Chapter 9. Ned Loses His Hat

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_ CHAPTER NINE. NED LOSES HIS HAT

The two lads had grown in an hour as intimate as if they had been friends for months, and they were chatting away together as they approached Murray's house, where Hamet was standing looking out.

"Hah!" he cried; "you are here. The master has been looking for you, and is gone again."

"Here he comes!" cried Ned's new companion, taking off and waving his cap as Murray came striding up, looked strangely at the Resident's son, and then turned to his nephew.

"I was getting anxious about you," he said. "Keep by me, my boy. Come along to breakfast. We are going up the river directly after. Mr Braine has been to say we are to go on with our work at once, and land and examine some hills about ten miles up."

"I know," said Ned's companion, "Gunong Bu."

Murray turned upon him sharply, but the lad was in nowise abashed.

"I'll go with you, and show you. I know the way through the jungle. There's an old path. I've been--"

"Thank you," said Murray, coldly. "Come, my boy, the breakfast has all been sent on by the rajah."

"I knew he would send," said their visitor. "You keep friends with him, and you'll see how civil he can be."

Murray frowned a little; and, amused by his uncle being deceived as he had himself been, Ned said quietly, "he has come to breakfast with us, uncle."

"It is very kind of him," said Murray, coldly; "but he might have waited till he was asked."

"And then you wouldn't have asked me. I say, you; he thinks like you did, that I'm a nigger."

"Well," said Murray, quickly, "are you not a Malay, in spite of your perfect English?"

"Of course not, sir; I'm Frank Braine."

"My dear sir, I beg your pardon," cried Murray. "You should have told me, Ned. Come in, my lads, I'm getting sharp-set;" and directly after, they were seated, eastern fashion, cross-legged on the mat, which was spread with Malay luxuries, prominent among which was some excellent coffee, and a hearty meal was made, with the Resident's son as much at home as if he had been a very old friend; and hardly was it ended, when Mr Braine appeared.

"Ah, Frank," he said, smiling; "not long making yourself at home, I see. The boat's ready, Mr Murray," he continued, "and plenty of provisions on board. I daresay you will get some new birds and insects on your way, and the rajah hopes you will make some discovery up in the hills."

"He seems reasonable," said Murray, laughing. "What would he like first--a gold-mine?"

"Oh, you must humour him, and then you will have plenty of opportunity for your own work. Will you want an interpreter beside your own man?"

"No," said Frank, quietly. "I'm going with them, father."

"You, my boy? Oh, very well, only try not to be rash; though I don't suppose you will have any adventures. You know, I suppose, that we have tiger and elephant about here, so take a rifle in case you meet big game."

The men were waiting below, and they were soon after despatched with Hamet to carry guns, ammunition, and the other impedimenta of a naturalist who is an enthusiastic collector. The gentlemen followed soon after, Mr Braine seeing them down to the boat, which proved to be a handsome naga, fully manned. The crew were well-armed, and as Ned glanced at their faces he, little observant as he was in such matters, could note that they were a strong, fierce-looking, determined party, who would stand at nothing their leader set them to do.

There was a friendly wave of the hand, followed by that of a couple of pocket handkerchiefs, as the boat swung out into the stream and began rapidly to ascend, for the doctor and his ladies had just strolled down to the bamboo jetty, but too late to see the party off.

"I say, don't do that," cried Frank, quickly, as Ned hung one arm over the side of the boat, and let the cool water run through his fingers.

"Of course not. I forgot Hamet did tell me."

"There's a chap at the next place with only one arm. He was hanging over the side of a boat holding his line with his hand, and a croc snapped it right off."

"Is that a traveller's tale, squire?" said Murray, drily.

"No, it isn't," said the boy, frowning. "You don't believe it? Ask him there if a croc didn't nearly seize him this morning."

"What!" cried Murray.

"Yes, uncle," said Ned. "It was so, and Frank Braine snatched me away just in time."

"Oh, get out! I only pushed you out of his way. They are nasty beggars."

He turned to the Malay guard and said a few words, to which a chorus which sounded like assent came at once.

"They say you have to be very careful, for the crocs kill a good many people every year."

"Then we will be very careful," said Murray; "and I beg your pardon for doubting you."

"Oh, that don't matter."

"And let me thank you for helping Ned here this morning."

