“Yes, captain,” said Bob.
Lieutenant Johnson smiled.
“I tell you what,” he said again, “nothing would give me greater pleasure than for Mr Rajah Gantang to bring down his prahus some time to-day, Lieutenant Roberts. I could blow that fellow out of the water with the greatest pleasure in life.”
“Captain Johnson,” said Bob, solemnly, “I could blow him in again with greater pleasure, for I haven’t forgotten my swim for life.”
“You feel quite a spite against him then, Roberts?”
“Spite’s nothing to it,” said Bob. “Didn’t he and his people force me, a harmless, unoffending young fellow—”
“As ever contrived to board a prahu,” said the lieutenant.
“Ah, well, that wasn’t my doing,” said Bob. “I was ordered to do my duty, and tried to do it. That was no reason why those chicory-brown rascals should cause me to be pitched into the river to the tender mercies of the crocodiles, who, I believe, shed tears because they couldn’t catch me.”
“Well, Roberts,” said the lieutenant, “you need not make yourself uncomfortable, nor set up the bantam cock hackles round your neck, and you need not go to the grindstone to sharpen your spurs, for we shall not have the luck to see anything of the rajah, who by this time knows that it is his best policy to keep out of the way. Will you take any more breakfast?”
“No, thank you, sir,” said Bob, rising, for this was a hint to go about his business; and he went on deck.