1 
 
 madcab 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
M^ Cornell University 
 
 ^'' J Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006567238 
 
MOLL MEREDYTH, MADCAP 
 
Cornell university Library 
 
 PZ 7.B18M7 
 
 MollMeredyth,>T|fdMP' 
 
' Yes, rather, only 3'ou've got to take ort your shoes and stockings,' 
 
 said Jloll. 
 
 M.M.— Front. . Page 202. 
 
MOLL MEREDYTH 
 
 MADCAP 
 
 BY 
 
 MAY BAM)WIN 
 
 Autbor o( 'A City Sdiooltfirl,' 'Corah's School Chums,' 'A Schoolgirl o( Moscow,' 
 'Teddy sad Lily's Adventures,' 'Holly House,' &c. 
 
 WITH SIX COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS 
 ly 
 
 W. H. f. Groome 
 
 LONDON : 38 Sobo Square. W. 
 
 W. & R. CHAMBERS. LIMITED 
 
 EDINBURGH : 339 High Street 
 1913 
 
Edinburgh : 
 Printed by W. & E. Cliambers, Limited. 
 
TO 
 
 HER HIGHNESS 
 
 INCHI BESAR ZABIDAH 
 
 AND THE 
 
 PLANTERS OF JOHORE 
 
BOOKS FOR GIRLS 
 By Mat Baldwin. 
 
 HOLLf HOUSE AND RIDGE'S BOW 6/- 
 
 Illustrated by M. V. Wheelhodse. 
 
 HILDA'S EXPERIENCES 5/- 
 
 With Six Coloured Illustrations by W. Baikev. 
 
 A CITY SCHOOLGIRL 5/- 
 
 With Six Colonred Illustrations by T. J. Ovehnell. 
 
 A SCHOOLOTEL OP MOSCOW 6/- 
 
 With Six Coloured Illustrations by W. Eainey. 
 
 TWO SCHOOLGIELS OF FLORENCE 5/- 
 
 With Eight Coloured Illustrations by H. C. Eaenshaw. 
 
 PEG'S ADVENTUEBS IN PAEIS 5/- 
 
 With Eight Illustrations by W. Eaihet. 
 
 THE SUNSET BOCK 5/- 
 
 With Eight Illustrations by Harold Copping. 
 
 MOLL MEBEDTTH, MADCAP 3/6 
 
 With Six Coloured Illustrations by W. H. C. Groome. 
 
 MURIEL AND HER AUNT LU 3/6 
 
 With Eight Illustrations by A. S. Boys. 
 
 MYSIE: A HiOHLAHD Lassie 3/6 
 
 With Bight Illustrations by A. S. Botd. 
 
 W. & B. Chambsrs, Limited, London and Edinbcrsh. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER FAOB 
 
 I. THE planter's BUNGALOW 1 
 
 IL MOLL MEEEDYTH, MADCAP 11 
 
 IIL SINGAPOSE 23 
 
 IV. MOLL AT RAFFLES' HOTEL, AND HER VIEWS UPON 
 
 THE WORLD 34 
 
 V. IN THE JUNGLE . . . • . . . -, *^ 
 
 VI. THE SINNA DUEAI 57 
 
 VIL THE MENAGERIE 68 
 
 VIIL ON THE TRACK OP THE PANTHER .... 79 
 
 IX. A HORRIBLE RUMOUR 91 
 
 X. MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER . . . .101 
 
 XI. MOLL'S ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION . 112 
 
 XII. MOLL REPENTS 123 
 
 XIII. moll's METHOD OF 'MAKING FRIENDS' . .134 
 
 XIV. MOLL GOES FISHING 144 
 
 XV. A ' NON-RUBBER ' DINNER-PARTV . . . .157 
 
 XVL MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT 168 
 
 XVII. OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES . . . .178 
 
 XVIII. MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAY . . .188 
 
 XIX. MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR . . .199 
 
 XX. MR WAUGHOPE'S OPINION OF MOLL . . .211 
 
 XXI. A MALAY KAMPONG (VILLAGE) . . . .222 
 
 XXIL AN EXCITING CHASE 233 
 
 XXIII. THE BENGALI PLOT 243 
 
 XXIV. A TRIP TO JOHORE 253 
 
 XXV. A day's pleasuring 264 
 
 XXVI. MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCi^ i BESAR . . 277 
 
 XXVII. MOLL HAS A BAD TIME . . . . . . '288 
 
 XXVIII. MOLL LEARNS WISDOM 298 
 
 XXIX. DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES 308 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 pnaE 
 ' Yes, rather, only you 've got to take off your shoes and 
 stockings,' said Moll . . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Moll set her teeth, and tried to disentangle herself . . 71 
 
 ' If it had fallen on your head you would be dead,' said the 
 
 young Indian 118 
 
 ' Well, it 's the nicest birthday treat I could possibly have * . 164 
 
 ' Poleese ! No, I will not go to poleese ' . . . . 205 
 
 They all fled down the drive 239 
 
Moll Meredyth, Madcap. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE planter's BUNGALOW. 
 
 ^T^HE punkah was swaying lazily to and fro 
 -*■ in the planter's office, and as it passed 
 it regularly lifted a few hairs from the heated 
 planter's brow, and as regularlylet them gently 
 fall, cool and damp, on his forehead. 
 
 'You don't go in for the luxury of an 
 electric fan, Meredyth?' observed his visitor, 
 a man of calmer temperament, who leant back 
 in a rattan chair, quietly smoking a cigarette 
 and observing his host with keen eyes. 
 
 ' Not I ; we have no electric plant on the 
 estate, to begin with, and I wouldn't have a 
 fan in here if we had ; they are too violent — 
 chill me to the bone, which is dangerous in 
 the state of heat I get into. I rather wonder 
 at your advising . it, doctor,' he wound up 
 suddenly. 
 
 'Allow me to remark that I have not ad- 
 vised it. On the contrary, I agree with you 
 thfit for a man of your disposition ' 
 
 A 
 
2 THE planter's BUNGAL'OW. 
 
 ' Disposition ! Who said anything about 
 disposition? I am talking about the heat I 
 get into walking about the estate rowing these 
 miserable coolies,' interrupted Mr Meredyth. 
 
 * Exactly. If you were of an easy-going 
 disposition you would not get into a heat over 
 the laziness or misdoings of these rascally 
 Chinamen,' remarked the doctor, watching the 
 planter mop his brow. 
 
 ' Disposition be hanged ! You 'd be as hot 
 as I am, or any one else who has walked some 
 miles over a rubber estate in this tropical sun ; 
 and as for not getting angry and rowing these 
 beggars, I shd&ldn't get much rubber if I 
 didn't. You can't manage them by moral 
 suasion as you can your patients,' retorted the 
 planter. ♦ 
 
 Dr Hewlett threw back his head and laughed 
 quietly as he blew the cigarette smoke up into 
 the "air. ' Good news from the youngsters at 
 home ? ' he inquired. 
 
 % 'Yes, fairly — that's to say, they seem to 
 find MoUie rather a handful at that school of 
 hers. She wants her mother to keep her in 
 order, that 's the truth of it ; nobody else can. 
 But she won't leave me,' replied Mr Meredyth, 
 looking worried. 
 
 The doctor had broached this subject of 
 conversation as a pleasant one, a change from 
 the monotonous topic of rubber and the trials 
 
THE PLANTERS BUNGALOW. 3 
 
 of rubber planters ; but it also appeared to be 
 a vexed topic too, as indeed it always is in 
 the tropics, where the parting of parents and 
 children is a painful necessity, and the wife 
 has to choose between husband and children. 
 
 In this case the mother had chosen to stay 
 in the Straits Settlements — or, to be accurate, 
 Malaya, as the Malay Peninsula is called — on 
 her husband's rubber plantation ; and" ' quite 
 right too,' was Dr Hewlett's comment on his 
 host's last remark. 
 
 'Yes,' agreed Mr Meredyth doubtfully; 
 'quite right for me, but quite wrong for 
 MoUie. Her head-mistress >frites that MoUie 
 is so insubordinate that if we lived in England 
 she would ask us to remove her ; but, as it is, 
 she begs us to write severely to' the child, and 
 tell her she is to do what she is told, and not 
 to imagine she knows better than her eldeffe.' 
 
 ' I never thought MoUie such a termagant. 
 She was very good-tempered and obedient 
 when she came to stay with us last summer 
 at Broadstairs ; in fact, she was the most 
 popular girl on the sands and the ringleader 
 in all the sports,' objected the doctor, who had 
 been home with his wife a year ago, and had 
 kindly invited MoUie and her brothers to spend 
 their holidays with them at the seaside. 
 
 'Very likely she is fond of you and Mrs 
 Hewlett, and enjoyed herself tremendously 
 
4 THE PLANTERS BUNGALOW. 
 
 with you, and naturally she did what she was 
 told because she was not told to do anything 
 she did not like ; but school is a different pair 
 of shoes. She is popular there too, but leads 
 the other girls into mischief. She had a mock 
 funeral of herself the other day, and is in dis- 
 grace now, it appears (or was when she wrote), 
 in consequence of it.' 
 
 Dr Hewlett looked puzzled, but laughed as 
 he said, ' What was the idea of that ? It 
 sounds foolish, but not a criminal offence.' 
 
 Moll Meredyth's father looked grave for a 
 minute, and then joined in the laughter, only 
 to look grave again as he continued, ' She was 
 ordered to keep within bounds, as they call it, 
 which means apparently within a small railed- 
 in garden, in ' which she was supposed to 
 " promenade like the animals in the Zoo," as 
 she "puts it, and in full view of the play- 
 grounds.' 
 
 ' Rather tantalising,' put in the doctor. 
 
 *Well, it may not have been the wisest 
 punishment for a girl of Moll's spirit. Any- 
 way, to quote her own words again, as she 
 was meant to be a spectacle for the public she 
 thought she 'd give them something to look at ; 
 so she got a wheelbarrow, made it into a kind 
 of hearse, and pushed it along, having dressed 
 herself in deep mourning for her sins.' 
 
 The doctor broke into a roar of laughter. 
 
THE planter's BUNGALOW. 5 
 
 * The imp ! she got it from the 'varsity under- 
 graduates. They ought to have taken no notice 
 of her nonsense.' 
 
 ' Her mother does not seem to think so ; she 
 was quite upset about it all, so don't say any- 
 thing about it, or make a joke of it at tiffin, 
 will you, if the wife mentions it ? ' observed the 
 father, smiling. 
 
 'No, no, of course not, and, after all, Mrs 
 Meredyth is right ; Moll is at school to learn, 
 not to play the fool ; at her age too — fourteen, 
 isn't she ? ' remarked the doctor, with a laudable 
 desire to work himself and Mr Meredyth into 
 a suitably shocked frame of mind at Moll's 
 escapades before they met Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 To tell the truth, much though he liked 
 Mr Meredyth and his daughter, he and a good 
 many more people pitied Mrs Meredyth, who 
 was herself a very quiet woman, for having 
 such a harum-scarum husband and a daughter 
 who promised to be a ' handful,' if she were not 
 one now. 
 
 'You are just the man I wanted to see, 
 doctor,' was Mrs Meredyth's smiling greeting. 
 
 ' I am sorry to hear it, if it means that my 
 services are wanted,' replied the doctor, taking 
 his seat beside his hostess. 
 
 ' Only as a friend ; I want your advice,' she 
 began; 
 
 ' That 's always at your disposal. What is 
 
6 THE planter's BUNGALOW. 
 
 it ? Nothing serious — no fever, I hope ? ' he 
 inquired, for, unconsciously, Mrs Meredyth's 
 face wore a rather worried expression, 
 
 ' Oh no, not iUness, and I have not had a 
 touch of fever for a year. I think this place 
 is getting healthier now that they have cleared 
 so much of the jungle ; don't you think so ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, it 's better than it was some years ago ; 
 a regular fever-hole it used to be when I first 
 came here. I sometimes wonder whether we 
 Britishers are wise in coming to tropical 
 countries to ruin our health and spend the 
 best part of our lives separated from our 
 nearest and dearest,' observed the doctor 
 gloomily, for his wife spent most of her time 
 in England with their children, and the doctor 
 missed them terribly. 
 
 ' That is just what I wanted to consult you 
 about. I feel that though it is necessary to 
 send one's boys away for their education, there 
 is not the same necessity to part with one's 
 daughter,' observed Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 Dr Hewlett looked his surprise. ' You want 
 to bring Moll out here ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' Yes, I want her under my eye. Of course 
 I want my girl ; but I should not be so selfish 
 as to bring her out if I thought it was for 
 her good to stay in England. It certainly is 
 not doing her good as regards her character, 
 and the only point to decide is whether it 
 
THE PLANTERS BUNGALOW. 7 
 
 would be bad for her health to-^come out here. 
 What is your opinion, doctor ? ' 
 
 The doctor shook his head. 'Better leave 
 her at home, Mrs Meredyth ; the Straits is no 
 place for a young girl. It is bad enough for 
 old people, but you don't want her to look like 
 the rest of us,' he replied. But, even as he said 
 it, he felt pretty sure that Mrs Meredyth had 
 made up her mind to have her daughter out, 
 unless he actually condemned the idea. 
 
 And he was not much surprised when, at the 
 end of their conversation, she observed, • I am 
 glad at least that you agree with me that it is 
 possible to live here and be healthy in spite of 
 malaria and heat ; and, after all, if we can have 
 her out for a few months it will be better than 
 my leaving my husband in this treacherous 
 climate.' 
 
 Dr Hewlett smiled to himself at this 
 contradictory speech, and thought that he 
 knew from whence Moll got some of her self- 
 will ; but he only said, ' Lots of girls do live in 
 Singapore, and though they look rather washed 
 out, as I said before, compared with English 
 rosy-cheeked maidens, still they manage to 
 keep well ; and if you have made up your mind 
 to have her, why, I must keep my eye on^her 
 too, and between us let us hope she will 
 flourish.' 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked relieved that the idea 
 
8 THE planter's BUNGALOW. 
 
 was not scouted as impossible by the doctor, 
 and next aet to work to tackle Mr Meredyth, 
 who was as surprised as the doctor, and far 
 more vehement in his protests. 
 
 * Never ! I 'd sooner you went home ; I 
 shall be able to get away next year myself. 
 I would rather be alone here for a year than 
 bring Moll out.' 
 
 ' By why, Eustace ? The Sullimans have 
 never sent their daughters home, and they are 
 never ill.' 
 
 'SuUiman could not afford it, or he would 
 have ; besides, Singapore is not the jungle 
 with all its dangers. I should never have a 
 moment's peace if she were here, running the 
 risk of being carried off by a tiger, or bitten 
 by a snake or scorpion ; to say nothing of 
 fever. No, let her stay in England where one 
 does not carry one's life in one's hand, so to 
 speak,' exclaimed Mr Meredyth, mopping his 
 brow again, for in spite of the punkah he 
 had succeeded in working himself up into a 
 fine state of heat. 
 
 The doctor and Mrs Meredyth looked at 
 him, and involuntarily caught each other's eye. 
 Then the doctor burst into hearty and pro- 
 longed laughter, and even Mrs Meredyth 
 smiled. 
 
 ' It 's nothing to laugh at,' said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 'I beg your pardon, Meredyth, for my un- 
 
THE planter's BUKOALOW. 9 
 
 seemly merriment, but really the picture you 
 conjure up of life in this peaceful bungalow is 
 worthy of a writer for a " penny-dreadful." I 
 begin to marvel that we have lived here all 
 these years without having met with any of 
 these dangers,' protested the doctor. 
 
 'We happen to be sensible people who do 
 not run into danger ; but with a madcap like 
 Moll I should never feel safe,' observed Mr 
 Meredyth. 
 
 'I will undertake to look after her safety' 
 observed Mrs Meredyth quietly. 
 
