“How far?” said the doctor thoughtfully. “Ah, that is a difficult question to answer. It was hard to say before the late encounters with the Rajah of Padang; now the territory is more than doubled. I think you had better send in a request. Ah, here is Braine!”
“And Mrs Braine and Mr Greig,” added the doctor’s lady, rising from her chair.
This ended the conversation, just when Ned saw that his uncle was growing annoyed at the doctor’s opposition to his plans, and he glanced round to see that his neighbour was looking at him intently.
“I thought you would not be able to go away to-day,” she whispered, as she rose and went with her mother to meet the visitors at the foot of the steps, the doctor having made an apology and gone too.
“What did that young lady say to you, Ned?” said his uncle in a low tone.
“She thought there would be some difficulty in our going on to-day.”
“Oh, nonsense! These people lead an idle life, and they want every one they see to stop and play with them. I don’t want to be rude, but we are not going to dawdle about here; and as for this petty chief—all rubbish!”
At that moment a tall stern-looking man, in loose white clothes and a pith helmet, came up the steps. His face was darkened almost to the tint of a Malay’s, and he had a quick anxious look in his eyes, which, with his rather hollow cheeks, gave him the aspect of one who had lately been ill. He advanced with open hand.
“Glad to meet you, Mr Murray,” he said. “It is a pleasure to see a countryman.”
“That speech will do for me too,” said a rather harsh voice, and a keen-looking gentleman of about fifty, with his face deeply lined and a quick expression and manner which at once stamped him as shrewd, now shook hands warmly with the new arrivals, while directly after a subdued, handsome-looking woman was led up by the doctor’s lady.