“If I don’t let him see that I can act like a man, my name’s not Long,” he muttered to himself, as they walked on together.
“There’s only—”
Captain Smithers, who was speaking, stopped short, and the ensign stared.
“I do not want to offend you, Long,” he said, “but all I say to you is in strict confidence now, and you must be careful what you repeat.”
“You may trust me, Captain Smithers,” said the ensign quietly.
“Yes, I am sure I may,” was the reply. “Look here, then. I was going to say that the only weak point in our arrangements here seems to be that!”
He nodded his head in the direction in which they were going, and the ensign stared.
“I mean about allowing that Malay, Abdullah, to set up his tent among us. He has such freedom of communicating with the banks of the river on both sides. He is a man, too, whom I rather distrust.”
“Indeed?” said Long.
“Yes, I don’t know why. But unless for some good and sufficient reason it would, I think, be bad policy to attempt to oust him.”