“No, no: stop,” cried Bob. “They won’t think any the less of us; we’re off duty now.”
Tom Long wanted to hear what was said, so he remained.
“And one of our nice hansum young orficers,” continued Dick, in the most solemn way, “and a middy and some smart Jacks.”
“And Dick Dunnage,” said one of the soldiers.
“Well, he did mention me, but I was too modest to say so.”
Here there was another laugh.
“‘How so be,’” continued Dick, “he sez; ‘must make the best o’ what material we got,’ so he pulls his men together, squares their yards, and coils down all their ropes tidy, tightens the breechings o’ their guns, and lets the poor benighted savages of niggers have their fill o’ staring at real British sodgers. Then they turned civil, and brought ’em out drinks, and fruit, and pipes; and they was very comfortable, till some one come out and said as the sultan was awake, and wanted his cocks, so the chap as went as interpreter told them; and then there was a bustle, and some three or four chaps went and fetched some fighting-cocks, and took ’em inside the barn—I mean the palace; and our fellows was kept waiting till the sergeant hears a reg’lar cock-a-doodle-doo, just for all the world as if he was at home, and he know’d by that as one of the birds had won. Just about a minute after some one come and beckoned him, and he goes up the steps into the palace, as had bamboo floors, and carpets lying about; and there was the sultan up at one end, sitting on carpet, and all his wives and people about him.”
“How many wives had he got, Dick?” said the midshipman.
“About a dozen, sir. But I’ll just tell you how many he’d have had if my missus had been one on ’em.”
“How many, Dick?”