“But they’ll wake to the fact that we are listeners.”
“Let ’em. They ought to know we are here.”
“But they are talking business,” whispered Archie.
“Well, it’s our business as much as theirs. Are you afraid that listeners will hear no good of themselves, and the Major will bring in something about your last prank?”
“No;” and the lad twitched himself a little round in his cane chair, which uttered a loud squeak; and the Resident went on:
“Yes, that fellow is rather a nuisance. His bright, chatty way and deference please the Rajah; and I suppose you are right, for he’s always proposing something that amuses the stolid Malay, while my prosing about business matters must bore him.”
“I believe he’s an adventurer,” said the Major. “Don’t like him.”
“Well, he doesn’t like you, Major; so that balances the account.”
“I don’t know. What’s he here for?”
“Oh, he’s a bit of a naturalist and a bit of a sportsman. Glad of a ride through the jungle on an elephant. Glad of his board and lodging. Bit of a student he thinks himself in his dilettante, Parisian way. Oh, there’s no harm in him.”