“Ah yes—prisoners,” said Murray, looking up from his work, which he was still pursuing in spite of the arrival of his visitor. “Here! hi! Hamet!”
“Yes, master.”
“Go and turn those skins over carefully, and put them out of the sun. They are drying too fast.”
“Yes, master.”
“Yes; prisoners,” continued Murray. “You did not take my message to the rajah about those spearmen always following us about.”
“I did, and that was my principal reason for coming and interrupting you this morning.”
“Ah!” cried Murray, looking up with an unfortunate bird turned inside out in one hand, and a brush laden with preserving paste in the other; “what did he say?”
“That he esteemed the visit and presence of so great a scientific man too highly to run any risk of his coming to harm. That many of his people were not so enlightened as those about the court, and were likely to resent the presence of an Englishman.”
“And boy,” said Ned in an undertone.
“And boy,” said Mr Braine, smiling; “and that he would die of grief if anything happened to you; whereas, if harm happened when you had your guard, he could punish them?”