"I am very glad that I met you, and I hope I shall see you again. You have a very agreeable party, and I should think you might enjoy yourselves."
"I think we are likely to meet again at Saigon. The Guardian-Mother will be there, and I hope you will come on board of her," replied Captain Scott, as they shook hands at parting, and the visitor returned to the Delhi.
The Blanchita started her screw again; and the captain gave out north-west as the course for the mouth of the Menan River, on which Bangkok is situated.
"Where do you expect to find the Guardian-Mother, Captain Scott?" asked Louis.
"At Bangkok," replied the captain, as he took his memorandum-book from his pocket. "Captain Ringgold gave me his time for leaving there, and also of sailing from Saigon."
"When was he to leave the capital of Siam?"
"On the first tide Monday morning. This is Saturday, a little after noon," replied Scott. "We have three hundred and twenty-five miles to make. The monsoon is about as fresh here as it has been all the voyage; and we have used up about half of our coal, so that we are considerably lighter than when we left Kuching, and with the sail we can easily log nine knots an hour. We shall go into the Menan River before sundown to-morrow, and it will take two or three hours to go up to the city. We shall be alongside the ship some time in the evening; and that is just the time I should like to be there."
"We shall give our friends a tremendous surprise," added Louis.
"That is so; for while your anxious mamma is worrying for fear you have been chewed up by an orang-outang, and Flix's grandma is dreaming that he has been swallowed whole by a big boa-constrictor, we shall drop in on them while they are singing gospel hymns in the music-room."
"I shall be sorry to disappoint grandma; but if she insists upon dreaming such nonsense, it is not my fault," added Felix. "She ought to know by this time that snakes don't swallow me till they get a bullet through their heads."