“You mean that it must be nearly morning now. Speak out.”
“Something of the kind, sir; and I was thinking that it seems too bad to have to make a mess of it at the end.”
“Ah! You think that though we may get across and land with our load on our side of the river, we should have daylight upon us before we could get anything like back to the Residency?”
“Wish I was as clever as you are, Mister Archie,” said Peter in a low, grumbling tone, as he thrust with all his might at the end of his pole.
“What do you mean?”
“You saying just exactly what I was thinking about, sir. How you come to see it all I don’t know.”
“Oh, never mind that, Pete. It’s very horrible, and when we are missing in the morning there will be no end of an upset, and they will think that we have deserted.”
“Haw, haw!” grunted Peter, with another thrust of his pole which hindered the straight course of the sampan. “Them thinking you had deserted, sir? Likely! You ain’t me.”
“Well, Pete, let’s get as high as we can past the place where we got the boat, and then the moment we think that daylight’s coming let’s get across, tie the boat up somewhere under the trees, and lie in hiding till night.”
“Won’t do,” said Peter shortly. “Boat belongs to somebody as ain’t our friends, and when they find it gone they will come hunting along the water-side till they find it, and like as not tell the enemy where we are.”