 Her husband saw, as the doctor had done 
 before him, that Mrs Meredyth had made up 
 her mind to have her daughter with her, and 
 on the rare occasions that she asserted herself 
 she had her way. 'When do you mean to 
 have her out, and who is going to take care of 
 her ? It 's a pity she 's too late to come with 
 Ken, if she really is coming,' he remarked. 
 
 'I don't think it is too late if we cable,' 
 said Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 Mr JV^redyth gave vent to a long whew. 
 ' This is quick work ; Ken starts next week by 
 the P, & 0.,' he exclaimed. 
 
 ' That gives us ten days, and I have a code 
 cable ready here if you approve,' said his wife. 
 
 Mr Meredyth was silent for a minute. ' As 
 you wish, my dear. If she 's coming, she had 
 better come now ; it is the best time, and 
 
10 THE planter's BUNGALOW. 
 
 Kenneth is as good as a brother and as steady 
 as old Time. She will be as safe under his 
 charge as she would be with any one. Well, 
 we shall see the minx in a month. To think 
 of that ! I must confess her last letter made 
 me long to have the child within hail. It will 
 be nice having her. — Eh, doctor ? ' 
 
 'Very nice,' agreed the doctor, and said no 
 more, for he saw it would be useless, and, after 
 all, other Europeans did keep their children 
 with them, and he only chuckled a little to 
 himself over Mr Meredyth's quick surrender 
 and complacence in a plan to which he had so 
 vehemently objected a few minutes before ; 
 but that was his friend's character, as he knew 
 by experience. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth accordingly took the m®tor 
 into Johore, and sent off her lengthy cable- 
 grams. 
 
 The Meredyths were very well off, and a 
 few pounds for a telegram was nothing to them. 
 
 The feelings with which the two cables were 
 received were very different, and require a new 
 chapter to explain them. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 MOLL MEREDTTH, MADCAP. 
 
 'T^HE cablegrams were addressed to Mr 
 -*■ Meredyth's brother, whose son Ken — 
 or, to give him his full name, Mr Kenneth 
 Meredyth, junior — was assistant to his uncle 
 on his rubber estate, and was now taking a 
 holiday at home, the which holiday was now 
 coming to an end. 
 
 A greater contrast to Eustace Meredyth 
 than the Kenneth Meredyths, father and son, 
 could hardly be imagined. Mr Kenneth 
 Meredyth, senior, was a grave, stern man — a 
 day spent in whose house by his niece Moll 
 had been ' enough for her,' as she announced, 
 and, it may be added, enough for her uncle 
 and his family. At all events, it was the 
 first and last time she was asked there ; 
 although her aunt used regularly to go to the 
 school to visit her, and took her for a drive 
 and to lunch or tea somewhere. But to the 
 house she never came again, for she and her 
 uncle and Ken did not get on well. , 
 
 When, therefore, the lengthy cablegrams 
 were opened by Mr Kenneth Meredyth, senior, 
 his remark was, 'They must be mad.' And 
 when his wife heard the news she was inclined 
 to agree with her husband. 
 
12 MOLL MBBBDTTH, MADCAP. 
 
 As for Moll's cousin, when he understood that 
 he was expected to ' chaperon ' Moll to Singa- 
 pore he flatly refused. ' Me look after Moll for 
 four blessed weeks — nothing would induce me to 
 undertake such a thing ! I can't imagine what 
 Aunt Eulalie is thinking of to suggest such a 
 thing. If it were Uncle Eustace I should not 
 be surprised ; there 's no knowing what he will 
 take into his head to do next, as we all know 
 very well on the estate ; but Aunt Eulalie has 
 her head screwed on the right way, and I do 
 wonder at her.' 
 
 *Do I understand you to say that your 
 uncle's management of the estate is unreliable ? ' 
 inquired his father gravely. He was a business 
 man by nature, and had a large share in this 
 same estate. • 
 
 ' Oh no ; he 's all right as a rubber-planter. 
 The estate is very well run — one of the best 
 about; but he leads us assistants a dance at 
 times, though every one likes him — you can't 
 help it. But that's not the point just now. 
 I can't possibly take Moll out with me ; and 
 what they mean by having her out in the 
 middle of her school term I don't know,' he 
 a(Jded. 
 
 'They mean that the school authorities 
 won't keep her any longer, and small blame to 
 them. An impertinent chit, I call her,' said 
 his father, who could not endure Moll. 
 
MOLL MEEEDTTH, MADCAP. 13 
 
 ' If all those women who are trained to it 
 can't manage Moll, it 's not likely I can, and, 
 what's more, I won't. She won't attend to 
 a word I say, you may be sure of that; and 
 she'll probably try to climb the masts and 
 refuse to come down for the captain, and I 
 shall be led the life of a dog,' gloomily observed 
 Ken, who knew his cousin well. 
 
 ' She may be subdued now after this last 
 disgrace,' observed his mother. 
 
 ' Then perhaps they '11 keep her,' suggested 
 Ken. 
 
 'I am afraid not; but we may find some 
 kind lady going by your boat who will look 
 after Moll,' continued Mrs Kenneth Meredyth. 
 
 ' In that case I suppose she '11 have to come 
 with me, unless' — here Ken Meredyth's face 
 brightened in a way not flattering to Moll — 
 'unless there is no vacant berth, and I hope 
 to goodness there is not,' he muttered. 
 
 However, on ringing up the P. & 0., it 
 was found that there was a berth, and it was 
 also found that there were exceptionally few 
 ladies going by that particular boat, and they 
 mostly young married ladies, 
 
 Kenneth groaned when he saw the list. Of 
 the few he knew, none were likely to trouble 
 thgir heads about Moll ; but even his father 
 declared that he must take care — the best care 
 he could — of his cousin. Mrs Meredyth 
 
14 MOLL MKREDTTH, MADCAP. 
 
 motored down to the school, which was 
 some miles out of London, and arrived with 
 the cable to be shown to the head-mistress. 
 The other cable had given private directions to 
 the Kenneth Meredyths. 
 
 Miss Bates was as surprised as every one 
 else had been. ' I am very sorry to lose Ker,' 
 she said. 
 
 'But I understood that you found her too 
 insubordinate ! ' observed the visitor, surprised 
 in her turn at this reception of her news, 
 
 'That is true — no girl has ever given me 
 so much trouble ; but I like her in spite of it. 
 One cannot help loving the girl ; moreover, 
 I do not like failing in managing a girl who 
 is not bad and has only high spirits and dis- 
 obedience against her,' said the head-mistress. 
 
 However, there was nothing to be done but 
 to obey her parents' commands, and Mrs Mere- 
 dyth asked that her niece might be sent for. 
 
 ' She will be wild with excitement ;-.! believe 
 she gets very home-sick for her parents at 
 times, and it is only natural,' remarked Miss 
 Bates, ringing the bell, and suppressing a sigh 
 of regret that her mischievous pupil's school 
 career should be thus abruptly cut short. It 
 was her own doing really ; she had written 
 that letter in a moment of exasperation. But 
 that was a month ago, and since then Moll 
 had been fairly well-beh§,ved ; besides, she had 
 
MOLL MEBEDYTH, MADCAP. 15 
 
 not imagined it possible that the girl would 
 be removed, or she would probably not have 
 suggested such a thing. 
 
 Mrs Meredy t^ sympathised with Miss Bates's 
 feelings, and determined to repress unseemly 
 delight on the part of her unruly niece. 
 
 A. scuffle and stifled laughter were heard in 
 the passage ; and then the door opened, and 
 there entered a sturdy, well-built girl of four- 
 teen, with fresh round face and gray eyes that 
 twinkled with laughter, while she tried to 
 purse up her mouth and look serious enough 
 to enter the presence of her principal. 
 
 At sight of her aunt she gave a cry of 
 delight, for Moll Meredyth was an affectionate 
 girl, and she liked her uncle's wife far better 
 than she did her uncle. Then at sight of their 
 grave faces her own changed, and she ex-* 
 claimed, 'There is nothing wrong — no bad 
 news? Father and mother are well? And 
 the boys^' 
 
 * They are all quite well,' began Mrs Mere- 
 dyth; but as Moll's spirits showed signs of 
 rising at this good news, she added, 'but I 
 have come to tell you serious news. You are 
 going out to your parents next week.' 
 
 Again Moll's expressive face changed. ' Then 
 they are ill, or something must be the matter. 
 Oh, please, tell me the truth — why am I to 
 go out ? ' she cried impatiently. * 
 
16 MOLL MEREDTTH, MADCAP, 
 
 'You are going because we cannot manage 
 you here,' said Miss Bates a little bitterly ; 
 and Mrs Meredyth could not help feeling that 
 she was rather injudicious and not quite the 
 person to manage a high-spirited girl like 
 Moll Meredyth. 
 
 'Do you mean that you are sending me 
 away 1 That you won't keep me any longer ? ' 
 she demanded of her schoolmistress, her eyes 
 flashing. 
 
 ' Moll, do not speak to Miss Bates like that,' 
 protested her aunt. 
 
 ' I don't care ; it 's mean of her to go and 
 have me taken away when I 've been trying to 
 behave properly for a whole month,' said Moll. 
 
 ' Moll, be silent,' said Miss Bates severely, 
 ' I have nothing to do with it, and this news 
 is as great a surprise to me as it is to you. 
 I certainly wrote a letter of complaint of your 
 conduct a month ago, as it was my duty to do, 
 but I did not anticipate this result.' . 
 
 ' Then you don't want me to leave ? ' asked 
 Moll, who, it will be noted, did not attempt 
 to apologise for hsjc violent and impertinent 
 language. 
 
 * No, Moll ; you have given me a great deal 
 of trouble, but I am sorry you are leaving me 
 like this, and just now,' said Miss Bates ; and 
 it wiU also be noted that she did not demand 
 an apology. 
 
MOLL MBREDYTH, MADCAP. 17 
 
 Mrs Meredyth noticed both these facts, and 
 began to feel that perhaps her sis*ter-in-law's 
 plan was not so unwise as to leave her here, 
 where she certainly was not kept in proper 
 order. 
 
 But Moll thought otherwise, and turning to 
 her aunt said calmly, ' Then I am not going 
 to leave this school.' 
 
 'My dear Moll!' protested Miss Bates. 
 Every one, even her teachers, called her Moll, 
 although she had been christened Mary, which 
 baptismal name she repudiated with her usual 
 lawlessness. 
 
 ' I am sorry, but it is too late to alter your 
 future plans. You are to go out to Singa- 
 pore with your cousin Kenneth next week in 
 the P. & O.,' announced Mrs Meredyth with 
 decision. , 
 
 'WithKei^ That I won't. He'd be saying 
 don't do this and don't do that the whole time ; 
 I should lead the life of a dog with him. 
 Aunt, please cable to mother to say I want to 
 stop here, and that Miss Bates wants it too. — 
 You do, don't you ? ' said Moll. 
 
 But Mrs Meredyth declined tc, do any 
 such thing ; and, in spite of Moll's '^''^hement 
 objections, declared that she must be ready 
 to start in a week's time, not even smiling, 
 although somewhat amused, at Moll's uncon- 
 scious echoing of Kenneth, 
 
 u.u. B 
 
18 MOLL MEREDTTH, MADCAP. 
 
 At last Miss Bates came to the rescue with 
 a suggestion. ' Supposing we cable to Malaya 
 to say that Moll feels leaving very keenly, and 
 that I share her feelings on that point, and 
 that we should be glad to be allowed to 
 hope that she will return in a year, when she 
 will be older and, we will trust, wiser,' she 
 proposed. 
 
 'I will certainly send that cable,' agreed 
 Mrs Meredyth, who saw the objection to a 
 sudden disappearance in the middle of the 
 term. 
 
 ' Say I won't come unless they promise that,' 
 amended Moll. But this amendment, as may 
 be supposed, was lost, and Miss Bates's sug- 
 gested cable brought a prompt and satisfactory 
 reply. 
 
 'I hope you told her she was to behave 
 herself if she came with me,' Sbserved Ken, 
 when he found that everything was arranged 
 and that he was indeed doomed to be respon- 
 sible for his cousin for the next three or four 
 weeks. 
 
 ' I think she is improved,' said his mother. 
 
 Ken gj\ye a disbelieving grunt. ' She need 
 not think i^he is going to do as she likes with 
 me,' he said with great want of gallantry. 
 
 ' She does not think so ; in fact, she is no 
 more anxious to go with you than you are to 
 take her,' Mrs Meredyth could not help saying 
 
MOLL MEREDTTH, MADCAP. 19 
 
 to her son, who, though not unamiable, was 
 not showing an amiable spirit on this occasion, 
 and she could not help smiling as she repeated 
 Moll's fear (identical with his own) that she 
 was going to have a dog's life with him. 
 
 Ken laughed too. ' Oh well, I suppose I 
 shall have to put up with her, and if she gets 
 obstreperous I shall appeal to the captain,' 
 he observed ; and resigned himself to his fate 
 with what grace he could. 
 
 Miss Bates meanwhile, with great kindness 
 and tact, made much of Moll this last week, 
 so as to prevent her feeling that she was being 
 removed as unmanageable, and it was spoken 
 of as a year's absence. ' In which I hope you 
 will learn as much as you would have done at 
 school,' said Miss Bates. 
 
 ' I shall learn a lot of geography and botany, 
 and aU about animals and things ; but I sha'n't 
 learn proper school-lessons, because there is 
 no school near us. We live in the jungle,' 
 said Moll, who had been born at Bukit Ayer 
 fourteen years before, and stayed there till she 
 was four years old. 
 
 ' The jungle ! How awful ! Aren't there 
 buflFaloes and tigers and all sorts of wild 
 beasts there ? ' cried a schoolfellow. 
 
 'Yes, right in the jungle; but they don't 
 come near the bungalow,' said Moll carelessly, 
 
 ' I shouldn't care about buffaloes and tigers 
 
20 MOLL MEREDTTH, MADCAP. 
 
 much, but I would love to see the jungle, with 
 gorgeous flowering trees and birds-of-paradise 
 and beautiful butterflies ; I love barbaric colour- 
 ing,' said an older girl, who posed as artistic 
 and was considered to put on ' side.' 
 
 ' What 's it like, anyway, Moll ? Are there 
 really tigers and horrid creatures like that all 
 round you ? Aren't you afraid ? ' asked another 
 girl. 
 
 'Afraid! What of? Tigers? They don't 
 come into the house or gardens, and I don't 
 suppose theytt are allowed on the estate. If 
 there were any danger, mother would not 
 have me there, nor be there herself There 
 are tigers, I know, because father goes for 
 tiger-hunts sometimes with the Rajah, and 
 he shot a man-eater the other day, which he 
 is having stufffed ; but I don't remember much 
 about Bukit Ayer. Oh won't it be delightful 
 seeing father and mother again ! You girls 
 who go home every holiday don't know what 
 I feel when I see you go oiF and am left behind 
 myself.' 
 
 * Mind you write and describe it all, and send 
 us some bird-of-paradise wings,' said her friend. 
 
 ' All I know about Singapore is that pine- 
 apples come from there. You can't send us 
 some of those, I suppose ? ' suggested another. 
 
 ' Singapore where the pine-apples come from,' 
 laughed Moll, and so in laughter and chatter 
 
MOLIi MEREDTTH, MADCAP. 21 
 
 the play-times till she went were spent ; and a 
 day before the boat sailed, Moll went up to 
 town to her uncle's house. 
 • The last evening at school they gave Moll a 
 surprise party (by Miss Bates's kind permis- 
 sion), and her great popularity was shown on 
 the occasion by the numerous souvenirs she 
 received and the number of the guests, which 
 included the whole of the upper school. 
 
 Moll was more touched than she chose to 
 show ; but she was in the highest of spirits, as 
 was evident by her parting speech. 
 
