'Listen!' he began again helplessly, and the crowd feeling the helplessness surged closer. 'Kill him!' said one voice, dominating the others by the very simplicity of its advice. 'He is nothing. He is not of us, nor of the _Huzoors_. Who wants him?' Another instant and the advice might have been followed had not some one claimed poor Chris--had not a voice from behind said softly-- 'Well! I'm dashed if it ain't the guv'nor! Now then! you niggers!' The next instant, with a plentiful if quite good-natured use of heels and elbows, Chris Davenant's foreman of works was through the crowd into the water, and so, facing round on those threatening faces, was backing towards Chris, and making furious feints with his fists the while. '_Ram-ram_, gents,' he said affably. 'Now, w'ot you've got to do is to tell me w'ot all this is about. W'ot are you doin' to my guv'nor? Don't you speak, sir!' he added in a hasty whisper. 'I don't really want to know nothing. You and me's got to get out o' this galley, thet's all. An' if we don't,' he continued philosophically, 'you'll 'ave to explain up top, and I kin listen then. Them kind o' words ain't no use down 'ere. Lem'me speak mine!' With that he ceased sparring, walked two paces forwards in the water, put his hands in his trousers-pockets, and began on his lingo coolly-- '_Dekko_ (look here), you want this _âdmi_ (man) _abhi_ (now), but you ain't goin' to get 'im. _Tumhâra nahin_ (not yours). He's mine, _mera âdmi_ (my man), _sumjha_? (do you understand?) If you want _lurro_ (fight), come on. You shall 'ave a bellyful, an' there'll be a plenty on you to _phânsi_ (hang). But w'ot I say is, don't be _pârgul soors_ (foolish pigs). I don't do your bally 'ole temples any 'arm. It's "_durm shaster ram-ram_[14] an' _hurry gunga_," so far's I care. But this man's my guv'nor. You don't touch 'im. _Kubhi nahin_ (never). I'm a _nek âdmi, burra usseel_ (virtuous man, very gentle) w'en I'm took the right way; contrariwise I'm _zulm_ an' _ficker_ an' _burra burra affut_. Now you ask ole 'Oneyman if I ain't. 'E knows both sides o' Jân-Ali-shân, and 'e'll give 'is opinion, like the genl'eman 'e is.' He paused, for an idea, a chance had suggested itself. Then at the top of his voice, with a devil-may-care lilt in it, he began-- 'Click, click? Like a monkey on a stick.' The answer followed in a second. With rustlings and boundings the monkeys came to the rescue of the familiar voice; for the crowd behind, weary of being unable to see what was passing in front, turned instinctively to the new interest, and so, losing cohesion, the multitude lost unity of purpose also for the moment. 'Now's your time, sir,' shouted John Ellison; 'keep close to me!' Then with a wild yell of 'Clear the decks, comrades,'