The Rajah of Dah Part 42

"No. I promise. An English gentleman's promise," said Frank.

The man thrust his hand under his silken robe, and produced the handsome weapon.

"An English gentleman does not break his word," he said, giving the kris to the boy.

"Of course he doesn't. Thank you," said Frank, replacing the dagger at his waist, and covering up the hilt with a significant look at the man, who smiled and withdrew, while the boy interpreted the words which his companion had failed to grasp.

The meal being ended, they rose; the men came and cleared away, and as soon as they were alone again, Ned looked at Frank.

"What next!" he said.

"Ah, that's the puzzle! Here we are, like two d.i.c.ky-birds in a cage, and they won't let us go out. If they keep us shut up long like this, it will be horrid. I wish I could send father word."

"Could we escape?"

"I don't know. We might try. What a muddle, to be sure. They think we were going to run away with Hamet, and we may talk for ever and they wouldn't believe us."

"But we can't sit here and do nothing."

"No; it will be horribly dull. Those Malay fellows like it. They can sit in the sun all day and chew betel. We can't. All we can do is to sit and eat fruit, and you can't keep up doing that always."

Sure enough the party of Malays, ten strong, who acted as their guard in the palm-thatched house, and attended to every want instantly, did sit in and below the veranda in the sun chewing betel, with their eyes half-closed, till, to use Ned's words, it nearly drove him mad.

Frank tried persuasion, bribery, threats, and then force, to get out if only for a walk; but in a patient good-humoured way the chief and his followers refused to let them pa.s.s even out on to the veranda; and all the boys knew at last of their position, as the sun went down, was that which they had learned at sunrise: they were in a house somewhere deep in the jungle, shut in by trees.

"Can't we get away when it's dark?" said Ned.

"Get away where?" cried Frank, ill-humouredly. "You ought to know by this time that you can't get through the jungle without men to chop for you."

"But there must be a path by which they brought us."

"Yes; one leading down to the river, where you could get no farther for want of a boat, and trust 'em, they'll watch that night and day.

Fellows who know they'll have a kris stuck into them, and be pitched into the river if they let a prisoner escape, look out pretty sharp."

It was rapidly growing dark when Frank, who had tried lying down, sitting cross-legged, standing up, walking about, and lying on his chest, with his elbows on the bamboo flooring and his chin in his hands, suddenly exclaimed: "Have some more durian?"

"No, thank you."

"Some mangosteens?"

"No, I've had enough."

"Try some of those little bananas."

"No--no--no, I couldn't eat any more fruit."

"No more can I. Shall we tell them to bring us some curry to finish off with?"

"Oh, I say, don't talk any more about eating," cried Ned; "we seem to have done nothing else all day."

"Well, there wasn't anything else to do.--I know."

"What?"

"Let's catch the jungle fever. Then they'll be obliged to take us back to the doctor."

"Nonsense! But I say, Frank, if it's so miserable and wearisome to be shut up like this for a day, what will it be by-and-by?"

"I don't know. Never mind by-and-by," said Frank. "'Nough to do to think of just now. What shall we do?"

"Go to sleep and forget it till to-morrow morning," said Ned philosophically.

"Come," cried Frank; "that's the best thing you've said to-day. All right."

It was now so dark that they had to feel their way into the inner room, where they lay down on the mats with their heads close to the side, and they had hardly settled themselves comfortably when the chief entered the main room followed by two men, one of whom bore a lamp.

The princ.i.p.al Malay looked sharply round, and then said to Frank, who lay on his back with his hands under his head:

"Does my lord want anything else?"

"Yes. You to go and not bother," replied the boy ungraciously.

"Can we bring him anything?"

"Yes; a boat to take us home."

"Shall I leave the light?"

"No; take it away. I'm sleepy."

The man bowed, backed out with his followers, the matting was dropped between the two rooms and then over the doorway as they pa.s.sed into the veranda.

"That's the way to talk to them," said Frank, peevishly.

"You weren't very civil."

"Well, who's going to be to people who shut you up. It's no use to be 'my lord' without you behave like one. Now let's go to sleep."

Easier said than done. First in the hot darkness came the _ping_-_wing_ of a mosquito, then the restless sound made by the boys fidgeting about, and the low dull murmur of the men talking in the veranda.

"What's that?" said Ned, suddenly.

"Bother! Go to sleep. Only our chaps walking underneath to see if all's safe below. I say," he added, after a pause, "I know what I shall do if they don't let us out soon."

"What!"

"Say I want to learn to smoke--late some evening."