 ' Ladies and others — the others can take 
 that as they like it — I am deeply gratified at 
 the thought of leaving you' — howls of dis- 
 approval — ' don't interrupt — leaving you with 
 such gratifying proofs of your admiration and 
 esteem, which has been merited by ray uniform 
 good behaviour ' (' For shame, Moll ! ' came from 
 the elder girls), ' and which is the only possible 
 explanation of the august condescension of the 
 Sixth in attending this solemn funeral.' Some 
 of the Sixth showed signs of getting up and 
 going at this audacious allusion to Moll's last 
 prank, whereupon that young lady, who always 
 knew when she had gone far enough, and could 
 withdraw if she chose, continued this funeral 
 of her past bad self by their late schoolfellow, 
 ' who will be resurrected a year hence, all being 
 well, a reformed character.' 
 
22 MOLL MEREDTTH, MADCAP. 
 
 Her concluding remarks having mollified 
 them, the party broke up more amicably than 
 it had promised to do, and Moll departed next 
 morning amid a storm of cheers and good 
 wishes, and fervent hopes that she would have 
 a ' good time and come back safe and sound a 
 a year hence.' 
 
 How those wishes were fulfilled, and what 
 kind of a time Moll had, will be told in thei 
 following chapters. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SINGAPORE. 
 
 'IVyrOLL!' Then came a rap at Moll's 
 •^'-■- cabin-door. 
 
 ' What 's the row 1 ' called out that young 
 lady from within. 
 
 'Singapore,' was Ken Meredyth's laconic 
 answer ; and he mentally added, ' thank good- 
 ness! 
 
 ' Singapore — good gracious ! ' screamed Moll, 
 and a great scuttling about was heard within ; 
 and then Moll's head appeared, framed in the 
 door curtain, as she said in tones of excitement, 
 ' Are we really there ? What on earth do they 
 mean by arriving in the middle of the night ? 
 I 'm not dressed. Tell mother to come down 
 here.' 
 
 ' It 's not the middle of the night. If you 
 did not stay in bed after every one else was up 
 you would be dressed like all the res^ of us,' 
 retorted her cousin severely. 
 
 ' Don't stand there lecturing me ; your rule 
 is over, thank goodness. Go and fetch mother ; 
 I am dying to see her,' declared Moll. 
 
 * She is not on board ; we have not arrived 
 yet. I thought I had better rouse you before- 
 hand,' he explained. 
 
 'You could have done that without up- 
 
24 SINGAPORE, 
 
 setting me and shattering my nerves with 
 your untruthfulness, I should think,' com- 
 plained Moll, alluding to his reply to her that 
 Singapore was the matter. 
 
 'That's all the thanks one gets from you. 
 For gratitude, commend me to girls, and as for 
 untruthfulness, if you look out of the porthole 
 you will see Singapore, which we shall reach 
 before you are half-ready, and Aunt Eulalie 
 will think there is, something the matter when 
 she finds you are not on deck looking out for 
 her,' was Kenneth Meredyth's parting shot 
 before he turned to go on deck. 
 
 But his last words had to be addressed to a 
 closed door, for Moll had shut it in his face, 
 and was furiously throwing on her clothes — 
 the first that came to hand — so as to be up 
 before the boat anchored. 
 
 Such was her speed that they had not come 
 within hail of the dock before her cousin heard 
 a voice saying, 'What a lot of canoes, and 
 what hideous-looking wretches those Malays 
 in then; are.' 
 
 He turned with surprise to see Moll, her 
 face aglow with delight at the thought that 
 she would soon see her parents, and not as 
 untidy as might have been expected from her 
 hasty toilet. True, her hair did not look so 
 elaborately arranged as it had been during the 
 voyage, and her brooch, Kenneth noticed with 
 
SINGAPORE. 25 
 
 his habitual keen-sightedness, was crooked. 
 However, }\e wisely abstained from making 
 any remark upon Moll's personal appearance, 
 nor upon her expeditious toilet, but ob- 
 served, ' They are not canoes ; they are sam- 
 pans, and these don't happen to be Malays, 
 who are not hideous wretches at all, but a 
 nice-looking race as a rule.' 
 
 ' It wouldn't be you if you didn't contradict. 
 These boats are just* like caaoes, and if these 
 are not natives, what are they, pray?' de- 
 manded Moll, who was leaning over the rail, 
 and watching the crowd of small boats follow- 
 ing alongside up the Straits. « 
 
 ' These are Chinese ; I should have thought 
 you would have known that. There are some 
 little Malay boys diving for coins. I think 
 some of them very pretty ; don't you ? ' 
 
 ' No, I can't bear blacks,' declared Moll. 
 
 ' Blacks ! ' began Kenneth in a protesting 
 tone; but then he bethought himself that it 
 was a waste of time arguing with Moll, who 
 could see for herself that Malays were brown, 
 not black, and that she was probably only 
 calling them so out of opposition to aggravate 
 him, and said no more. 
 
 Moll watched the chattering, grinning crowd 
 of Asiatics half-impatiently ; though it was a 
 strange enough scene, and interesting too, for 
 she wanted to see which of the white-clad 
 
26 8IN0AP0BB. 
 
 people on yonder pier, whose faces she could 
 not yet distinguish, would turn out to be her 
 parents. 
 
 'Ken, have I been a great nuisance?' she 
 demanded abruptly of her cousin, turning her 
 bright, niischievous face to him with a more 
 serious expression on it than was habitual 
 to her. 
 
 Kenneth Meredyth looked down from his 
 superior height of six feet one inch upon her, 
 smiling good-naturedly. He thought she was 
 afraid that he was going to make some com- 
 plaint of her conduct during the voyage, which, 
 it must be admitted, had been trying at times, 
 and he answered, 'Not as bad as you might 
 have been. Anyway, we'll start in the East 
 with a clean sheet^^ and let bygones be by- 
 gones ; and so you need not be afraid of my 
 peaching.' 
 
 Her cousin meant it kindly, and was quite 
 unprepared for the scorn with which his reply 
 was greeted. 
 
 'Afraid! I afraid of anything? Besides, 
 I 'm not afraid of your telling mother anything ; 
 I shall tell her all about the voyage myself. 
 I didn't mean that. But it 's no good explain- 
 ing to you ; you wouldn't understand.' 
 
 ' If you mean were you a bother to me, you 
 weren't much trouble ; and though you led Mr 
 Symes rather a dance, he deserved it;,' said 
 
SINaAFORE. 27 
 
 Kenneth, who was not as dense as Moll seemed 
 to imagine, and guessed that she had meant to 
 apologise for any trouble she had given him, 
 which he was bound to own had not been as 
 much as he had expected. 
 
 But Moll's soft moment was gone. ' Oh 
 that old fidget ! He was a nuisance, if you 
 like, wanting the whole ship to be kept like a 
 rest-cure, and no one to speak above a whisper,' 
 she retorted. 
 
 ' You need not have persisted in pretending 
 he was deaf and had to be shouted at,' said 
 Kenneth. 
 
 The remark was wasted, for Moll was not 
 attending to him ; she was leaning forward 
 over the rail and gazing at the still distant 
 pier. ' It is — it is they ! ' she cried excitedly, 
 and began waving her handkerchief. 
 
 It seemed an eternity until the P. & 0. 
 liner came to a standstill at the dockside, and 
 even then there was a tantalising wait while 
 the gangway was let down and the eager 
 crowd of Europeans came hurrying up the 
 ladder, jostling each other in their anxiety to 
 get to their friends and relatives on board. 
 
 'Glad to see you, Ken, my boy. Awfully 
 good of you to be bothered with this young 
 lady ; I hope she has not been a great nuisance 
 to you. It was asking a big favour of you, 
 but we'll get even with you some day,' said 
 
28 SINGAPOEK. 
 
 Moll's father, clapping his nephew heartily on 
 the back. 
 
 ' That 's all right, Uncle Eustace. She was 
 no bother at all, I can assure you, and was a 
 great acquisition on board — the most popular 
 passenger, in fact,' replied Kenneth. 
 
 ' What gammon. Ken ! you know you hardly 
 dared go into the smoke-room and leave me 
 alone. — He 's had the life of a dog this voyage, 
 only he's too polite to say so to your face,' 
 observed Moll, who despite the heat was cling- 
 ing to her mother. 
 
 * Sit down quietly, Moll ; it 's too hot to get 
 excited on the equator, so to speak. This 
 place will take some of the energy out of you, 
 I expect, and so much the better; it's time 
 you quieted down,' said her father, looking, all 
 the same, with undisguised pride at his hand- 
 some daughter, whose red cheeks were so 
 refreshing after the pale, washed-out com- 
 plexions that are the rule in the East. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth was the quietest of the party. 
 She was never a demonstrative person, and the 
 sight of her daughter seemed to make her 
 graver than usual. The fact was that her 
 heart misgave her when she realised that she 
 had brought this girl, looking the picture of 
 health, to a place where few people managed 
 to keep well, and many fell victims to fever, 
 and she did not regard with complacence (as her 
 
SINGAPORE. 29 
 
 husband seemed to do) the thought that Moll 
 would lose her activity in this climate. 
 
 Moll had no forebodings, and laughed as she 
 mopped her face. 'It's like an everlasting 
 Turkish bath. But you look awfully white, 
 mother ! Have you been ill ? ' 
 
 ' Not lately ; that is my tropical complexion. 
 I am afraid you will soon look just as white, 
 MoUie dear,' said her mother half-sadly. 
 
 * I only hope I shall ; it has been the dream 
 of my life to be pale and emaciated,' said Moll 
 gaily. 
 
 *It isn't the dream of my life to see you 
 so, and if I see any sign of it, off you go to 
 England, and your mother with you,' said her 
 father. 
 
 ' No fear; I shall never get white. All that 
 the sun does to me is to make me as red as a 
 brick or an overheated cook. Surely you don't 
 like me to look like this ? ' remarked Moll, who 
 caught a, glimpse of her crimson, heated face in 
 the mirror opposite which they were sitting. 
 What with the excitement and her wild haste 
 in dressing, Moll had got herself into a great 
 state of heat, which is an easy thing to do at 
 Singapore. 
 
 ' We have some hours before the train goes 
 for Bukit Ayer, so I think we had better go 
 and have tiffin at Baffles', and then take a 
 motor and show Moll round a bit. What do 
 
30 SINGAPORE. 
 
 you say, Eulalie? Is it too hot?' inquired 
 Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Lovely,' interposed Moll ; ' I don't feel as 
 hot here as I did at sea. If this is all the 
 equator is, I don't mind sitting on it for the 
 rest of my life. But, mother, before we go I 
 want to introduce vou to some friends I have 
 made.' 
 
 Kenneth Meredyth laughed. ' I had better 
 warn you that Moll has made friends with all 
 the passengers more or less, and has been issu- 
 ing invitations broadcast to come and see her.' 
 
 ' Quite right too; the more the merrier,' said 
 Mr Meredyth with true Eastern hospitality. . 
 
 ' I hope they are nice people, Moll,' said her 
 mother, looking a little doubtfully at a noisy 
 group not far off, who were nodding and 
 beckoning to Moll. 
 
 ' I have choked a few of them off, and told 
 them all that we are at the seventeenth mile, 
 w<hich, I think, will discourage a good many,' 
 observed Kenneth in an undertone to his aunt. 
 
 The seventeenth mile, it may be explained, 
 meant that the Meredyths' bungalow was seven- 
 teen miles along the road from the nearest 
 town, from which distances were counted by 
 miles. 
 
 ' You will be glad to see them, mother, won't 
 you ? ' inquired Moll, leading her mother up to 
 one group after another. 
 
SINGAPORE. 31 
 
 ' Certainly. — I hope, if you find ^ourselves 
 near Bukit Ayer, you will come and see us,' 
 was Mrs Meredyth's courteous response in 
 most cases ; while to a girl of seventeen, who 
 had come out on a visit to her married sister, 
 she gave a cordial invitation to come and stay, 
 if her sister would spare her. 
 
 ' Oh mother, how horrid ! I could not really 
 — I could not get into that dreadful little 
 carriage and have a woman for a horse ! ' cried 
 Moll vehemently at sight of the rickshaws 
 drawn up on, the wharf ready for fares. 
 
 'Don't be ridiculous, Moll. For goodness' 
 sake don't make a scene ; you 're attracting 
 every one's attention ! ' cr-ied her father. 
 
 ' Get in, Moll ; it is quite safe. These men 
 are quite used to draw ladies about,' urged her 
 mother gently. 
 
 But Moll had had a month of spoiling and 
 independence, except for Kenneth's 'rule,' as 
 she called it, which chiefly consisted in keeping 
 guard over her and putting in a gentle ex- 
 postulation now and then, and she was excited 
 as well ; so she sat down upon a box by the 
 wharfside and declared obstinately, ' Never ! 
 I'm not tired. I'll wal^, if you like, but 
 use women as horses I won't ; it 's cruelty to 
 animals. I wonder at father ! ' ^ 
 
 'Women? What are you talking about? 
 Those are men — Chinamen, and as strong as 
 
32 SINGAPORE. 
 
 horses,' said her father, who was in his rick- 
 shaw, and waiting for Moll to let Ken help her 
 into hers. 
 
 ' Men ! they don't look like men. What 
 have they got chignons for ? ' demanded Moll, 
 looking curiously at the rickshaw pullers, who 
 were standing grinning at a scene they did not 
 quite understand, though they guessed that 
 the new-comer, as often happened, was object- 
 ing for some reason to their rickshaws. 
 
 By this time most of the passengers who had 
 no cars had got into rickshaws, and called out 
 to Moll Meredyth to follow their example. 
 
 ' It 's very disgraceful, and worse than 
 slavery,* observed Moll, as she reluctantly 
 allowed herself to be handed into her rickshaw, 
 which her Chinaman immediately lifted up, 
 put himself into the shafts, and started off with 
 the peculiar jumpy jog-trot of rickshaw coolies. 
 
 Ken made no remark as he politely held out 
 his hand to his cousin ; but he gave a sigh of 
 relief when, having at length settled her, he 
 was able to get into his own rickshaw and say, 
 'Pegi!' with more violence than was usual to 
 him. 
 
 ' Are you calling your driver a pig ? ' in- 
 quired Moll, who happened to be alongside of 
 him. 
 
 ' No, certainly not. Fegi means " Go on." — 
 Pegi ! pegi ! ' he repeated, 
 
SINGAPORE. 33 
 
 ' Well, you all talk to these natives as if they 
 were pigs,' remarked Moll, by which she meant 
 that the tone assumed by Europeans to Asiatics 
 was not so considerate as it would be to inferiors 
 in England. 
 
 ' This is not China,' observed Kenneth, 
 
 ' Not China ? What has that to do with it ? 
 Oh I see, these men- women (they aren't proper 
 men with this bunch of hair) are Chinese. 
 Well, even so, you need not talk to them in 
 that contemptuous tone.' 
 
 ' For goodness' sake, don't begin that ; you 
 don't know anything about the matter,' said 
 Kenneth, roused at last; and added, 'We shall 
 have to change the name of the estate from 
 Bukit Ayer to Ayer Paras, for that 's what we 
 shall be in now you 've come,' 
 
 * I don't know what you mean, but I 'm sure 
 it 's something rude, so perhaps it 's just as well 
 I don't,' observed Moll. 
 
 U.H. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MOLL AT raffles' HOTEL, AND HER VIEWS 
 UPON THE WORLD. 
 
 BUT Moll ended her remark with a pro- 
 longed ' Oh ! ' and a jerk, as her rickshaw 
 coolie, having run up to the portico of Raffles' 
 famous hotel, dropped the shafts, and pitched 
 Moll out, sprawling, on to the stone steps. 
 
 Half-a-dozen men, who were sitting lazily 
 smoking on the veranda, rushed forward to 
 pick Moll up and to anathematise the China- 
 man, who, frightened and defiant, was trying 
 to excuse himself from any blame in the 
 matter. 
 
