“Then is it brotherly to keep something back?”
“Oh, all right, then,” said the lad. “It was only because I didn’t want to give you more troubles to think about.”
“What is it, then? I know: Sir Charles is wounded, or perhaps—”
“No, no. He’s been knocked about, like the rest of us. I was keeping it back that our men haven’t got a cartridge among them left to fire. Pegg and I were at the bungalow last night to smuggle out your uncle’s double gun and the cartridges, and we had got in here to wait till night came again before we landed and tried to make our way back to the Residency.”
“Say, Mister Archie, sir,” grumbled Peter, as Minnie sat pressing her old companion’s hand in token of her gratitude for what he had said.
“What is it, Pete?”
“I can’t understand what this chap says, but he made me shut up your knife, and has put away his own, so I think he means we have got as much green stuff as we can carry.”
“Yes, that’s it, Pete. Well, what?”
“Only this, sir. You see the moon there?”
“Of course I do.”