Trapped by Malays Part 6

Just then a door somewhere in the interior was opened, and men's voices reached their ears, one being the Doctor's.

"No, nothing to worry about, sir; do them good."

"Ah, you keep to your old belief in the lancet, then, Doctor," came in the Resident's pleasant, firm tones.

"In a case like this, certainly, sir. All the better for losing a little of their hot, fiery blood. Set of quarrelsome, jealous fools.

Here _we_ are, thousands of miles from home and Ould Ireland, amongst these tribes, all of them spoiling for a fight."

"Yes, Doctor," said the Resident, slowly approaching as he crossed the room; "but I hope to get them tamed down in time."

"Ha, ha!" laughed the Doctor, as the two gentlemen came in sight.--"Hear him, Minnie! What's the quotation--'Hope springs eternal in the human breast?'"

"I forget uncle."

"More shame for you.--Hope away, Dallas; but you will never tame the fighting spirit out of a Malay.--Morning, Archie, my lad. What do you say?"

"I say that Rajah Hamet is tame enough, only one ought not to talk about him as if he were a wild beast.--Good-morning, Sir Charles?"

"Morning, my lad," replied the Resident, with a peculiar smile. "Have you got a head on this morning?"

"No, sir, I haven't got a head on this morning," cried the boy angrily, and with his sun-browned cheeks flus.h.i.+ng up.

"I beg your pardon, sir. I thought you had come to see the Doctor."

"So I have," said Archie, drawing himself up and glancing across at Minnie, and then giving himself an angry jerk as he saw that she was laughing.

"Do you want to see me, Maine?" said the Doctor.

"Yes, sir, if you are at liberty."

"Yes; all right, my lad.--Don't trouble yourself, Dallas. That will be all right.--Into my room, Maine;" and he led the way into a pleasant, comfortably furnished room looking out upon the clearing at the back, a room evidently the Doctor's surgery more than consulting-room, but whose formality was softened down by the cut-flowers which indicated the busy interference of the ladies of the house. "Sit down, my lad," continued the Doctor, as he took a bamboo chair opposite that to which he had motioned his visitor; and gazing searchingly at him, he reached out his hand: "Head queer?"

"No, no, sir," cried the subaltern, with his brow wrinkling up again.

"I only wanted to know about last night and the men wounded."

"Oh! That's what Sir Charles came about. Well, it's nothing much, my boy. It's rather a large pull on my roll of sticking-plaster and a few bandages--rival clans or houses--do you bite your thumb at me, sir?-- eh--Montagus and Capulets. Consequence of men carrying lethal weapons-- only krises instead of rapiers. Bad thing to let men carry arms."

"What about soldiers, then, sir?" said Archie merrily. "Bayonets, side-arms?"

"Ah, but there we have a discipline, my dear boy. But, all the same, it has fallen to my lot to treat a bayonet-dig or two when our fellows have got at the rack. Well, I am glad you are all right. I thought you looked a little fishy about the gills."

"Not I, sir. I managed a splendid breakfast this morning."

"Yes, boy; you are good that way. I often envy you, for what with my health and every one's health to think about, doctoring one man for fever, putting all you fellows straight, and patching up squabbling savages, my appet.i.te often feels as if it wants a fillip. A doctor's is an anxious life, my boy--more especially out here in a country like this, amongst a very uncertain people, when a man feels that he has a stake in the country."

"But you have no stake in the country, sir?"

"What, sir! I? Haven't I my wife and my sister's child?"

"Oh, I thought you meant something commercial, sir."

"What! I? Pooh, boy! I was alluding to the uncertainty of our position here."

"Oh! Oh, I see, sir. That's all right enough. Here's Sir Charles with a strong detachment of British infantry under his command, and the native chiefs are bound to respect him."

"Tremendous!" said the Doctor, with a snort. "A couple of hundred men!"

"Three, sir."

"Three indeed! What about the men on the sick-list, and the non-combatants that have to be counted in every squad? Why, if that fellow Suleiman turned nasty, where should we be, out here in the depths of this jungle?"

"Oh, there's no occasion to fear anything of that sort, sir."

"What! Not for a boy like you, Archie Maine, with a suit or two of clothes, a razor, and hair-brush. You put on your cap, and you cover all your responsibilities. What about the women, high and low, that we have to look after?"

"Oh, they'd be all right, sir."

"Would they?"

"I say, Doctor, don't talk like that. You don't think that we have anything to fear?"

"I don't know.--Well, fear? No, I suppose I mustn't mention such a thing as fear; but we are hundreds of miles away from Singapore and help."

"Oh no, sir. There's the river. It wouldn't take long for the gunboat to bring up reinforcements and supplies; and then, even if Mr Sultan Suleiman turned against us--which isn't likely--"

"I don't know," growled the Doctor.

"Well, sir, I think I do," said Archie, rather importantly. "Why, if he did, there's our friend the Rajah Hamet. He would be on our side."

"Ah, that I don't know," said the Doctor again; and he tapped the table with his nails. "This is all in confidence, boy. I don't think Sir Charles has much faith in that young gentleman. But still, that's the way that our Government worked things in India."

"I don't quite understand you."

"Read up your history, then, my boy. Our position in India has been made by the jealousies of the different princes and our political folks working them one against another. But there, you didn't come here to chatter politics. What is it? You have got something more to say to me, haven't you?"

"Well--er--yes, sir," hesitated the lad.

"Out with it, boy. Never play with your medical man. No half-confidences. I can pretty well read you, Archie, so out with it frankly."

"Well, sir, I did half make up my mind to speak to you, and came this morning on purpose; and then as soon as I saw you I felt that it was foolish--a sort of fancy of mine."

"Well, go on; let me judge. You have got something the matter with you?"

"That's what I don't quite know, sir," said the young man, who was now scarlet.

"Well, don't s.h.i.+lly-shally. Let me judge. Is it some bodily ailment?"

"No, sir."