"Am I sure? Why, by this time if that kris had been poisoned you would have had lock-jaw." "And Locke on the Understanding," put in Bob. "Yes," laughed the doctor; "and been locked up altogether. There, there, my dear boy, keep yourself quiet, and trust me to bring you round. You, Bob Roberts, don't let him talk, and don't talk much yourself. You'd better go to sleep, Long." "Wound pains me too much, doctor. It throbs so. Isn't that a sign of poison?" "I'll go and mix you up a dose of poison that shall send you to sleep for twelve hours, my fine fellow, if you don't stop all that nonsense. Your wound is not poisoned, neither is that of any other man who came back from the expedition; and if it's any satisfaction to you to know it, you've got the ugliest dig of any man--I mean boy--amongst the wounded." The doctor arranged the matting-screen so as to admit more air, and bustled towards the door--but stopped short on hearing a buzzing sound at the open window, went back on tiptoe, and cleverly captured a large insect. "A splendid longicorn," he said, fishing a pill-box from his pocket, and carefully imprisoning his captive. "Ah, my dear boys, what a pity it is that you do not take to collecting while you are young! What much better men you would make!" "There," said Bob, as soon as they were alone, "how do you feel about your poison now?" "He says it is not, just to cheer me up," said Tom Long, dolefully. "I say, Bob Roberts, if I die--" "If you what?" cried Bob, in a tone of disgust. "I say, if I die." "Oh, ah, of course. Now then, let's have it. Do you want me to write a verse for your tombstone?" "They'd pitch me overboard," said Long, dolefully. "Not they," said Bob. "This promising young officer, who had taken it into his head that he had been wounded by a poisoned kris, was buried under a palm tree, to the great relief of all who knew him, for they found him the most conceited--" "Bob Roberts!" "Consequential--" "I tell you what it is--" "Cocky--" "I never heard--" "Unpleasant fellow that ever wore Her Majesty's uniform." "Just wait till I get well, Master Bob Roberts," said Tom Long, excitedly, "and if I don't make you pay for all this, my name's not what it is." "Thought you had made up your mind to die," said Bob, laughing. "There, it won't do, young man; so now go to sleep. I've got another half-hour, and I'll sit here and keep the flies from visiting your noble corpus too roughly; and when you wake up, if you find I am not here it is because I am gone. D'ye hear?" "Yes," said Tom Long, drowsily; and in five minutes he was fast asleep, seeing which Bob sat till the last minute, and then went out on tiptoe to run and learn whether the boat was waiting by the landing-stage. CHAPTER THIRTEEN. AN UNPLEASANT INTERRUPTION. The feeling of satisfaction was very general at the lesson given the rajah; and though his two prahus had escaped, his power had received a most severe blow.