"That's nothing," cried Frank, hastily. "Hi! Abdul!" he shouted to one of the rowers; and he hurried from beneath, the mat awning overhead, amongst the crew to the man in the bows, evidently to avoid listening to further thanks, and sat down to go on talking to the Malay, whose heavy stolid face lit up as he listened.

"So you had quite an adventure?" said Murray.

"Yes, uncle," replied Ned; and he then went on to tell of the horrible scene he had witnessed.

Murray listened with his brows knit, and then after sitting thoughtful and silent for some minutes: "Mr Braine and the doctor have not exaggerated the situation, Ned," he said. "Well, my lad, we must make the best of it. I daresay we can spend a month here advantageously, but we must be careful not to upset the rajah, for, though he can be a capital friend, and send us out collecting in this royal way, it is evident that he can prove a very dangerous enemy. You see he is a man who has the power of life and death in his hands, and does not hesitate about using it. We are beyond help from the settlement, and unmistakably his prisoners."

"Well, I don't mind being a prisoner, uncle, if he is going to treat us like this."

"Good, lad. I'll take a leaf out of your book, and make the best of things. This is quite new ground for a naturalist, so let's set aside all worry about where we are, and think only of the wonderful objects about us."

Ned was already following out that plan, and wishing his uncle would not worry about other things, for they were riding at a pretty good rate up the clear sparkling river, and passing scene after scene of tropic loveliness that excited a constant desire in the boy to go ashore and roam amongst grand trees of the loveliest tints of green, all different from anything he had seen before.

Just then Frank came back.

"Got your shooting tackle ready?" he said.

"No, but I was thinking it was time," replied Murray, "and that we might as well land directly we see a bird or two. I want to get all the specimens I can."

"Land!" said Frank, with a merry laugh; "land here?"

"Yes; not to go any distance. Just for a ramble, and then return to the boat."

"But you couldn't, nor yet for miles farther on."

"Why? The country on either bank looks lovely."

"The trees do, but that's all jungle."

"Well, I see that," said Murray, rather impatiently.

"But you don't know what our jungle is, sir. You couldn't get a dozen yards any way."

"The trees are not so thick as that."

"No, but the undergrowth is, and it's all laced together, and bound with prickly canes, so that at every step you must have men to go before you with their parangs to chop and clear the way."

"Is a parang a chopper?"

"They chop with it," replied Frank. "It's the sword thing the men carry to cut down the wild vines and canes with."

"Do you mean to say we couldn't get through there?" said Ned.

"Yes, of course I do. Like to try? I did when I first came. Why, in five minutes you'd be horribly scratched, and your clothes torn half off your back, and you so hot you couldn't bear yourself."

_Cock-a-doodle-do_!

It was a peculiar broken spasmodic crow from some little distance in the jungle, and Ned turned upon the Resident's son, laughingly: "Why, there must be a road there to that farm or cottage and back."

There was an answering crow from farther away.

"Is there a village close by?" asked Murray.

"If there was a village, it would be here," said Frank, showing his white teeth. "This is the high-road of the country, and the villages are all on the rivers."

"But there must be people who keep fowls in there."

"Yes," said Frank, merrily; "Mother Nature does. Those are jungle cocks crowing. I say, look out. Don't you want one of those?"

He pointed to where a lovely bluish bird, with a long tail ending in oval disks like tiny tennis racquets, was seated some distance ahead upon a bare branch; but almost as he spoke the bird took flight, and went right on, up the river like a flash of blue light.

"Never mind; you'll have plenty more chances, and you'll soon know as much about the place as I do."

The guns were brought out of their woollen bags and charged, and the boat glided on, steered closer in to one bank now, so as to give the naturalist a better chance of a shot; with the result that he brought down in the course of the next two hours, as they followed the winding course of the river, shut in on both sides by the tall flower-decked trees, two brilliant racquet-tailed kingfishers, a pink-breasted dove, and a tiny sunbird, decked in feathers that seemed to have been bronzed and burnished with metallic tints of ruby, purple, and gold.

These were carefully picked up from the water in which they fell, laid in the sun to dry their feathers, and then put aside for preparation that evening. After this specimens were seen of gorgeously painted butterflies, one being evidently seven or eight inches across, but capture was out of the question, and Ned watched them longingly as they flitted across the stream.

"I can take you where you can catch them," said Frank; "along by the edge of the jungle where the rice-fields are; only the worst of butterfly catching there is, that a tiger may fly out and butter you, as they do the men sometimes who are at work over the rice."

