“There, gentlemen,” said the doctor, “you could not have arrived at a more opportune time, but you must excuse all shortcomings. We keep up old English customs as well as we can, and can give you coffee and eggs. No fried bacon, squire,” he added laughingly to Ned. “You are where our genial useful old friend the pig is an abomination. Why, it’s five years since I’ve tasted a sausage, or a bit of ham. But we can give you a curry of which I am proud. Eh, my dear?”
“Mr Murray will let a hearty English welcome make up for anything lacking,” said the doctor’s lady. “He knows that we are in the wilderness.”
“A wilderness with bamboo chairs, a table, a clean cloth, glass, plate, napkins, and flowers and fruit,” cried Murray. “Why, my dear madam, you forget that we have been picnicking in a boat. There, don’t spoil your welcome by apologies!”
Then there was a busy interval during which the greatest justice was done to an excellent meal, and Ned was initiated into the mystery of sambals—tiny saucers of pickle-like and preserve preparations, popular amongst the Malays as appetisers, but quite needless in Ned’s case, for he was perfectly independent of anything of the kind, and after his curry and coffee, now the first chill of strangeness had passed, paid plenty of attention to the fruit pressed upon him by the doctor’s daughter. Now it was a deliciously-flavoured choice banana with a deep orange skin, now a mangosteen, and then a portion of a great durian, a scrap or two of which he ate with some reluctance.
“Hallo!” said the doctor after a glance at his daughter, “you are not getting on with your durian, sir. Pray take some more; it is our king among fruits.”
“I—I am afraid it is not a good one,” stammered Ned, looking rather red.
“Eh? not a good one?” cried the doctor, tasting a piece. “Delicious, just in perfect condition. Ah, you have to acquire that taste. Now then, the ladies will excuse us, and we’ll have a cigar here in the shade.”
He clapped his hands, and one of the Malay women brought a box of manillas.
“No, I don’t think I’ll smoke,” said Murray. “You will not think me rude, but if you will excuse us, and put us in the way of getting what we want, I should be grateful.”
“My dear sir,” said the doctor, “you must see our other English residents. They are only waiting to give us time to finish our meal, and really you cannot go as yet.”