“Think you’ll find,” said Askins, puffing slowly at his broken pipe, “if you reflect a bit, that this unwonted arrogance in the aborigines and the noticeable decrease in their respect for Europeans, which you attribute entirely to our alleged indiscretion, are very largely due to the recent victories of Japan over Russia.”
The Swede snorted like a stalled winch. The boot-chucker peered through the darkness at the rags that covered Askins, M. A. Even “Arthur” could not suppress a chuckle at his companion’s notion of a mere sailor’s vocabulary. Before the other had recovered, he took up the broken thread of the sermon.
“Reginald is right, me men, all the same. Ye knoaw of all the castes out here only the very lowest work with their hands, and they are despised by every other class. Why, the lowest caste in Ceylon, ye knoaw, won’t undertake our meanest labor. We have to send over for Tamil and Hindu coolies. Now the Englishmen are at the top of this caste system. The natives look up to us as above their highest caste. If this highest class, then, does labor that would degrade those of their lowest caste, you can see where their reverence for white men would soon go.
“Chaps have come out here at different times, missionaries especially, determined to treat the natives like equals, saying it was all rot and wrong to keep up this caste system. And they chatted with their servants, and patted the babies on the back, and sat at the same table with natives, and even planted their own gardens. And those who haven’t got knives in their ribs for hoodooing the children are looked upon as insane or degenerate, or as men being punished for some crime. Why, if these people ceased to look upon us as their social superiors they’d drive us into the sea in a month. If you chaps want to stop long in Colombo you’d better drop this circus job.”
“But if that’s all the work we can find on the whole blooming island?” I demanded.
“Work!” cried Reginald, excitedly, “Why, blawst it! Don’t work! Better loaf than make us all lose caste with the natives.”
“But if the wily chip continues to elude us?” drawled Askins.
“Eh!” gasped Reggie.
“I mean if the currie and rice refuse to come at our whistle?”
“Oah! Yeou mean if you have no money to buy food?”