 Kenneth sprang from his rickshaw, as did 
 Mr Meredyth, who said, with a hearty laugh, 
 * Well, you 've distinguished yourself, Moll. I 
 should think you are the first young lady who 
 has managed to arrive at Raffles' head foremost 
 out of a rickshaw. — That 's all right ! Pegi ! 
 pegi ! ' he called out to the protesting coolie, to 
 whom he tossed his fare. 
 
 ' Are you hurt, MoUie ? ' asked her mother 
 quietly, looking a little vexed. 
 
 She was reassured by a merry peal of 
 laughter from Moll, who said gaily, * No, thank 
 goodness ; but how was I to know they were 
 going to drop the thing like that ? ' 
 
MOLL AT raffles' HOTEL. 35 
 
 'How else did you expect to get out?' 
 demanded Kenneth. 
 
 ' As you get out of an ordinary carriage, I 
 should imagine. You don't generally drop the 
 shafts on the ground to get out. I 'U never go 
 in another rickshaw again — never! If I can't 
 have a proper carriage I'll walk, if it's ten 
 miles ; I don't mind a ten-mile walk a bit,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 ' No one walks here, Miss Meredyth,' said a 
 man whom her father introduced to her. 
 
 'Why not?' asked Moll. 
 
 ' Well, because it 's hot, for one thing; besides, 
 it 's not the thing — only Asiatics walk in the 
 East' 
 
 ' It 's quite as hot in England on a summer 
 day ; besides, I saw some people playing tennis 
 as I came along ; that 's hotter than walking ? ' 
 
 'Ah, that's a different thing; one must keep 
 up the prestige of the European, and to walk 
 anywhere is quite beneath our dignity,' he 
 answered quite seriously. 
 
 Moll thought he was teasing her, so did 
 not reply, and was reluctantly dragged in to 
 breakfast. 
 
 ' Aren't you hungry, Moll ; you have had 
 nothing to eat since last night ? ' inquired her 
 mother. 
 
 Moll laughed. * I suppose I am, but the ex- 
 citement of seeing you made me forget it, and 
 
36 MOLL AT raffles' HOTEL. 
 
 it is SO interesting looking at all these funny 
 people. They are all different colours ; I suppose 
 some tan more than others,' she observed, loojc- 
 ing back at the street, which she seemed to find 
 a fascinating occupation. It was not till after- 
 wards that Moll learnt that the different shades 
 of ' tan ' were due to different nationalities. 
 
 In the vast hotel dining-room Mr and Mrs 
 Meredyth found an old friend, who begged 
 them to come to his table. 
 
 * But we are four,' demurred Mrs Meredyth, 
 for the table only held four. 
 
 ' That 's all right, Aunt Eulalie ; I see some 
 planters over there I want to speak to,' said 
 Kenneth. 
 
 And as his aunt guessed that he would 
 prefer the society of his young men-friends, 
 they divided. 
 
 ' I say, Meredyth, your cousin looks awfully 
 young to be out,' observed one of his friends. 
 
 ' She isn't out, if you mean in society ; she 's 
 only fourteen, and is still at school,' explained 
 Kenneth. 
 
 'She looks young for fourteen. What on 
 earth has she come out here for ? ' he asked ; 
 for European girls of that age, unless their 
 parents could not afford to send them home, 
 were never brought out to Malays, as the 
 Malay Peninsula is called. 
 
 ' Her mother wanted to see her, and couldn't, 
 
MOLL A,'^ baffles' HOTEL. 37 
 
 or wouldn't, go home and leave my uncle,' 
 observed Kenneth, who did not choose to say 
 she wa3' too much of a handful for her school- 
 mistress. 
 
 ' It 's a funny thing, the sight of that child 
 makes me feel more home-sick than I 've felt 
 since I 've been out here. It 's so refreshing to 
 hear a girl laugh like a girl ; it reminds me of 
 my sister. I've a good mind to put in for 
 leave and go home and- see them all,' the 
 young man remarked. 
 
 ' The best thing you can do. I feel as fit as 
 a fiddle after my six months at home ; the only 
 drawback was that the time was so short,' 
 said Kenneth, and he smiled to himself at the 
 thought that his madcap cousin should have 
 had such a good influence in her first hour in 
 the East. It was not to be the last time that 
 this thought was to strike him with surprise, 
 and it was a long time before he gave Moll 
 credit for being anything but a harum-scarum 
 young person, born to be a trouble and source 
 of agitation to her relatives. However, he 
 was too loyal to say anything against his 
 cousin, and agreed that she was ' a jolly little 
 thing, with plenty of sense if she chose,' which, 
 he did not add, was not often. 
 
 Moll,^meanwhile, was amusing her parents' 
 old friend by her views on the East. 
 
 'Now that you have travelled so far and 
 
38 MOLL AT raffles' HOTEL. 
 
 seen so much of the world, what do you think 
 of it?' he inquired, smiUng. 
 
 'The world? Not much,' observed Moll 
 calmly, as she helped herself to a banana. 
 
 ' I don't fancy Moll has quite such big thinks 
 as that,' observed her mother in her quiet 
 voice, to which, somehow, people always paid 
 attention, perhaps because, in spite of her 
 gentleness, she had such strength of character. 
 
 ' Oh yes, I have ; I have thought a lot. 
 
 ^oard ship is like a little world — the captain 
 
 used that very expression ; I learnt a lot about 
 
 the world on board ship, and I don't think 
 
 much of it.' 
 
 'Why not, Miss Moll? I should like to 
 hear your reasons for your poor opinion of the 
 .world ; they would be edifying,' he remarked, 
 chaffing, 
 
 Moll gazed at him, her gray eyes look- 
 ing dark, as they did on the rare occasions 
 that she was grave, or on the more frequent 
 occasions when she was excited. ' People are 
 not serious enough,' she said. 
 
 Old Mr Clough was surprised. ' I should 
 not have thought you were such a serious 
 person yourself; but that's not answering my 
 question. I asked about the world, not the 
 people in it,' he replied. 
 
 'Oh you mean the scenery? Some of it 
 was very pretty ; but, you know, I was awfully 
 
MOLL AT raffles' HOTEL. 39 
 
 disappointed. I think travelling about is 
 dreadfully disappointing ; you expect to be 
 surprised and you never are, except disagree- 
 ably — just as I am at this very minute,' 
 remarked Moll. 
 
 Her mother looked at Moll in amazement. 
 She thought she knew her daughter, who told 
 her everything, but she had not suspected her 
 of so much thought; and though she deterr 
 mined that the girl should not monopolise so 
 much attention in future, she could not help 
 being interested in this glimpse into Moll's 
 mind, and so did not check her. 
 
 ' Upon my word, we ought to feel flattered. 
 And, pray, how have your mother and I dis- 
 appointed you, Moll ? Do we look washed-out 
 and old, eh ? ' inquired Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Oh father ! of course I did not mean 
 that ! You and mother are just the two 
 things that have not disappointed me. I was 
 not thinking of you at all ! ' cried Moll in 
 eager protest. 
 
 ' Then it is I. What have I done ? ' asked 
 Mr Clough. 
 
 Moll, her grave mood over, laughed as she 
 said, her eyes twinkling with fun, 'It's some- 
 thing far more serious than you ; it 's this 
 banana,' she declared. 
 
 ' Nonsense, Moll ; what stuff you are talking,' 
 protested her father. 
 
40 MOLL AT RAFFLES HOTEL. 
 
 ' It 's a fact. I always thought bananas so 
 woolly in England, and I expected when I 
 tasted them fresh they would be nice and 
 juicy, and they are no better than the horrid 
 things you get for a halfpenny in London, and 
 that is disappointing, and so were the oranges. 
 We picked some in the hotel garden at Naples, 
 and they weren't even sweet, and hothouse 
 grapes at home are much nicer than the ones 
 we got at the railway stations in Italy ; and 
 yet when you read books of travel you are told 
 how delicious the fruit is and how wonderful 
 everything is, and it isn't,' wound up MoU. 
 
 ' Meredyth, this daughter of yours has hit 
 the right nail on the head ; I 've often thought 
 myself how misleading books of travel are. 
 The fact is, people know they are expected to 
 tell of wonders, or else their books won't sell, 
 so they magnify ordinary sights into wonders,' 
 replied Mr Clough. 
 
 ' Not quite that ; they see things with an 
 artistic eye ; and as for the fruit, you wait 
 till you are thirsty, as one can only be in a hot 
 climate, and see if you don't find an orange 
 more refreshing than it is in England, to say 
 nothing of papaias and mangosteens— -oh man- 
 gosteens ! they are the most delicious fruit ever 
 grown, except, perhaps, a custard apple, and 
 papelos. She must taste papelos, mustn't she, 
 mother ? ' cried Mr Meredyth. 
 
MOLL AT baffles' HOTEL. 41 
 
 'There you go, Meredyth, travellers' rap- 
 tures again. I dare say Moll won't care for 
 any of those fruits ; but I know what she will 
 like,' and he called out, ' Boy,' and gave an order 
 to him in Malay ; and, although a Chinaman, 
 he as usual spoke Malay, the language of the 
 country. 
 
 The ' boy ' soon returned with a large pine- 
 apple. 
 
 'Oh the girls were envying me for tasting 
 Singapore pine-apples,' laughed Moll. 
 
 ' Well, they are not the best, as a matter of 
 fact,' her father warned her. 
 
 But Mr Clough had ordered the 'boy' to 
 bring him the very ripest and juiciest pine- 
 apple that was to be had, and after tasting 
 it, Moll said with a sigh of mock relief, 'At 
 last I have found somethinof that does not 
 disappoint me ; but, after all, it is not the 
 fruit I have been looking forward to out 
 here— it's the jungle.' 
 
 ' Oh you '11 have plenty of jungle ; in fact, 
 you'll be right in the middle of it at Bukit 
 Ayer. I expect you'll long for civilisation 
 after a month or two of that,' said Mr Clough. 
 
 If Moll had mentioned what she expected 
 the jungle to be she would probably have 
 been saved another disappointment; but Mrs 
 Meredyth, much as she liked to hear the voice 
 of the daughter whom she had not seen for two 
 
42 MOLL AT baffles' HOTEL. 
 
 years, thought she had talked enough, and 
 changed the conversation till breakfast was 
 over, and then there was a motor-drive round 
 the island of Singapore, which lasted until 
 they took the train for Bukit Ayer, which was 
 some twenty miles up on the mainland. 
 
 This drive was not a disappointment, to 
 judge from Moll's eager cries of delight as 
 they drove along shady roads, with cocoa- 
 nut palms, hibiscus hedges red with their 
 graceful flowers, trees encrusted with ferns 
 and orchids and other beautiful parasites, so 
 that wherever one turned it was a wealth of 
 rich verdure. 
 
 ' How funny ! I expected everything would 
 look dried up, and instead of that it is greener 
 than Ireland. They ought to call this the 
 Emerald Isle ! ' she cried at last. 
 
 ' So you are surprised, after all,' was her 
 father's comment, as he turned round and 
 smiled at his daughter's fresh, eager fece. 
 
 * I am,' said Moll emphatically. 
 
 An hour in the train took them across the 
 island and the narrow strait that divides Singa- 
 pore from Johore to the mainland, and on to 
 Kuala, the nearest station to Bukit Ayer, and 
 there Mr Meredyth's motor was waiting, and 
 into it they all got. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth and her daughter, sitting in 
 the back of the car together, talked in low 
 
MOLL AT BAFFLES HOTEL. 43 
 
 tones to each other, and to her mother Moll 
 confided her real thoughts and the real disap- 
 pointment. 
 
 ' It 's the natives, mother ; you always said 
 the Malays were such nice, polite people, and 
 yet every one shouts at them as if they were 
 doing what was wrong all the time.' 
 
 Mrs Meredyth smiled quietly. ' To tell you 
 the truth, Moll, the Malays generally are ; but 
 you must not make the mistake people coming 
 out from Britain generally make of thinking 
 that they are ill-treated because one does not 
 speak to them so gently as one does to English 
 servants ; they would not understand that tone ; 
 and as for the rickshaws, it 's just habit ; more- 
 over, they are Chinamen, and can be very 
 oifensive on occasions. Everybody talks like 
 you at first ; but you are not so heavy as a 
 wheelbarrow full of atones, or even earth, and 
 our gardeners at home don't think themselves 
 slaves for wheeling those things along.' 
 
 ' I never thought of that ! ' cried Moll. 
 ' Oh mother, it is nice being with you again ; 
 you explain things so splendidly, and make me 
 understand what puzzles me,' and Moll squeezed 
 her mother's hand. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth smiled, and the misgivings 
 she had been troubled by in Singapore dis- 
 appeared in her satisfaction at understanding 
 and being understood by her daughter. 
 
44 MOLL AT baffles' HOTEL. 
 
 Later on the misgivings returned, as will 
 be shown ; but whether Moll's visit to the 
 East was a mistake or not must be left to the 
 reader to decide at the end of the story. 
 
 An hour's motoring brought the party 
 to Bukit Ayer Rubber Estate and to Mr 
 Meredyth's bungalow, which was, so far, the 
 greatest surprise Moll had met with, and a 
 description of which must be kept for a new 
 chapter, when Moll's life in the jungle of the 
 Malay Peninsula began. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 A LL the trees in this wood seem to be the 
 -*^ same,' observed Moll. 
 
 They were nearing the end of their drive and 
 were going at a good speed, which perhaps 
 accounted for her not noticing that they were 
 passing through plantations and not natural 
 woodland. 
 
 'Why, these are rubber plantations, Moll. 
 I thought you knew what a rubber-tree was 
 like,' replied her mother. 
 
 ' Oh rubber ! of course, and there are the 
 little cups to catch the juice. Are these 
 father's trees ? ' * 
 
 ' Not yet, but we are nearly on the estate. 
 See, there is our bungalow among those trees,' 
 Mrs MeBfidyth said, after another mile or two. 
 
 • Our bungsflow ! But — but where is the 
 jungly ? I thought we lived in the jungle ! ' 
 
 "cried Moll, standing up in Mie car to get a 
 better ^s^w of ^e country round and the 
 bungalow. 
 
 * Take care, Moll ! ' cried her mother as t^e 
 car turned sharp round to the right and up a 
 rough road between rubber-trees. 
 
 Moll was not tafeing* care, as usu^, and fell 
 back with some force gn to the cushioned^ seat? 
 
46 IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 which,- however, did not hurt her, and, as usual, 
 she laughed heartily as she said, ' They ought 
 to have blown the hooter ; I wanted to see the 
 jungle.' 
 
 'What do you mean, Moll? You have 
 passed through miles and miles of jungle and 
 said it was very pretty,' objected her mother, 
 puzzled. 
 
 ' I never noticed any ; I have only seen green 
 woods to-day, mother,' declared Moll. 
 
 Her mother looked at her daughter to see 
 if she were in earnest, and seeing that she 
 apparently was, remarked, ' I don't know what 
 you imagined jungle to be; but surely you 
 know that jungle is just the word for a thick 
 wood out here ? ' 
 
 Moll in her turn stared at her mother. ' Do 
 you really mean, mother, that the jungle is only 
 green trees ? ' And as her mother did not 
 contradict her, she repeated, 'Noting but 
 ordinary green trees, just like England,' in a 
 tone of such disappointment that Mr Meredyth, 
 who overheard, turned round and laughed. * 
 
 ' What ! Another disappointment for Moll ? 
 What 's the matter now ? ' he asked. 
 
 Moll laughed too. ' The jungle ! surely some 
 of it is all bright colours ; I 'm sure I have read 
 of lovely flowering trees and bright-coloured 
 birds, and monkeys and tigSrs — ^yes> why you 
 have spoken of them in your letters, mother.' 
 
