“Thank you. Much obliged. A little louder next time, please, for my officer’s asleep.”
Then he stood peering through the crack till the footsteps died away.
“Can’t see much,” he said; “but I wonder what apa boleh booat means. I meant it for something nasty, but the ugly beggar took it quite pleasant. It’s what those sampan chaps say when they come back without catching any fish. To be sure, and I heard another chap say it when the Doctor had done strapping up his cut that time when there was a fight between the two Rajahs’ men. I’ve picked up a lot more, too, of their lingo, but it’s all mixed up together somewheres, and my head’s about as muddled as poor Mister Archie’s. Poor old chap! I got it too, but I’d a deal rather I’d had his topper and he’d had mine, and that’s honest; for though he’s a gentleman and I have only been a rough recruity, he’s always been a good chap to me, and I never liked him so much as I do now when he’s in such trouble. I wonder where poor Miss Minnie is.”
Phoonk! came from somewhere outside, and there was a rattling as of an iron chain.
“Oh, there you are, are you?” said Peter. “The Doctor said in that lecture he gave us chaps that helephants is the most intelligent beasts there is—more so than dogs—that they get to understand all sorts of words that are spoken to them. That there phoonk, or whatever it was, sounded just like an answer to something I had said; but, of course, it couldn’t be. These ’ere are Malay helephants, and ’tisn’t likely they could understand English. I wish, though, this was the one that I got to be so chummy with on the sham-fight day. I’d give him half these ’ere bananas and some of the cake, for I don’t feel ready to eat much, and I don’t believe that when the governor wakes up he will take anything but some more water. Well, anyhow, he’s better than he has been since we’ve been here. How long is it?”
The lad raised his hand wearily to his aching brow, and held it there for some minutes, before shaking his head sadly.
“I d’know,” he said. “It’s all getting mixed up again. Oh, my poor nut! How it do ache! I know what would do it good—lie down and try to go to sleep. But I can’t; for so sure as I did, Mister Archie would wake up and want some water, and begin to talk about Miss Minnie. Oh dear! It’s far worse than mutiny—to go to sleep when you are on sentry; and it would be ten times worse to begin to snooze now, with that poor, half-cranky chap in such a state. So I’ll have one or two of them finger-stall fruit things and a good drink of water, and then lean back against the side and see how many Malay words I can remember; and if that don’t keep a poor fellow awake, nothing will.”
He stepped softly amongst the rustling leaves and bent down over Archie, to find that he was breathing freely, and evidently plunged in the deep sleep of exhaustion.
“That’s better,” he muttered; “but I should like to dip his handkerchy in that fresh, cold water and lay it on his head.”
His hand was reached out to where he could just catch a glimpse of the scrap of linen in the lad’s breast pocket; but he snatched his extended fingers back, and stepped away to where the basket and jar had been placed.