"Not a pleasant way of butterfly hunting, I must say," said Murray, who, gun in hand, was watching the edge of the jungle. "What's the matter?"

For the men had suddenly ceased rowing, and the naga glided slowly on, diminishing in speed till it was stationary, and then, yielding to the influence of the stream, began to glide back.

Meanwhile an excited conversation was going on between the principal boatman and Frank Braine, the former pointing up into a huge tree whose boughs overhung the river, their tips almost touching the surface, and naturally both Murray and Ned gazed up too.

"What is it--a monkey or a bird?" said Ned, eagerly.

"Yes, I see it now," said Frank. Then, telling the men in Malay to keep the boat stationary, he turned to Murray: "Here's a shot for you, sir. I couldn't see it at first. Their eyes are sharper than ours. Wait a minute till the boat's right. That's it. Stop now, both of you look right in through that opening among the leaves, and you'll see it on a branch."

"What, some handsome bird?"

"No; something that's been up there after the birds or monkeys. Do you see? Look where I'm pointing."

"I am looking there," said Ned, eagerly; "but I can only see a great creeper all curled about and twisted in knots where it looks quite dark."

"Well, that's it," said Frank, laughing; "that great creeper. See it, Mr Murray?"

"Yes, I see it now. Wait till I change the cartridge for bigger shot."

"Yes; use your biggest for him," whispered Frank; and Ned looked on wonderingly, refraining from asking questions, for he was met by an imperious "Hush!"

"I can't see what he means, I suppose," thought Ned; and he watched eagerly now as Murray suddenly took aim and fired.

Then for a few moments there was a violent rustling and breaking of twigs, and something heavy fell with a great splash beyond the screen of leaves formed by the lowermost drooping branches.

"You hit him!" cried Frank, excitedly, and he gave an order to the men, who rowed in under the drooping boughs.

"Now quick, the other barrel!" cried the lad. "See him? Too late. He's gone!"

"I couldn't get a good sight of him," said Murray.

"But what was it?"

"A great serpent. He glided out of the river in amongst those bushes."

"Could we follow if the boat were rowed right in?"

Frank shook his head.

"Impossible," he said; and the boat was pulled out and began once more to ascend the stream.

"How big was it?" said Ned, as the incident was discussed.

"Impossible to say," replied Murray; "but I should say fifteen or sixteen feet long, and as large round as your leg."

Another hour's steady pulling up against the stream brought them to quite a change in the character of the river-banks. One side had the jungle as before, but on the other the forest receded more and more, till they gazed across a park-like plain dotted with clumps of huge trees, and rising more and more till a range of hills towered up looking wonderfully beautiful, wooded as they were to the summit.

This meant a tramp, and the boat was run up beneath some trees, to one of which it was moored, while two of the guard busied themselves in spreading refreshments beneath the awning in a business-like way, which suggested that they had been used to such tasks before.

"Rather hot for a long walk," said Frank, when the meal was finished; "but I don't mind, if you don't."

Murray smiled with the calm contempt for heat usually displayed by an Englishman, took his gun and stepped ashore, followed by the boys, to find that half a dozen men armed with spears followed them, one stepping forward to act as guide, but after a few words from Frank, going back to his place with the rest.

"Now then," he said, "what's it to be--birds or beasts?"

"Birds to-day," replied Murray.

"There you go then--a big one," cried the lad, as with a rushing, heavy beating sound of its wings, a great bird flow directly over their heads, uttering a hoarse cry, and with its huge curved bill bearing a curious, nearly square, excrescence on the top, plainly seen as the bird approached.

"Why didn't you shoot?" cried Frank, as the bird went off unscathed. "Why, I believe, I could have hit that."

"For the simple reason that I did not want to encumber myself with a bird I have had before."

"Oh, I see. There are lots of those about here, and I've found their nests."

"What sort of a nest is it?" asked Ned. "Anything like a magpie's?"

"No!" cried Frank; "not a bit. Big as they are, they build like a tomtit does, right in a hollow tree, but the one I saw had only laid one egg, and a tomtit lays lots. It was in the trunk of a great worm-eaten tree, and the hen bird was shut in, for the cock had filled the entrance-hole with clay, all but a bit big enough for the hen to put out her beak to be fed. What's that?"