IN THE JUNGLE. 47 
 
 ' So there are ! Look at those pretty fcacia 
 trees, and that flame of the forest ! Aren't they 
 bright enough for you ? ' demanded her father. 
 
 The tree her father called acacia was a mass 
 of beautiful crimson flowers like azaleas, and 
 the flame of the forest had gorgeous orange-red 
 flowers resembling rhododendrons. 
 
 Moll looked at them, and exclaimed with 
 delight, ' That 's what I thought the whole of 
 the jungle was ! ' 
 
 'I'm glad it is not; green is much more 
 restful to look upon, and I don't think you will 
 find a more beautiful tree than a palm-tree 
 anywhere,' said her father as they entered an 
 avenue of palm-trees with a hedge of red 
 hibiscus on either side, and at the end of it the 
 bungalow. 
 
 For once Moll was speechless as she looked 
 at the wooden structure standing upon pillars, 
 which raised it some fifteen feet off the ground, 
 with an atap (palm-leaf) roof, the wooden 
 steps to which she slowly ascended, and then 
 stood at the top of them and looked round in 
 astonishment. 
 
 ' Well, Moll, what 's the matter again ? ' de- 
 manded her father, a little crossly this time. 
 
 ' Nothing — it 's lovely ; but what a funny 
 house ! Where 's the beginning ? ' she asked. 
 
 'Moll's nothing if not original. — Where do 
 houses generally begin, Moll V demanded her 
 
48 IN THE JUNaLE. 
 
 fathef, throwing himself into a ch^^ir on the 
 veranda, amused and pleased at Moll's evident 
 admiration of the prettily furnished veranda, 
 which Mrs Meredyth used as her drawing-room 
 or sitting-room. 
 
 ' English houses begin with a front-door,' 
 promptly declared Moll. ' Where 's the front- 
 door? Where's — anything?' she demanded, 
 looking round. 
 
 They all laughed, 
 
 'There are no doors here, Moll,' said her 
 mother. 
 
 'Then what do visitors do? Don't they 
 ring or knock, or — or anything ? ' she asked. 
 
 'No, they walk on to the veranda,' they 
 explained. 
 
 ' But the whole house is a veranda,' protested 
 Moll. 
 
 This was not quite true, but the veranda 
 drawing-room and dining-room certainly were 
 all one — a vast kind of double room, having only 
 an ata/p or palm-leaf roof to cover them in. 
 The veranda was rather like a short T, shaping 
 out into a huge bow (without the window) at 
 the top of the T for the drawing-room, the 
 stalk of the T being the dining-room ; to the 
 bedrooms a frieze of lattice-work let in air. 
 
 ' But, mother, are the natives so honest that 
 you can leave all these silver ornaments and 
 pretty things out in the open air like this ? ' 
 
IN THE JUNGLE. 49 
 
 demanded" Moll, to whom an unguarded 
 veranda-room was a new idea. 
 
 ' They are by no means honest ; but we are 
 generally near, and should hear them if they 
 came up on the veranda.' 
 
 ' You weren't near last night, for you were 
 at Singapore. Do you think they have stolen 
 anything ? ' inquired Moll. 
 
 ' Moll evidently thinks us very careless, my 
 dear. She would not think of leaving her 
 belongings lying about on a veranda,' said her 
 father, much amused at Moll's amazement at a 
 planter's bungalow. 
 
 'No, indeed, I would not. I expect when 
 you come to count them you will find some of 
 your silver photo-frames or something gone,' 
 declared Moll. 
 
 ' I don't think we shall ; the servants will 
 have taken good care of that. They know if 
 anything is missing they will have their wages 
 cut for it,' explained Mr Meredyth. 
 
 Moll made no comment upon this, and 
 suddenly exclaimed, 'Why, there are no 
 windows ! Don't you even have windows to 
 your houses here? Well, this really is the 
 most extraordinary house I ever was in — no 
 doors, no windows, no walls, no bells, no 
 chimneys, no knockers. Oh it is funny! and 
 the funniest thing of all is that it is prettier 
 than an English house.' 
 
 U.M. D 
 
50 IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 'I hope you are not going to describe our 
 bungalow like that when you go home, Moll, 
 or people will think we live like savages,* 
 objected Mrs Meredyth, smiling all the same 
 at Moll's vehemence, such energy even in 
 speech being unusual over trifles. 
 
 ' Oh I shall say it is all very pretty ; but, 
 mother, how would you say it ? There are no 
 windows or doors — not proper ones, I mean — 
 are there ? ' persisted Moll. 
 
 'Moll means that we have no glass in the 
 windows. — But if you think a little you will 
 agree that one is better without glass in this 
 hot, sunny climate, Moll,' said her father. 
 
 ' Come and take off your hat, and get into a 
 cool morning-gown, dear,' said Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 Mr Meredyth said something to his wife as 
 she opened the door into Moll's bedroom, at 
 which she smiled, and both he and Kenneth 
 laughed. 
 
 'To tell the truth, that gave me rather a 
 shock when I first saw it,' the latter observed. 
 
 * What gave you a shock. Ken ? What are 
 you two laughing at ? ' demanded Moll as she 
 stood at the wooden door of her bedroom, 
 which she had declined to call a door because 
 there was no door-handle or ' anything,' as she 
 said, and it was ' only a plank opening into the 
 room, for all the world like our henhouse door 
 at school, only even that has a kind of handle.' 
 
IN THE JUNGLE. 51 
 
 ' You wait and see,' said her father. 
 
 'Anything more funny? On the contrary, 
 this is a very nice big room, rather like an 
 ordinary bedroom, except that the bed is rather 
 big. Is this my room ? ' she asked, her quick 
 eyes taking in everything as they roved round 
 the wooden boarding, which Moll did not 
 recognise as walls, 
 
 ' Yes, dear, this is your room. What made 
 you ask ? Is there anything wrong ? ' 
 
 ' Oh no, it is very nice. It was only that 
 the bed was not made ; and, after all, it is 
 rather fun having square holes in the walls for 
 windows. But what do you do if it rains ? ' 
 
 ' There are wooden shutters. But the bed is 
 made. That is all you have, a sheet on the top 
 of a mattress and two pillows and a bolster,' 
 explained her mother. 
 
 ' I see ; that was what father and Ken were 
 laughing at, I suppose ; but he hasn't put the 
 bolster under the pillows, and it isn't the right 
 size or shape,' observed Moll, going, in her 
 energetic way, to make the bed properly, as she 
 thought, and making up her mind to help her 
 mother, who evidently had only natives who 
 knew nothing, or at any rate not how to make 
 a bed. 
 
 'That bolster is to put your feet on, 
 Moll ; they call it a " Dutch granny," said Mrs 
 Meredyth. 
 
52 IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 Moll stopped her bed-making operations, and 
 stared with open eyes at her mother. ' Put my 
 feet on a bolster, instead of my head ? I 'd 
 rather not ! Why should I ? What is the 
 sense of that ? ' she asked, pouring out the 
 questions so quickly that her mother, who was 
 not a talker, had no time to get a word in. 
 
 When Moll stopped for breath, she said in^ 
 her quiet way, 'There is no need for you to 
 use it at all if you do not wish ; you have 
 pillows to put your head upon, and it cools 
 one to lift one's feet off the bed. However, 
 you can try the bolster, and if you do not like 
 it you need not use it ; but really, if such a 
 little thing as that surprises you, I don't know 
 what you will say to the bathroom.' 
 
 Mrs Meredyth opened the door at the other 
 side of the room. Fortunately this door was 
 not very wide, or probably Moll, in her head- 
 long way, would have fallen down the wooden 
 ladder leading to the bathroom, a square, stone- 
 paved room, with a large earthenware vase or 
 pot full of water in one corner, and a little tin 
 pail, with a bar of tin across it, called a dipper. 
 
 ' Oh dear, I beg your pardon, mother ! I 
 know I shall break ray neck one of these days,' 
 said Moll, who had caught at her mother to 
 save herself 
 
 ' You will learn one thing out here, and that 
 is to move in a more leisurely manner, or you 
 
IN THE JXTNGLE. 53 
 
 will make yourself in a dreadful state of heat. 
 What do you think of your bathroom ? At, 
 any rate, we each have a bathroom to ourselves 
 out here, and that is a luxury every one cannot 
 afford at home,' was Mrs Meredyth's reply. 
 
 * Is this my bathroom ? Where is the 
 bath ? ' said Moll, who had jumped down the 
 ladder and was starJRg about for a bath. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth smiled. ' There is your bath, 
 that big jar in the corner. You use that 
 tin dipper to throw water all over yourself, 
 and you have no idea how refreshing it is.' 
 
 Moll gave peals of laughter, at which her 
 father on the veranda remarked, * I expect 
 that 's our Eastern bathroom ; I guessed it 
 would surprise her,' 
 
 ' Oh mother, this the most delightful thing 
 of all I I am dreadfully hot, couldn't I have a 
 bath now, the water looks so lovely and green 
 and cool ? ' 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked doubtfully at the cool 
 green water. ' I am not quite sure that it is 
 clean ; that is the worst of this country, one 
 can never trust the servants to do their work.' 
 
 ' But that does not matter ; it is from the 
 stream we crossed coming up the drive, I 
 suppose, so 'it will be like bathing in the river. 
 ' Oh look ! two dear Uttle fish ! ' 
 
 ' The tuhang oyer * must empty it out ; he 
 
 * Water-carrier. 
 
54 IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 really is too careless,' exclaimed Mrs Meredyth, 
 who was not as delighted at sight of the little 
 fish swimming about the jar as Moll was. 
 
 * No, don't call the tukang — whatever he is. 
 I '11 fish for them,' suggested Moll. 
 
 'You will evidently not be dull here,' said 
 her mother, smiling ; ' but we will find you 
 better occupation than fishing in your bath. 
 Now, if you mean to have a bath before tifiin 
 you had better let me leave you, for I am 
 going to have one myself, and I hear father 
 splashing ; he is having his, which means that 
 he will be calling out for tiffin in another 
 quarter of an hour, so you had better hurry,' 
 said Mrs Meredyth as she left the bath- 
 room. 
 
 She was just putting on a pretty wrapper 
 after her bath, and feeling cool and fresh, when 
 cries were heard from Moll's bathroom. 
 
 'For goodness' sake, go and see what mis- 
 chief she has got into now ! ' called out Mr 
 Meredyth, who was back again in khaki, his 
 dark - cloth clothes being only donned for 
 Singapore. 
 
 Mrs Meredith hurried to Moll, who greeted 
 her with half-laughing complaints, 'I can't 
 get out of the horrid thing,' she said. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth exclaimed at sight of Moll, 
 who was crouched up somehow inside the vase, 
 with only her head appearing. 'Oh dear, 
 
IN THE JUNGLE. 55 
 
 Moll, what could you be thinking of to get 
 into that thing ? ' she cried. 
 
 'What else is it for?' gasped Moll, 
 struggling in vain to get out of the jar. 
 
 ' To dip the water out of. Dear, dear ! I 
 am afraid I must break the jar. I thought it 
 a pretty shape, and put it in your bathroom 
 for that reason ; they generally have wider 
 tops,' said Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 'It would be a pity to break it; it is a 
 pretty shape, like the jars in the pantomime 
 " Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," ' said Moll, 
 as she floundered about and splashed her 
 mother with water. 
 
 'Keep still, Moll, I am going to get a 
 hatchet,' declared her mother ; and she pre- 
 sently returned with one, broke the jar, and 
 liberated Moll, who stood enveloped in a bath- 
 towel, and looking ruefully at the broken jar. 
 
 ' Riddle : When is a bath not a bath ? In 
 the East, where it is a jar,' observed Moll. 
 
 'Just like you, Moll. I wonder what you 
 will do next? Nobody but you would think 
 of getting into a jar,' said her Cousin Kenneth 
 when he heard the tale. 
 
 'If it hadn't been called a bathroom, and 
 that jar a bath, I should not have thought of 
 getting into it. But baths are for people to 
 get into, aren't they ? ' 
 
 ' Not in the East, and Moll is not the firs-fc 
 
56 IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 person to make that mistake or get stuck in 
 her jar. I knew a man from England who did 
 the very same thing,' said her father, who had 
 laughed heartily over the story. 
 
 ' Anyway, the jungle may be green ; but I 
 take back my words, father — it is not dis- 
 appointing, after all, and I think life here is 
 delightful,' declared Moll. 
 
CHAPTEK VI, 
 
 THE SINNA DURAI. 
 
 I^ENNETH MEEEDYTH was putting on 
 ■*-^ his hat as he made his last remark. 
 
 'Where are you going, Ken?' demanded 
 Moll of her cousin. 
 
 'Down to tiflfin with the S. D.'s. I hope 
 you will have no more surprises or shocks 
 while you are here.' 
 
 ' Your hat has just given me one ! Is that 
 what you call a topee f Because it 's the very 
 ugliest thing I have ever seen in the way of 
 hats,' she retorted. 
 
 ' Not half so bad as some of the things girls 
 put on their heads ; besides, we don't go in for 
 beauty here ; we wear hats that are light and 
 thick enough to keep oif the sun,' he replied, 
 going off with his criticised khaki pith-hat. 
 
 'Who are the "Esdys"? Are they our 
 nearest neighbours ? ' asked Moll. 
 
 'S. D. stands for sinna durai, and in this 
 case for my two assistant-planters. We must 
 ask them up to dinner to make your acquaint- 
 ance, — Eh, mem-sahib ? ' * Mr Meredyth asked 
 his wife. 
 
 ' Yes, by all means ; they have a monotonous 
 life here. — You must be nice and kind to them, 
 
 * Madam, lady. 
 
58 THE SINNA DUBAI. 
 
 Moll ; there are so few mems about, so you 
 must uphold the dignity of your sex,' said her 
 mother. 
 
 ' Yes, mind you behave your best, and put 
 on a pretty frock; it does the boys good to 
 put on company manners now and then, 
 or they would turn into veritable savages,' 
 observed Mr Meredyth, after he had shouted 
 after Kenneth to invite the S. D.'s to come up 
 that evening. 
 
 'Jolly good job you're back. Merry; we're 
 awfully overdone and want a holiday,' said one 
 of the other assistants, named Fish, a very 
 cheery, boyish-looking young man. 
 
 * Holiday ! you haven't been out two years 
 yet. Fancy wanting a holiday already ; yours 
 isn't due for another eighteen months, Fish. — 
 As for you, Waughope, you 're only just come ; 
 surely you are not used up yet ? ' protested 
 Kenneth Meredyth. 
 
 'We're not used up; we're fed up, old 
 Merry — I beg your pardon, but your uncle is a 
 bit of a slave-driver, you must own, and frowns 
 on the mildest dissipation,' remarked Mr Fish. 
 
 Kenneth laughed. ' All the better for you, 
 you can't spend money on the estate ; but what 
 good do you suppose my coming will do to you ? 
 I mean to grind away at planting, and make my 
 pile, and go home and spend it,' he observed. 
 
 ' Th-tha-that 's what I say ; sa-save up-p, 
 
THE SINNA DUBAI. 59 
 
 and get out of this beastly country as soon 
 as possible,' put in Mr Waughope, who 
 stammered slightly when speaking to any 
 stranger or in moments of excitement. 
 
 ' Waughope hates the place ; he says plant- 
 ing rubber is a rotten occupation, and he never 
 would have come out if he had known what a 
 lot of insects there are here. But if you are 
 coming back to grind at planting, as you call 
 it, we shall be worse off than before. We have 
 heard nothing but your praises since you went 
 home, and I hoped distance lent enchantment 
 to your virtues ; but if you are going to act 
 up to your high character, good-bye to hopes 
 of holidays for us,' declared Mr Fish. 
 
 'Before I forget, I was told to invite you 
 both up to dinner to-night,' said Kenneth, 
 ignoring the chaff about his steadiness. 
 
