“Very well, sir. Then I will have another go. What do you say to its being to the Rajah’s palace? I don’t know where it is—only that it is somewhere in the jungle, not very far from the river. You’ve never been there, have you?”
“No, Pete, I haven’t. But, as you say, it is not far from the river.”
“Well, sir, we can’t be far from the river. It must be somewhere off to our right flank, and old Rajah here must know his way, or else he wouldn’t be going so steadily on; and the beauty of these places is that when once you are on the right road you can’t miss your way, because there ain’t no turning.”
“But we passed one turning to the right.”
“Yes, sir. That’s where the helephants went down to drink, and you see if we don’t come to another farther on. But this is splendid travelling. How he does get over the ground! And if it warn’t for the commissariat department one could go on day after day, just making a halt now and then for this chap to take in half a load of growing hay and suck in a tubful of water, and then go on again.”
“Hush! Don’t talk so, Pete.”
“Why not, sir? I am doing it to keep up your sperrits.”
“But I want to listen.”
“Hear anything, sir?”
“I am not sure. But I keep expecting to hear some of the Malays in pursuit.”