Murray had fired and brought down a gaily-feathered bird, green, scarlet, and orange, and with a sharp wedge-shaped beak fringed with sharp bristles.

"A barbet," said Murray, giving the bird to one of the men to carry; "but like your hornbill, too common to be worth preserving."

Other birds fell to Murray's gun as they went on. A trogon was the next, a thickly-feathered soft-looking bird, yoke-toed like a cuckoo, and bearing great resemblance in shape to the nightjar of the English woods, but wonderfully different in plumage; for, whereas the latter is of a soft blending of greys and browns, like the wings of some woodland moths, this trogon's back was of a cinnamon brown, and its breast of a light rosy-scarlet blending off into white crossed with fine dark-pencilled stripes.

The next was rather a common bird, though none the less beautiful in its claret-coloured plumage; but the striking part of the bird was its gaily-coloured beak of orange and vivid blue.

The tramp in the broiling sunshine was so full of interest now, that Ned forgot the labour, and eagerly kept pace with his uncle, the Malays following closely behind, and carrying the specimens willingly enough, but with their swarthy faces wearing rather a contemptuous look for the man who, in preference to a quiet siesta beneath a tree, chose to tramp on beneath the burning sun for the sake of a few uneatable birds.

"I say," cried Frank, "I'll tell you of a bird you ought to shoot. Hist--hist!"

He made energetic signs to them to lie down among the low bushes through which they were passing.

He was obeyed at once, and most quickly by the Malays, who crouched down, spear in hand, like an ambush in waiting for something far more important than the two birds of which the lad had caught sight in a narrow glade of a park-like patch of trees they were approaching, but which now remained invisible.

"Well," said Murray, after waiting patiently for some few minutes with his gun cocked, "what did you see?"

"Two birds you ought to have shot," the lad whispered back, "but they must have seen us. No; look. Go on first; creep to those bushes."

He pointed to the edge of the clump, from out of which came slowly, with stately movement, a couple of long-necked birds, one of which carried behind him an enormous train of feathers which flashed in the brilliant sunshine.

Murray needed no second hint, but crept carefully forward, taking advantage of every bush and tree which afforded him shelter, while the rest remained in concealment eagerly awaiting the result; even the Malays looking excited, with their soft dark eyes glowing and their heads craned forward.

Murray soon reduced the distance between him and the birds--quite a quarter of a mile--and it seemed as if he would easily stalk them; but while he was a full hundred yards away, something seemed to have startled the game, which rose at once and made for the open, yet just in the midst of the disappointment felt at the waste of energy over the stalk, they curved round so as to make for the shelter of the trees, passing between the watchers and Murray.

"Never mind," said Frank, "he'll have another chance." Bang! following upon a puff of smoke, and the bird with the long train stopped in its flight, shot up a few yards, and then fell motionless.

Ned uttered a cheer, and the whole party hurried forward, to reach the prize some time after Murray, who had reloaded and was carefully smoothing the bird's plumage.

"A long shot, Ned," he said. "That must have been fully eighty yards. It was the large shot did it. There, you never saw a peacock like that."

"Yes," cried Ned, "often."

"No, my lad; look again."

"Well, it is a little different. The neck's green."

"Yes, instead of blue. That's the Javanese peacock, and a splendid specimen. We'll hang this up till our return. Anything likely to touch it if we hang it on a branch?"

"No, I think not, sir," replied Frank; and after the bird had been carefully suspended fully six feet from the ground, the party walked on, to find that the ground was beginning to rise steadily, an indication of their nearing the hills.

"So that's the bird you wanted me to find, was it?" said Murray, after a long silent tramp, for the bush had grown rather dense.

"Oh no. The birds I mean only come out of a night. I've only seen two since I've been here, but you can hear them often in the jungle."

"Owls?"

"Oh no; pheasants, father says they are. Birds with tremendously long tails, and wings all over great spots like a peacock's, only brown."

"Argus pheasants," said Murray, quietly. "Yes, I must try and get some specimens of them."

The ground began to rise more rapidly now, till it was quite a climb through open forest, very different to the dense jungle by the river-side. The ground, too, had become stony, with great gray masses projecting here and there, and still they rose higher and higher, till, hot and breathless, they stopped in a narrow gorge to look back at the narrow plain they had crossed, just beyond which, and fringed on the far side by the dark jungle, they could see the river winding along like a ribbon of silver.