 ' Thanks awfully. I say, you 've brought a 
 young cousin out. I hear she's an awfully 
 jolly girl,' said Mr Fish. 
 
 ' She is only a child, but she is very lively 
 and great at tennis, so we shall make a four- 
 some now.' 
 
 ' It will be a change to see a child here, and, 
 upon my word, I 'd rather have a young thing 
 about the place than a fashionable young lady, 
 giving herself airs like some of the Kuala 
 ladies, who won't ever take the trouble to bow 
 to you sometimes, and are as stiff as pokers.' 
 
60 THE SINNA DURAI. 
 
 'Moll isn't stiff; she's a trifle too lively, 
 and if she were my daughter I would never 
 have brought her out here. She's bound to 
 get into mischief; it's not like England, where 
 one has occupations indoors,' said Kenneth 
 Meredyth, looking serious. 
 
 'Don't worry, gran'pa; we'll all keep her 
 occupied with tennis, it'll be a good excuse 
 for playing. But, joking apart, I don't see 
 what you are afraid of; there's nothing to 
 fear on a rubber estate, unless she starts 
 tapping the trees, and she can't do much harm 
 that way ; besides, we '11 soon stop that.' 
 
 'I don't mean that; I don't fancy tapping 
 rubber-trees will appeal to Moll ; but I have 
 a feeling somehow that she will get bored and 
 get into some mischief or other, an3 I wish 
 you fellows would promise me to do elder- 
 brother business and moderate her if you get 
 a chance,' Kenneth Meredyth wound up. He 
 could not have told what made him appeal to 
 these two young men to look after Moll, for, 
 after all, their bungalow was a mile from the 
 Meredyths', and except at tennis and occasion- 
 ally for the evening they did not come up to 
 it, all business being transacted at the office. 
 
 Mr Fish, who was supposed to be rather 
 a thoughtless young fellow, looked up at 
 Kenneth. ' I don't know what mischief you 
 imagine Miss Meredyth can get into, unless 
 
THE SINNA DUBAI. 61 
 
 she goes running into the jungle and gets 
 chawed up by a tiger ; but I promise to look 
 after her as if she were my own young sister, 
 if I get a chance,' he said. 
 
 'And so will I, if I can be of any use,' 
 added Mr Waughope ; and Kenneth Meredyth 
 felt relieved, and a weight that he had hardly 
 known was there was lifted off his mind. 
 
 ' Looks as if young Miss Meredyth was a 
 handfiil. I expect she 's been reading tales of 
 adventure, and is full of tiger-hunts and ex- 
 ploring the jungle, and Merry wants to be sure 
 we sha'n't encourage her,' opined Mr Fish, 
 after the senior assistant had left them. 
 
 • I thought the difficulty was to see tigers, 
 not to avoid them ; but there 's no fear of my 
 leading her into such dangers ; I 'm not afraid 
 of tigers, but I am of snakes and panthers, and 
 all the beastly reptiles this country swarms 
 with, and so I shall tell Miss Meredyth if she 
 asks me to make any explorations of that sort,' 
 remarked Mr Waughope with decision and no 
 stammering, for he was used to Mr Fish. 
 
 They were both good-hearted young English- 
 men, and would not willingly have led or 
 encouraged Moll in any pranks; but it is 
 possible if it had not been for Kenneth 
 Meredyth's warning that Moll might have 
 persuaded them to join her in her mischief. 
 As it was, she managed not to be ' moderated ' 
 
62 THE SINNA DTJRAI. 
 
 by them on several occasions, or the tale of 
 her doings on Bukit Ayer Rubber Estate 
 would not perhaps have been told. 
 
 On this first evening, however, Moll was on 
 her best behaviour, and the two young men 
 were much taken by the bright ' little girl,' as 
 they called her, who looked more like twelve 
 years old than fourteen, and certainly not in 
 the least like the sixteen years old that she 
 liked to pretend to be. 
 
 ' Don't you like insects ? Not even these 
 dear little lizards ? ' inquired Moll, looking with 
 admiration at the numerous lizards of different 
 sizes and colours which were running all over 
 the roof and boarding of the dining-room. 
 
 Mr Waughope had been to college, and was 
 a very studious youth, and he replied, 'They 
 are not insects, but reptiles. Miss Meredyth ; 
 and I do not like them any more than I do 
 insects,' and he shuddered. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked a little anxiously at 
 Moll, for she knew her daughter was not fond 
 of being corrected, and would probably tease 
 the shy young man ; but Moll answered, with 
 apparent innocence, 'Aren't they? What is 
 the difference between a reptile and an insect ? ' 
 
 'A reptile is a creature that crawls (from 
 repere — reptilis, to creep) ; whereas an insect 
 is a small creature divided or cut into three 
 parts (from insecare, to cut into),' explained 
 
THE SINNA DURAl. 63 
 
 the young man. He had been meant for a 
 schoolmaster, and only ill-health had sent him 
 out to the Malay Peninsula to plant rubber. 
 
 Mr Meredyth and the others smiled at the 
 young man's pedantry ; but Moll looked quite 
 grave and interested. 
 
 'Indeed, I never knew that. Then we all 
 used to be reptiles ? How interesting ! ' she 
 exclaimed. 
 
 * W-we, Miss Meredyth ? How do you 
 make that out ? ' demanded the amazed young 
 man. 
 
 'Moll has got the Darwin theory upside- 
 down, I suppose,' laughed her father. 
 
 ' No, I haven't ; I 'm not quite so ignorant 
 as you all seem to think ; ' and if this was a 
 sly hit at Mr Waughope he did not see it. ' I 
 know Darwin said we used to be apes ; but I 
 didn't know we used to be reptiles till Mr 
 Waughope told me. — You ought to publish a 
 book about it, and call it the "Waughope 
 Theory," ' she suggested. 
 
 ' I don't understand,' said that youth stiffly, 
 for he guessed that Moll was poking fun at him. 
 
 ' You must not pay any attention to MoUie's 
 nonsense, Mr Waughope. She is a silly child, 
 and not Miss Meredyth yet/ said her mother, 
 who was indeed a mother to the young men 
 around, and a greater influence for good than 
 she knew. 
 
64 THfi SINNA DURAI. 
 
 'What do you mean, Moll?' inquired her 
 cousin. 
 
 'How do you work out that theory?' 
 demanded Mr Fish. 
 
 ' First and foremost, do you say we never 
 have been reptiles? Answer me that,' de- 
 manded Moll. 
 
 ' Certainly not,' they declared in concert. 
 
 ' If I prove to you that we were, according 
 to Mr Waughope's definition, what will you 
 give me ? ' she asked. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth sat and smiled at Moll, whose 
 eager, animated face and original conversation 
 made a pleasant diversion at the planter's table, 
 where conversation had a tendency, as was only 
 natural, to run on rubber. 
 
 ' I '11 give you a box of chocolates,' said Mr 
 Fish promptly. 
 
 ' And I '11 give you a book on reptiles,' 
 observed Mr Waughope, with a smartness the 
 others had not expected of him. 
 
 There was a roar of laughter at this. 
 
 ' And what will you give me. Ken ? ' per- 
 sisted Moll. 
 
 ' My topee,' he retorted. 
 
 ' You '11 regret that offer in a minute, for I 
 shall throw it into the fire,' declared Moll. 
 
 ' Fire away, Moll. I don't, see what trick 
 you are at now,' said her father. 
 
 ' Were you ever babies ? ' demanded Moll ; 
 
THE SINNA Dl/lt-AI. 65 
 
 'and if so, were you small creatures that 
 crawled (from repere, to crawl) ? ' she wound 
 up triumphantly. 
 
 ' I hope that will cure you of being a prig, 
 Waughope. You see where your inaccurate 
 definitions have landed us. I shall get a sun- 
 stroke to-morrow,' declared Kenneth when they 
 had finished laughing. 
 
 ' ' I am fairly caught, Miss Moll, and I think 
 I owe you a book upon reptiles, where you 
 will get more correct information.' 
 
 'Oh well, I shouldn't read it if you got me 
 one, so I think I will let you off your debt ; 
 but I won't give up the topee and the choco- 
 lates,' said Moll. 
 
 ' Indeed you will ; I don't allow betting at 
 my table,' declared her father ; ' and you are 
 not going to regulate the fashion here, so you 
 need not think it, miss.' 
 
 Moll only laughed ; she did not want any 
 of her promised rewards, and was more sur- 
 prised than pleased when she received later on 
 a book on the fauna of the Malay Peninsula, 
 a box of chocolates, and Kenneth's old topee, 
 which he had replaced by another exactly like 
 it; the three being made into a huge parcel, 
 and addressed to Moll. , 
 
 However, she opened the book to look at 
 the pictures, and was so much interested in it 
 that she not only read it through, but talked 
 
 M.M. E 
 
66 THE SINNA DURAI. 
 
 about it to Mr Waughope, who, although he 
 never got as far as touching insects or reptiles, 
 was interested in them from an entomological 
 point of view. 
 
 Just as the bets were being discussed, there 
 was a diversion — a lizard fell plump upon Moll's 
 plate and into her gravy, which it sent splash- 
 ing over the table. 
 
 ' Ugh, horrid thing ! ' cried Moll indignantly 
 as the Chinese * boy ' came swiftly forward and 
 took the plate away. 
 
 ' Ha, ha ! how about " dear little lizards " ? I 
 am afraid your affection is only skin-deep,' 
 exclaimed her father. 
 
 'Lizard gravy is not appetising,' protested 
 Moll ; ' but they are dear little things all the 
 same. Just look at this tiny creature ; it is 
 only about an inch long, and almost trans- 
 parent ; look what perfect little hands and feet 
 it has,' she added, looking at another tinier 
 lizard. 
 
 'I should not have called them hands and 
 feet ; but after the way you pull one up, Moll, 
 I prefer not to say what I call them,' her 
 cousin, who was sitting at the other side of 
 her, observed. 
 
 There are often half-a-dozen lizards running 
 about one's table ; they swarm in the bunga- 
 lows. The little lizard in question was running 
 about the table near Moll's plate, and she was 
 
THE SINNA DURAI. 67 
 
 amusing herself directing it by means of a 
 knife to the other side, where Mr Waughope 
 was seated. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth, who saw quite well what 
 Moll was doing, frowned at her, and made 
 signs to stop her, for she knew that Mr 
 Waughope had a physical aversion to reptiles ; 
 but Moll did not heed her, if she saw her sign. 
 
 At last Mr Waughope could stand it no 
 longer ; the tiny lizard was just at the edge of 
 his plate. With a shiver of disgust, he drew 
 back his chair. 'I'm awfully sorry, Mrs 
 Meredyth, but I can't bear the creatures.' 
 
 Mrs Meredyth had it removed, and looked 
 gravely at Moll, who pretended to be very 
 penitent. 
 
 'Naughty girl; she will lead that boy a 
 dance, I expect, now that she has discovered 
 his weakness,' said her mother afterwards. 
 
 ' That will do him no harm ; he ought to 
 try and get over such folly,' said her husband. 
 
 And if he had but known it, this was just 
 what the young man was saying to himself 
 that night as he thought (with anger at him- 
 self) of his exhibition of sensitiveness at table. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MENAGERIE. 
 
 ' T TP already, Moll ? What are you going 
 ^ to do with yourself all day ? You can't 
 do any lessons, and you can't play games till 
 about five o'clock ; that means nearly twelve 
 hours to be got through somehow,' said Mr 
 Meredyth as he met his daughter coming out 
 of her room, dressed, before six o'clock in the 
 morning of the next day. 
 
 ' I shall find plenty to do ; the days are 
 never long enough for me. For one thing, I 
 am going to help mother about the house,' 
 replied Moll. 
 
 ' Are you ? I don't think that will last 
 long ; one's energy soon oozes away in this 
 climate. But remember one thing, you are 
 not to go outside the bungalow during the 
 daytime without leave. Do you understand ? ' 
 continued her father. 
 
 ' Yes, father ; but I shall be sure to forget, 
 and what am I to do when you and mother 
 are out and I want to go into the garden for 
 something, or to have a little walk ? ' protested 
 Moll, who,_ to do her justice, did obey her 
 parents as a rule. 
 
 'You are not to have little walks alone 
 during the day, and your mother or I will 
 
THE MENAGERIE. 69 
 
 always be near. Anyway, I absolutely forbid 
 you to go out in the sun, and the first time 
 you disobey you go straight home with your 
 mother.' 
 
 ' I shall not disobey you, father,' said Moll, 
 a little hurt at this threat, and she never did ; 
 but her father's insistence upon her staying 
 in during the day and while the sun shone 
 misled her, as will be seen. 
 
 ' I '11 tell you where you may go when you 
 are tired of the bungalow, and that is under 
 it. There is a regular menagerie down there 
 — monkeys, orang-outangs, dogs, cats, and 
 parrots, to say nothing of your friends the 
 lizards and such-like insects,' laughed her 
 father as he went off to make his round of 
 the estate. 
 
 With a cry of delight, Moll jumped down 
 the veranda steps, and there, under the bunga- 
 low, which, it will be remembered, was raised 
 some fifteen feet above the ground on stone 
 pillars, was a collection of animals, and among 
 them two orang-outangs looking at her with 
 the pathetic expression usual to these animals. 
 
 Moll sat down on a wooden box in front of 
 them, and began peeling a banana which she 
 had taken up to eat, breakfast not being ready 
 for another hour. If she had thought a little 
 she would have remembered that it was rather 
 tantalising to eat a banana in front of a monkey. 
 
70 THE MENAGERIE. 
 
 However, she did not think, and even her 
 strong nerve did not prevent her giving a 
 shriek when a skinny brown hand clutched her 
 shoulder from behind and another stretched 
 over and snatched the banana out of her hands. 
 She turned and saw a little brown monkey, 
 which darted away. 
 
 Moll did not know what fear meant, especially 
 with, animals, of which she was very fond. 
 She started up, exclaiming, ' You greedy thing, 
 that 's very bad manners ! give it back at once, 
 and another time wait until I give you any- 
 thing,' and she tried to get the banana from 
 the monkey. 
 
 But 'B6h6, as she was called, was by no 
 means a well-trained animal, nor very goo4- 
 tempered, and she clutched at the banana with 
 both front paws and kicked at Moll with her 
 hind paws. 
 
 At sound of the struggle, one of the house 
 'boys' (as they are called, whether young or 
 old) came hurrying out, and, saying something 
 in Malay to Moll, made violent signs to her 
 to let go of the monkey's paw. 
 
 But though Moll understood the signs quite 
 well she had no intention of attending to 
 them. 
 
 ' Are you talking Chinese to me ? ' she in- 
 quired of the man, who was talking rapidly 
 to her. 
 
Moll set her teeth, and tried to disentangle herself. 
 
 Page 71, 
 
THE MENAGERIE. 71 
 
 ' Ya,' said the man, who did not understand 
 her. 
 
 ' Well I can't understand a word, so it 's no 
 good, and you had better be quiet ; you are 
 worse than the monkey. — Let go, you greedy 
 wretch,' she continued to the monkey, who 
 had got the banana to its mouth, and, resenting 
 Moll's interference, had clutched her hair with 
 its other paw. 
 
 , Moll set her teeth, and tried to disentangle 
 herself; but she was no match for B^be, who 
 pulled and pulled at her hair, chattering with 
 delight at having pulled out a handful. The 
 pain was intense, but Moll would rather have 
 suffered agonies than call for help and be for- 
 bidden to come down to this delightful play- 
 ground, and the Chinarnan had run away 
 apparently. Moll only hoped not to get help, 
 for she meant to fight Bdbe alone. 
 
 However, she had done him an injustice. 
 He returned with a stick, at sight of which 
 Bdbd started off to her perch with the banana, 
 from which coign of vantage she looked, as 
 Moll chose to think, triumphantly down upon 
 her. 
 
