“You were too valuable to burn,” he said.
“Do you really suppose then, my worthy Nanungamanoo, that Mahmoud looked upon the matter as a commercial transaction?”
“Now you speak Hindustanee. I do not know.”
“Never mind, make up the bundle again, and let us trudge. From the position of the moon it must be getting on towards morning.”
Nanungamanoo held up three fingers and proceeded with his work.
“Three o’clock, is it? Well, heave round, let us up anchor and be off.”
After re-establishing his valuable pack, Nanungamanoo carefully collected the bones of the feast and threw them under a bush, and was proceeding to obliterate the marks they had made on the withered grass by raising it again with his foot, when a twig cracked in a neighbouring thicket. Both Harry and Nanungamanoo speedily clutched their rifles.
Almost immediately after a black and nearly naked figure emerged slowly into the moonlight, and stood at some little distance, holding up one arm across his face as if to protect it from the blow of the bullet Nanungamanoo would have fired, but Harry thrust his arm up.
Then Raggy Muffin advanced.
“Golla-mussy, massa! What for you want to shoot poor Raggy?”