There were several umbrageous trees here, and the air was so fresh and comparatively cool that it was decided to halt now for an hour to rest. Then, after a good look round had been taken, Murray suggested that they should return by another route to where the peacock had been hung, after which they could go direct to the boat.

The Malays lay down and began preparing fresh pieces of betel-nut to chew; but Murray's rest was short, and jumping up again, he took a geological hammer from his belt, and began to crack and chip the stones and masses of rock which peered from the barren-looking ground, the two boys, one of whom carried the gun, watching him intently.

"Plenty of quartz, Ned," said Murray. "Quite possible that one might find gold here."

As he spoke, he broke a piece of gray stone which he had hooked out from among the grass, and laid in a convenient place. A quick ejaculation came from his lips, and Frank cried excitedly, "Why, you haven't found gold?"

"No, my lad, but I have found a valuable metal. Look!"

He handed the broken halves of the stone to the boys, while the Malays crouched together, chewed away at their betel, and watched them.

"Well," said Ned, "I don't see any valuable metal. Do you?"

Frank shook his head.

"That is a fairly rich piece of ore too," said Murray. "Don't you see those little black grains running through the quartz?"

"No. These are all standing still," said Frank, laughing.

"Facetious, eh?" said Murray, smiling. "Well, those black grains are tin."

"Oh, they do get tin somewhere up the river," said Frank, eagerly; "but it isn't a bit like this."

"But it is like what this would be if it were smelted, young gentleman," cried Murray; "and, judging from appearances, I should say that the rajah could get tin enough in these hills to make him as wealthy as he likes."

"He ought to be satisfied, then, with what you have done, uncle," said Ned.

"But he will not be, my boy. He will not care to set up works, and he'll want us to try again for something better. There, we'll take our specimens to show to Mr Braine, and start back now. Give me the gun, and I'll go in the centre, and you two shall walk on either side of me, say fifty yards or so distant. You may beat up some specimens, and give me a better chance. Ask the men to keep about a hundred yards behind us."

Frank went and spoke to the men, and told them what was about to be done, and they rose, took their spears and waited while the boys started off to right and left, Murray waiting till they had guessed their distances, and then at his signal, a low whistle, the start was made for the river, down the steep slope, and bearing off so as to leave their outward track on their left.

It was a laborious descent, and Ned found the path he had to follow encumbered by loose gray stones, and full of gins and traps, in the shape of narrow cracks in the rock, and bramble-like canes ever ready to trip him up. However, fortunately, the trees and bushes were pretty open on that dry hill-side, and he could pick his way. But there was no shot, and he saw no sign of bird or reptile; only a few butterflies which started up from among the dry herbage, and went flapping away among the trees.

Once or twice he heard the crackling of twigs on his left, and once he fancied that he could hear the Malays coming on behind him; but he was not sure, and he toiled on, bathed in perspiration, thinking how wonderfully still everything was out there, and how loud the rustling noise was he made with his boots in forcing his way through the scrub.

All at once, just as he was thinking what a likely place that steep stony hill-side looked for snakes, a magnificent butterfly sprang up within a yard or two of his feet, and as he stopped short, he saw it go fluttering on in a zigzag fashion, and then pounce down all at once, only a little way on before him, and right in the direction he had to go.

"I don't see why I shouldn't have a specimen too," he said to himself, as, regardless of the heat, he took off his straw hat, and crept silently on with his eyes fixed upon the spot where the beautiful insect had disappeared. He was within a yard of it, with upraised hat ready to strike, when it darted up, and he made a bound forward, striking downward with his hat at the same time.

The result was unexpected. Ned's step was on to nothing, and, letting go of his hat, he uttered a cry of horror as he felt himself falling through bushes, and then sliding along with an avalanche of stones, apparently right away into the bowels of the earth, and vainly trying to check himself by stretching out his hands.

One moment he saw the light dimmed by the green growth over the mouth of the opening, the next he was in utter darkness, and gliding down rapidly for what seemed, in his horror and confusion, a long period. Then all at once the rattling, echoing noise of falling stones ceased, and so did his progress, as he found himself, scratched and sore, lying on his side upon a heap of stones, some of which were right over his legs. It did not take him long to extricate himself, and stand upright with his hands resting on a cold rocky wall, and as he stood there in the darkness, he obeyed his first impulse, which was to shout for help. But at every cry he uttered there was so terrible a reverberation and echo, that he ceased, and began to try to climb back up the great crack to the light of day.

