out, you met two young Malay girls?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who had run away from their master?”
“From their owner, as he seemed to consider himself, sir,” said Bob, who, to use his own words, felt as if all the fat was in the fire now, and blazed up accordingly. “You see, sir,” he said quickly, “we were watching for something that we saw in the reeds, close to the boggy ground, you know, and Tom here thought it was pig, but I thought it might be a deer. So we stood quite still till we heard sounds in the distance, when out jumped two dark creatures, and I was going to fire, when we saw that they were girls.”
“And they ran up to us,” said Tom Long.
“Like winking,” said Bob, “and threw themselves on their knees, and clung to our legs, and wouldn’t let go. Then up came half-a-dozen of the niggers—”
“I think, Mr Roberts, we will call people by their right names,” said the resident, quietly; “suppose we say Malays.”
“Yes, sir, Malays; and laid hold of the girls to drag them away. They screamed out, and that roused us, and we sent the nig— Malays staggering back. For you see, sir, as Englishmen—”
“English what—Mr Roberts?” said Captain Horton.
“Men, sir. I’m a midshipman, sir,” said Bob, sharply; and the captain grunted out something that sounded like “impudent young puppy!” but he did not look angry.