 ' No you don't ! ' she cried, and taking the 
 stick from the ' boy,' she threatened B^bd with 
 it, and again tried to get the banana, now half- 
 eaten, from her. 
 
 The Chinaman from behind was evidently 
 
72 THE MENAGERIE. 
 
 expostulating with much gesticulation at this 
 rash behaviour ; but Moll took no notice until 
 she heard a voice near say in English, ' Good, 
 g-gracious. Miss Moll, you are hurt ! What 
 have you done to your face ? ' 
 
 Moll made a final clutch, and got the remains 
 of the banana from B^b^ and then looked up 
 to see Mr Waughope standing looking horror- 
 struck at her. 
 
 ' Oh good-morning ! What is the matter 
 with my face ? ' She put up her hand, and, 
 finding it covered with blood, said, smiling, 
 'That's nothing.' 
 
 ' Nothing ? But it is something ! You 
 must leave that monkey alone, horrid brute, 
 and go in and bathe your face at once,' said the 
 young assistant, speaking very decidedly, in 
 spite of his slight stammer. 
 
 ' Must I, indeed ? You go and order about 
 your own black slaves, and leave me alone,' 
 retorted Moll. 
 
 ' I beg your pardon, if I spoke rudely ; but 
 I meant that you must not leave a cut open 
 like that in this country ; an insect might get 
 in and set up blood-poisoning, or goodness only 
 knows what. This is an awful country. Miss 
 Moll,' he wound up in tones of disgust. 
 
 Moll laughed. She gathered that the young 
 assistant could not get accustomed to Malaya 
 and its climate and insects. ' I 'm not so afraid 
 
THE MENAQERIE. 73 
 
 of insects as you are, and I don't mean to let 
 this beast get the better of me ; I 'm going to 
 train her,' she declared. 
 
 But Mr Waughope was seriously concerned 
 at Moll's appearance, which was worse than 
 she had any idea of, and summoning up his 
 courage he apologetically but firmly announced 
 his intention of calling Mrs Meredyth to see to 
 Moll's wounds, as he persisted in calling them. 
 
 ' Tell-tale tit ! ' said Moll scornfully, as she 
 went off, taking the precaution of going 
 through her bathroom, which had a door open- 
 ing on to the garden, like all Eastern bath- 
 rooms ; and when she looked in the glass she 
 congratulated herself on having gained her 
 room without being seen, for B^be had torn 
 her hair so unmercifully that the blood had 
 poured down the side of her face, and she did 
 not wonder at Mr Waughope's horror, for she 
 was obliged to own that she did look a terrible 
 spectacle. 
 
 However, her face was not hurt, and by dint 
 of bathing and smoothing back her hair she 
 managed to hide all traces of her fight with 
 the monkey. When she went on to the 
 veranda she found Mr Waughope there, 
 having come to look for some paper which Mr 
 Meredyth had left behind, and could not trust 
 a messenger to find. Moll expected him to be 
 crushed by her last remark; but she did not 
 
74 THE MENACJERIE. 
 
 know Alan Waughope, whom indeed it took 
 some time to know. 
 
 He looked up from his search, and seemed 
 relieved at her improved appearance. ' That 's 
 better ; but have you put some antiseptic on 
 the wound ? ' he asked. 
 
 * Dear me, what an old granny you are ! 
 There isn't any wound to speak of,' cried Moll. 
 
 'There must have been for it to bleed like 
 that. If you haven't put anything on, here is 
 some,' he announced calmly, fetching a bottle 
 from some back premises. 
 
 Moll looked at him for a moment in silence. 
 She would like to have refused to use the 
 lotion, and to tell him once for all to mind his 
 own business ; but she felt pretty sure that if 
 she did he would just go off to her mother and 
 beg her to make her (Moll) bathe her ' wound ' 
 with this stuff. 
 
 ' I never in all my life met such an obstinate 
 boy — never ! ' she said, taking the bottle from 
 him and walking off with it. 
 
 Mr Waughope stood and looked after her 
 with a quiet and placid smile, not the least 
 offended by the epithet ' boy ' which Moll had 
 hurled at him. 
 
 Not for worlds would Moll have owned that 
 her head was aching, nor that the lotion was 
 both cooling and soothing ; but so it was, as 
 Mr Waughope knew when he recommended it. 
 
THE MENAGERIE. 75 
 
 With great tact, he made no inquiries about 
 her wound when he next saw Moll, though, as 
 it happened, it was in the menagerie, as Moll 
 called the space under the bungalow. 
 
 Hearing voices under her, Moll went down 
 to watch the pair of orang-outangs, whose 
 behaviour interested and amused her, and there 
 she found, to her surprise, Mr Wauchope bend- 
 ing over them with a concerned air. 
 
 * What is the matter ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' This poor animal is ill and evidently in pain, 
 and the " boy " says it won't eat,' he remarked, 
 straightening himself and looking relieved at 
 Moll's advent, his kind heart bidding him 
 relieve the orang-outang if he could — ^he 
 was the amateur doctor of the estate — while 
 his natural repugnance to touching the animal 
 prevented his coming near enough to find out 
 what was the matter with it. 
 
 ' Let me see. I 'm not afraid of it,' said Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope took no notice of this insult. 
 ' I fancy it has got a chill,' he remarked. 
 
 'I'll try it with a piece of banana,' said 
 Moll ; and, fetching one, she kept it hidden 
 from B^b^, and put it to the orang-outang's 
 mouth. 
 
 The poor thing put out its paw and put 
 her hand gently away. ' It 's just like a human 
 being ! ' cried Moll. 
 
 'Yes, repulsively so,' observed Mr Waughope; 
 
76 THE MENAGERIE. 
 
 but added kindly, ' He might take a little milk,' 
 and gave the order for it to be brought. 
 
 Already every coolie on the estate called the 
 young assistant Tuan Dukum, or Mr Doctor, 
 for he was very fond of doctoring them, and 
 very clever at finding out what was the matter 
 and giving them the right remedies ; but, as 
 will have been seen, he had an aversion to 
 animals, and only common humanity prevented 
 his leaving the orang-outang alone. 
 
 ' Will you try and feed it ? ' he inquired of 
 , Moll, handing her the tin of milk. 
 
 ' Hadn't we better give him fresh milk ? This 
 can't have much nourishment in it,' objected 
 Moll. 
 
 ' I am afraid this is the best you will get,' 
 said Mr Waughope. 
 
 'Is it? We'll see about that,' said Moll, 
 going off. 
 
 Mr Waughope began to stammer out an 
 explanation ; but he did not speak quickly, and 
 Moll, who thought he was dictating to her as 
 usual, did not stop to listen. 
 
 In a couple of minutes she came back, look- 
 ing rather crestfallen. ' Why couldn't you say 
 there is nothing but tinned milk in this 
 country ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' I thought I did say so,' he remarked. 
 
 ' No, you did not ; you said it was all I 
 should get.' 
 
THE MENAGERIE. 77 
 
 Mr Waughope made no reply, and Moll 
 tried in vain to get the orang-outang to take a 
 little milk. * You must get his wife away ; the 
 greedy thing is pretending to be affectionate, 
 and she is just drinking the milk out of the 
 spoon herself,' she said. 
 
 She knew quite well that the young man 
 had a physical aversion to touching any animal, 
 and said it out of sheer mischief But she was 
 not to get the better of him. He fetched a 
 banana from the string where they hung to 
 ripen, and lured Chiplis, the female orang- 
 outang, away. 
 
 Moll's mouth twitched with amusement in 
 spite of being outwitted, and to her joy she got 
 the sick orang-outang to take a few spoonfuls. 
 
 'Hallo, Moll, doctoring poor old Rufus? 
 I am afraid he is in a bad way. — Well, Rufus, 
 old man, how are you — pretty seedy, eh ? — Oh 
 there you are, Waughope. I thought you 
 hated animals, and wouldn't even have a 
 dog?' 
 
 'I don't care about them, but I can't see 
 them suffer,' he remarked, 
 
 ' Well, come and have makan * with us ; you 
 deserve some food after your exertions with old 
 Rufus.— Eh, Moll ? ' said her father. 
 
 'I wish you wouldn't mix up Tamil and 
 Malay and English, father ; I never understand 
 
 • Food. 
 
78 THE MENAGERIE. 
 
 half that you are saying — all of you,' com- 
 plained Moll. 
 
 ' That 's just what I found when I first came 
 out, but I am sorry to say I have fallen into 
 the same habit. You will soon do so too,' said 
 Mr Waughope. 
 
 'I shall not,' declared Moll, leaving her 
 ministrations to the orang-outang and going 
 in to breakfast. 
 
 ' Moll 's looking pale already,' Mr Meredyth 
 remarked to his wife across the breakfast- 
 table. 
 
 ' Don't you feel well, dear ? ' said her mother, 
 who had noticed that she was not eating much. 
 
 Mr Waughope kept a discreet silence, for 
 which Moll forgave him much. 'I'm all 
 right ; I have a little headache, that 's all,' she 
 observed. 
 
 ' You are tired after yesterday ; you must 
 lie down after breakfast,' said Mrs Meredyth, 
 
 To her parents' surprise — for Moll used 
 not to like being 'mollycoddled' — she agreed 
 submissively. 
 
CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 
 
 pERHAPS if Mr Waughope had known 
 -*■ how Moll's pale face and subdued air 
 worried her mother he might have enlightened 
 her as to their cause ; but as it was, he held 
 his peace, and poor Mrs Meredyth, fearing 
 that the climate was already having a dis- 
 astrous effect upon her daughter, spent a most 
 unhappy morning. 
 
 'Where's Moll?' demanded Mr Meredyth, 
 when, cheery in spite of the heat and the tiring 
 morning, he came in for eleven o'clock tiflSn. 
 
 ' Lying down, I think ; she seems poorly. 
 I do hope I have done right in bringing her 
 out here,' said his wife, her brows puckered 
 with anxiety. 
 
 'Right? Of course we have. Why, the 
 house is twice as bright already ; it 's doing us 
 all good. I never saw Waughope look as 
 ^live as he did this morning. She is such a 
 cheery little thing, with no nonsense about her, 
 in spite of her pranks,' declared Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' She did not look very cheery this morning, 
 and it is not like her to sleep quietly all the 
 morning like this,' objected Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 ' Is she asleep all this time ? ' inquired Mr 
 Meredyth. 
 
80 ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 
 
 ' She was an hour or so ago when I went in 
 to look at her, and as she is quiet, I suppose she 
 is asleep still, and I don't like to disturb her.' 
 
 Mr Meredyth himself looked concerned at 
 this news. * She can't be well if she sleeps like 
 that ; you 'd better rouse her. Go and ask her 
 how she feels, and if she is at all feverish we 
 will send for the doctor at once; it's always 
 best to take these things in time,' he said, 
 working himself up into a state of excitement, 
 as was his habit. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth opened the door of Moll's 
 bedroom gently, and gave an exclamation of 
 surprise. 
 
 ' What is it ? ' cried her husband. 
 
 ' Why, Eustace, she is not here ! ' she cried. 
 
 ' The naughty girl ; she has gone out, in 
 spite of my express command to the contrary. 
 Well, she must go home again, and you must 
 go with her ; this is no place for a disobedient 
 child. She will be off into the jungle, or good- 
 ness only knows where, getting sunstroke,' said 
 Mr Meredyth angrily, and turned on his heel. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth followed him on to the 
 veranda, where he threw himself into a long 
 chair and called for a cooling drink. ' Where 
 do you think she has gone, Eustace 1 ' she in- 
 quired. 
 
 'Goodness knows; into the jungle, I suppose 
 — that's what people out from England are 
 
ON THE TEACK OF THE PANTHER. 81 
 
 always wild to explore ; goodness knows why, 
 or what they expect to see there, unless it is 
 tigers, which they would be afraid of if they 
 met them.' 
 
 Mrs Meredyth, with troubled eyes, looked 
 over the valley at the jungle, which at one 
 point came within half a mile of their bungalow. 
 ' Surely she would not dare to go there by 
 herself? Not that there are any tigers in that 
 jungle, are there ? ' 
 
 ' No such luck, or I would have a tiger-hunt, 
 and if there were, you know quite well they 'd 
 keep out of Moll's way ; tigers are just the 
 beasts people need not be afraid of But 
 there 's a panther there ! ' he added, sitting up 
 suddenly as he remembered this fact. 
 
 ' A panther ! How do you know ? Has it 
 been seen ? ' cried Mrs Meredyth in alarm. 
 
 'No, but its footprints have been seen out- 
 side the bungalow ! ' he exclaimed, putting 
 on his hat and running down the steps, evi- 
 dently on his way to the jungle to look for 
 Moll, without even taking his drink of cocoa- 
 nut milk. 
 
 ' Eustace — wait ; let us think a little what is 
 best to be done. If the child has really gone 
 to the jungle, the hahoons* or some of the 
 booliest will have seen her; we had better 
 question them.' 
 
 * Kaboon, gardener. t Coolie, labourer. 
 
 M.M. F 
 
82 ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, evidently impatient to be off, 
 would scarcely stop to make inquiries ; but 
 fortunately Kenneth Meredyth arrived at this 
 moment. 
 
 He listened to the story in his quiet way, 
 and then said, ' I can scaroelj'^ believe she has 
 gone to the jungle.' 
 
 'Believe it or not, that's where she is, and 
 we must follow her before she gets too far,' said 
 his uncle. 
 
 ' If she is not there, Kenneth, where can she 
 be ? I have looked in her room, and the bed 
 is empty ; there is nowhere else for her to be,' 
 Mrs Meredyth said. 
 
 'You have looked under the bungalow of 
 course ? ' he asked, for Mr Waughope had told 
 him of Moll's interest in the menagerie kept 
 there. 
 
 'Yes, of course. Here, don't waste time 
 talking. Ken, but get your rifle and come along 
 with me,' said Mr Meredyth testily. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth called to the kaboons, who 
 said they had not noticed Moll ; but they had 
 been away for half-an-hour for maJcan, so they 
 could not be certain that she had not gone. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth grew white as it began to be 
 more likely that Moll really had gone to the 
 jungle, and putting on her hat she took her 
 sunshade and prepared to go with her husband 
 and nephew. 
 
ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 83 
 
 * My dear, you must not come. What could 
 you do 1 Besides, you know you get fever if 
 you go out in the sun,' expostulated her 
 husband. 
 
 Kenneth seconded his entreaties. ' Uncle 
 and I will bring her back all right if she is 
 there; but I feel pretty certain that she is not,' 
 he affirmed. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, senior, turned on him irritably. 
 ' How can you be certain ? And if you are so 
 certain, where do you suppose she is? She 
 can't have vanished into the air, or made herself 
 invisible, can she ? ' 
 
 ' I fancy she must be in the bungalow ' 
 
 he was beginning. 
 
 But his uncle interrupted him. ' Well, here 
 is the bungalow,' and he waved his stick about 
 the veranda, ' and she 's not there, as you see ; 
 nor is she in her own bedroom nor ours, and I 
 don't suppose she is hiding in yours,' said his 
 uncle. 
 
 'No, she is not, for I have been in there un- 
 packing Ken's things ; and I really think we 
 had better start, for I do not like to think of 
 Moll in the jungle alone. I shall not be in the 
 sun, and ' — here Mrs Meredyth's voice trembled 
 in spite of her efforts at self-command — ' and if 
 there is any chance of her meeting a panther 
 I must go.' 
 
 Even Kenneth grew a little pale under his 
 
84 ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 
 
 tan, for he too had been shown the footprints 
 of the panther, and had heard how a neighbour- 
 ing planter's dog had been seized by it off the 
 veranda steps, not six yards from where his 
 master had been peacefully sleeping.''^ The 
 thought of Moll — bright, mischievous Moll, 
 whom one could not help liking in spite of her 
 pranks — in the clutches of a panther was 
 terrible. 
 