To his horror and despair he soon found that such a climb would be impossible in the darkness, and as a flood of terrible thoughts threatened to sweep away his reason, and he saw himself dying slowly there from starvation, it seemed to him that it was not quite so dark as he thought, and peering before him, he felt about with hand and foot, and changed his position slowly, finding that the stones beneath him were pretty level till he made one unlucky step on a loose flat piece, which began to glide rapidly down. Although he tried hard to save himself, he slipped and rolled again for some distance before he could check his way, when he sat up with his heart bounding with joy, for, about a hundred yards or so before him, he could see a rough opening laced over by branches, through which gleamed the sunlight.

And now, as he cautiously made his way toward the light, he began to realise that he was in a rough rift or chasm in the rock, whose floor descended at about the same rate as the hill-slope; and five minutes after, he forced his passage out through the bushes which choked the entrance, to hear, away on his left, a distant "cooey."

He answered at once, and went on descending the hill, thinking how strange his adventure had been, and that after all it was only a bit of a fright, and that he had come part of the way underground, instead of above.

And now the heat of the sun reminded him that he had lost his hat, and he stopped short with the intention of going back, but another shout on his left warned him that he must proceed or he might be lost.

"And perhaps the Malays may find it," he argued; so tying his handkerchief over his head with a great leaf inside, he trudged on, answering the "cooeys" from time to time, till he drew nearer, and at last, in obedience to a whistle, joined his uncle about the same time as Frank.

"Nothing to show," cried the former. "I say, Ned, you got too far away. I thought at one time I'd lost you. Why, where's your hat?"

"Lost it," replied the boy, looking toward Frank as he spoke.

That young gentleman was laughing at him, and this so roused Ned's ire, sore and smarting as he was, that he did not attempt to make any explanation of his mishap, feeling assured that he would only be laughed at the more, for not looking which way he went.

They were all beginning to feel the effect of their walk in the hot sun, and in consequence they trudged back rather silently to where the peacock had been hung, and this was borne in triumph back to the boat, where the rest of the men were patiently awaiting their return.

"Wonder what they've got ready for us," said Frank, rousing up a little as they came near the river.

"Got ready? What, refreshments? Will they have anything?"

"There'll be a tremendous uproar if they have not," cried Frank. "The rajah is a regular old pirate, as my father says, and he helps himself to whatever he fancies from everybody round, but there's nothing stingy about him as you'll find."

The lad was quite right in his surmises respecting refreshments, for the men had quite a pleasant little repast spread, and most welcome of all, a great piece of bamboo, about five feet long, hanging from the side of the boat in the full sunshine, with one end swaying in the river.

"Look at that!" cried Frank. "Know what that is?"

"A very thick piece of bamboo."

"Yes, but what's in it?"

"I did not know anything was in it."

"But you will know directly. That's the big decanter, with a whole lot of deliriously cool drink in it. I don't know what it is, only that it's the old chap's favourite tipple, and it's precious good."

"Is it wine?"

"Oh no; at least perhaps they call it wine. It's somehow made with the sap out of the palm-trees, with cocoa-nut milk and fruit juice. I don't know, and it doesn't matter. As soon as you get your lips to a cup of it, you don't want anybody to talk to you till it's done."

Ned soon had an opportunity of putting the contents of the bamboo to the test, and he quite agreed with Frank's description, for it was delicious after the long hot walk, and they all sat enjoying their meal as the boat glided rapidly down stream now, the men merely dipping their oars from time to time to keep her head straight. They had spent a far longer time than Ned had expected, and the sun was sinking behind the jungle as the village was reached, and they disembarked, Hamet being ready to bear the spoils of the day up to the house, where Murray intended to commence preparing the skins at once, but found that Mr Braine was in waiting to insist upon the two newcomers dining with him at his place.

"Never mind them," he cried, as Murray pointed to his specimens; "you can get hundreds more at any time, and Barnes and his people will be horribly disappointed if you do not come."

To Ned's great satisfaction his uncle gave way, for he felt no great disposition to begin an unpleasant task after so hard a day, and the result was that after a change they went up to the Resident's house, to reach there just at the same time as the doctor, his wife, and daughter. _

Read next: Chapter 10. A Serious Complication

Read previous: Chapter 8. A Hungry Croc

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