"I'm sorry to say it's behind," said Ferrier, with a smile: "just under your shoulder. You'd better take your shirt off and let me see to it."
"After you. You've got a pretty gash in your neck. My face must have scared 'em, and they didn't recover till I had turned, and then jabbed me in the back."
"If we were only outside, Bill might find some of his herbs and plaster us. However, we're lucky to have got off so well, and I hope we shan't have anything worse to go through before we get back."
Said Mohammed was unwontedly silent when he brought their supper. He handed them their bovril and cassava cakes without a word. John suddenly remembered that he had brushed hastily past the Bengali just as the fight was over.
"By the way, khansaman," he said, "you began to tell me something. Sorry I was too busy to attend to you. What was it?"
"Trifling matter, sir, not worthy of august attention," murmured the man.
"You made some remark about your billy, didn't you?" said Ferrier. "I didn't quite catch it."
"Foreign lingo, sir: in short, Latin, reformed pronunciation."
"Ah! that accounts for it. I was taught by an old Westminster man. You should take pity on my ignorance, khansaman."
"Accepting your invite, sir, I take you back to critical moment when all seemed U P. The hour brings forth the man. There came into my mind the lovely words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet laureate--