 Tiffin was forgotten, and without waiting 
 for a lemon-squash, though he too had come in 
 after a long tramp in the hot sun over the 
 rubber estate, Kenneth accompanied his uncle 
 and aunt out across the garden and the cocoa- 
 nut plantation and into the jungle. 
 
 On the way, Mr Meredyth dropped a little 
 behind his wife, and made a sign in silence to 
 Kenneth to drop behind too, and pointed to 
 the ground. 
 
 Kenneth followed the direction of his uncle's 
 stick, and set his mouth, for there were the 
 footprints, recent footprints, of the panther just 
 where they were going ; so he had been prowl- 
 ing round the bungalow during the preceding 
 night, and had made these tracks back into the 
 jungle, just the way Moll would be pretty sure 
 to go (though, if she had gone at all, her foot- 
 prints had been obliterated by those of the 
 
 * This, as are other such statements in this story, Is a fact; and, 
 indeed, the whole is a tale of happenings in the Malay Peninsula. 
 
ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 85 
 
 coolies), for this was a shady path leading to 
 the jungle from the bungalow. 
 
 Both instinctively looked towards Mrs 
 Meredyth, but she was apparently walking on 
 in blissful ignorance of these significant marks 
 which made the two men with her grasp their 
 rifles more firmly and clench their teeth as 
 unbidden visions of what might have happened 
 would rise. 
 
 This was a bit of virgin jungle through which 
 a path had been cut to a very pretty littk 
 stream, where the planters used occasionally to 
 go and fish, and never had it been trodden with 
 such indifference to its beauty, for, in spite of 
 Moll's assertion that it was green just like an 
 English forest, it had its own beauty — tall trees, 
 up the trunks of which grew lovely ferns, and 
 orchids and other graceful parasites, to say 
 nothing of fern-trees and palms of all kinds. 
 But for all the notice taken of it, it might 
 have been a monotonous rubber plantation, of 
 which the rural look is spoilt by the little tin 
 or glass cups attached to each tree, that is itself 
 disfigured by the scoring for 'tapping' the 
 rubber. 
 
 Silently, and in single file like the natives, 
 the three anxious Europeans walked along the 
 jungle path. First came Mr Meredyth, senior, 
 so that he might see any danger ahead or under- 
 foot in the shape of snakes ; next came Mrs 
 
86 ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 
 
 Meredyth ; and last of all, to protect her from 
 attack in the rear, walked Kenneth, his rifle 
 ready to fire at a moment's notice. Of all the 
 three he was the most alert, for he was not 
 only a sportsman by nature, but young and just 
 out from home, and had not fallen into the inert 
 state that is the result of a long stay in the 
 tropics. 
 
 Every sound in the jungle made Mrs 
 Meredyth look anxiously in that direction, only 
 to see a monkey scuttling away, chattering with 
 indignation at being disturbed by these in- 
 truders, or a squirrel or some wild bird, whose 
 rustling through the undergrowth seemed to 
 their overstrained ears to be much louder than 
 it really was. 
 
 Suddenly Mr Meredyth stopped short, and, 
 stooping down, looked closely at the ground, 
 which at this spot became soft and wet, show- 
 ing clearly the footprints even of small animals 
 which had passed over it. 
 
 ' What is it, Eustace ? ' cried his wife, bending 
 over him to see what was attracting his atten- 
 tion. 
 
 It was the first word that had been spoken 
 since they entered the jungle, and Mr Meredyth 
 started involuntarily. 
 
 ' The panther has not passed along here, so 
 it must have turned off somewhere before it 
 got here,' he said in a tone of relief as he 
 
ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 87 
 
 raised himself, and was just going to walk on 
 again. 
 
 Kenneth examined the path in his turn, and 
 then said, ' Wait a bit, uncle. There are no 
 human footsteps here either,' and he seemed 
 relieved too. 
 
 But Mr Meredyth gave a smotiiered cry. 
 He had got it into his mind that Moll had fallen 
 a prey to the panther, and the thought that 
 she had not passed this way (now that the 
 panther had not) was not consoling to him as 
 it seemed to be to Kenneth. Of course it was 
 possible that the beast, scenting her afar off, 
 might track and meet her farther on ; but there 
 was also the hope that he had not done so yet, 
 and that they might come up to Moll before 
 she was hurt. 
 
 ' Where can she be, then ? ' cried Mrs 
 Meredyth. 
 
 Kenneth was on the point of repeating, ' In 
 the bungalow,' but refrained, though he was of 
 the same opinion as he had been all along, that, 
 though it seemed impossible, she had hidden 
 somewhere in the bungalow out of mischief 
 
 Mr Meredyth rested the butt of his gun on 
 the ground, and turned to Kenneth. 'She 
 can't surely have left the path ? ' he said. 
 
 ' No, there has been no opening wide enough 
 for her to get through ; I have looked care- 
 fully,' declared Kenneth. 
 
88 ON THE TRACK OP THE PANTHER. 
 
 ' She is very small, Ken,' said Mrs Meredyth, 
 her voice trembling. 
 
 ' Not small enough to creep through that 
 undergrowth, Aunt Eulalie. I don't think 
 she can possibly have come this way ; but if 
 you want to be sure, let us all shout together.' 
 
 In a moment the forest resounded with 
 cries of ' Moll ! Moll ! MoU-ie ! MoUie ! ' only 
 to be answered by silence, which was suddenly 
 broken by faint shouts in the distance. 
 
 The three listened, holding their breath to 
 hear more distinctly. At first they thought it 
 might be some coolies shouting or quarrelling 
 together, whose voices had penetrated thus 
 far ; but presently the sounds seemed to come 
 nearer, and they heard ' Meredyth ! ' distinctly 
 in English. 
 
 ' Hallo ! ' they shouted again and again. 
 
 ' Meredyth ! Meredyth ! Stop ! ' came in 
 the voices of Waughope and Fish. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth drew a sharp breath. They 
 were evidently bringing news of the lost child ; 
 but what kind of news ? 
 
 As the sounds came from the entrance to the 
 forest, they hastily retraced their steps, shout- 
 ing, ' What 's the news ? ' 
 
 But another five minutes passed before they 
 could understand the breathless shouts of the 
 two young assistants. 
 
 At last Kenneth's young ears caught the 
 
ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHER. 89 
 
 words. * It 's all right ; she 's safe ! ' he cried 
 with such relief that his aunt felt touched. 
 
 ' Where is she ? ' bawled Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' At home — in the bungalow ! ' came the 
 answer. 
 
 Mr Meredyth sat down on the stump of a 
 tree and wiped his brow. ' In the bungalow ! ' 
 he muttered. ' Well ! ' 
 
 The tears came into Mrs Meredyth's eyes. 
 * Thank God ! ' she said softly. 
 
 ' Where on earth was she ? You said you 
 had looked thoroughly,' said her husband irri- 
 tably, his anxiety turning into anger. 
 
 ' I don't know, dear ; but if you are rested 
 let us go back. You must be starving,' she 
 replied. 
 
 ' I 'm dying of thirst — I suppose you couldn't 
 knock down a cocoa-nut. Ken ? I can't walk 
 another mile without a drink,' he declared. 
 
 ' I '11 shoot one if you will stand out of the 
 way,' remarked Ken, and he did so, and down 
 tumbled three cocoa-nuts, which he fetched, 
 broke open, and handed round. 
 
 They were sitting on the log drinking cocoa- 
 nut milk when the two sinna durais, as they 
 were always called, came in sight. 
 
 ' Hold hard ; keep a drop for us, Meredyth ! ' 
 shouted Mr Fish. 
 
 ' Shoot down some more, Ken. I want all 
 mine,' declared his uncle. 
 
90 ON THE TRACK OF THE PANTHEK. 
 
 ' You deserve a drink for bringing us news 
 of Moll's safety,' said Mrs Meredyth, smiling 
 kindly at the heated young men. 
 
 'Yes, indeed! Where was she? I shall 
 have to ask for an extra sinna durai to look 
 after her, by the look of things, or this planta- 
 tion will go to pot,' announced Mr Meredyth, 
 whose spirits were up again. 
 
 And where was Moll ? 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 
 
 nr^HE two sinna durai — no one ever called 
 ■■■ them anything else — were going to their 
 bungalow for tiffin when they heard a great 
 shouting and chattering behind them. This 
 was a common state of affairs, for two or 
 three natives talking peaceably together made 
 as much noise as if they were having a serious 
 quarrel. 
 
 Consequently the two young men took no 
 notice, not even turning their heads, until it 
 became much louder, and cries of ' Tuan ! 
 tuan ! ' (' sir ! sir ! ') were distinctly heard. 
 
 ' Bother those coolies. I suppose there 's a 
 row on at the "Lines ;"* but I 'm going to have 
 my lunch first if they kill each other,' said Mr 
 Fish, walking on and mopping his face. 
 
 Mr Waughope, who was a new-comer, was 
 scandalised at this apparent callousness. * But 
 if there is a row on at the coolie " Lines " I 
 thought it was our duty to go and stop it.' 
 
 ' Yes, if it is serious ; but if we were to go 
 every time those wretched coolies quarrelled 
 over a little rice, or something equally trivial, 
 we should have no peace or quiet at a,ll, so 
 
 • The ' Lines,' buildings where the coolies lived— most of them 
 labourers imported from India or China. 
 
92 A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 
 
 I have given orders that they are not to call 
 me for anything less than murder, or I '11 beat 
 them,' announced Mr Fish coolly. 
 
 Mr Fish rather enjoyed shocking Mr 
 Waughope, who took things in this country 
 too seriously, and he smiled under his mous- 
 tache at the young man's horrified face. 
 
 ' Then it must be murder that 's the matter 
 now, for they are calling " Tuan ! " ' declared Mr 
 Waughope ; and, stopping short, he turned 
 round. 'Yes, there is something very much 
 the matter ; three men are running after us,' 
 he added in excitement. 
 
 ' Let them run ; it will work off their feel- 
 ings in this heat. I 'm not going to be 
 bothered with coolies and their troubles till 
 I 've had makan. I 'm starving. Come on, 
 Waughope. Why, bless my heart, man, whpn 
 you 've been here a couple of years you '11 know 
 better than to pay any attention to these 
 beggars and their excitements,' retorted Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 'I don't know what I may do when I've 
 been here two years, but I do know what I am 
 going to do now, and that is to wait and see 
 what is the matter ; ' and he stood still under 
 the blazing sun, as only an Englishman does in 
 the tropics, and waited for the excited coolies 
 to come up. 
 
 ' You won't be any the wiser if you do stop, 
 
A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 93 
 
 for you don't understand what they say,' was 
 Mr Fish's parting shot as he walked on. 
 
 Mr Waughope took no notice of this taunt. 
 As a matter of fact, he did not understand much 
 Malay ; but he meant to try, and he stood and 
 waited alone for the three excited coolies. 
 
 But, alas ! the men spoke quickly in their 
 great excitement, and Mr Waughope could 
 make nothing of their tale until the reitera- 
 tion of the words 'young mem,' 'jungle,' and 
 'panther' struck his ear. Slowly and labori- 
 ously he tried to make himself understood, and 
 as something like the truth dawned upon him, 
 he in his turn shouted in horrified accents to 
 the retreating figure of his fellow-assistant. 
 
 At first Mr Fish took no notice, but stolidly 
 continued his way home to his much-needed 
 makan ; but cries of ' Fish, for heaven's sake, 
 some awful catastrophe has happened ! ' 
 
 Mr Waughope, it will be remembered, gener- 
 ally stammered, and it might be expected that 
 in moments of excitement he would stammer 
 worse than usual ; but, on the contrary, his 
 voice sounded clear and his words distinct, and 
 they reached Mr Fish, who did at last deign to 
 stop and be interested. 
 
 'What is the matter?' he bawled im- 
 patiently. 
 
 'Moll Meredyth has been ' eaten by a 
 panther ! ' 
 
94 A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 
 
 'What!' thundered Mr Fish, and without 
 waiting for any further explanations he came 
 running towards the group. His indiiference 
 had disappeared, and hunger, thirst, and heat 
 were all forgotten as he gasped, ' What, MoU 
 Meredy th — taken — by a panther ? When ? 
 Where ? ' 
 
 'I don't know. Ask these men,' said Mr 
 Waughope, looking white. 
 
 The men, with many gesticulations, repeated 
 their tale. ' Mem gone jungle ; panther fol- 
 lowed ; clutched her — so,' and they gave a 
 graphic pantomimic description of the dread- 
 ful event. 
 
 Mr Fish ground his teeth. ' Where is the 
 tuan bezar f * Does he know, and the mem ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, tuan, and they have gone armed with 
 guns into the jungle to kill the brute and bring 
 back the remains of the little mem^ 
 
 While they were speaking, they were walk- 
 ing as rapidly as they dared, for they began 
 to feel the heat now, towards Mr Meredyth's 
 bungalow. 
 
 ' We 'd better follow them,' Mr Fish said at 
 last, in a subdued tone to his companion. 
 
 ' Yes,' agreed the other, and they walked in 
 dead silence and with such solemn faces that 
 the coolies did not dare to open their mouths 
 or speak any more about this exciting event, 
 
 * Big master. 
 
A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 95 
 
 at which they felt no sorrow and very little 
 horror. In fact, if they had any feelings on 
 the subject it probably was relief that at least 
 it would mean the death of this particular 
 beast which had been prowling about their 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Now the shouting of the men, added to 
 those of Mr Waughope and Mr Fish, had been 
 heard at the bungalow, and as they came 
 within sight of it they saw a girl's form on 
 the back veranda, and heard a cheery young 
 voice saying, ' Is there anything the matter ? ' 
 
 Mr Fish muttered something under his 
 breath, and Mr Waughope, after a gasp, stood 
 and gazed open-mouthed at Moll Meredyth. 
 
 'You, Miss Moll! But— what's this tale 
 I hear about you 1 ' Mr Fish asked when they 
 got up to the bungalow. 
 
 ' I 'm all right now ; it was only a slight 
 wound on my head. — Fancy you repeating 
 that, Mr Waughope ! ' cried Moll in a tone of 
 reproach. 
 
 The young men, both of whom had been 
 more upset than they cared to own, sat down 
 on the veranda to recover themselves. 
 
 'I don't think a wound from a panther is 
 generally slight ; you are to be congratulated, 
 Miss Moll,' said Mr Fish gravely. 
 
 'A panther? Do you call that animal a 
 panther ? ' she cried in surprise- 
 
96 A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 
 
 'That's what it is generally called,' he 
 retorted. 
 
 ' You don't say so ! What a funny thing ! ' 
 observed Moll. 
 
 ' I don't see much funniness about it ; you 
 might have been torn to death by the brute,' 
 said Mr Waughope. 
 
 'Then why on earth do they keep such a 
 savage monkey under the veranda ? ' asked 
 Moll. 
 
 Both the young men stared at Moll. ' What 
 are you talking about ? ' they inquired. 
 
 ' About the monkey that tore out my hair 
 this morning, of course,' said Moll, 
 
 ' Monkey ? ' they echoed. 
 
 'Yes, monkey. What are you two talking 
 about ? ' she retorted. 
 
 ' About the panther that is supposed to have 
 killed you,' said Mr Fish, who was beginning 
 to suspect that there had been a mistake 
 somewhere. 
 
 'I don't know anything about any panther 
 except the monkey which you call a panther,' 
 declared Moll. 
 
 ' Then what on earth did these coolies mean 
 by their cock-and-bull tale about a panther that 
 
 had killed you, and Where are Mr and 
 
 Mrs Meredyth ? ' inquired Mr Fish suddenly. 
 
 'I have no idea; they are not in the 
 bungalow. I heard father's voice about half- 
 
A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 97 
 
 an-hour ago, and I am not allowed to go into 
 the grounds to look for them,' explained Moll. 
 
 'Where are those coolies?' cried Mr Fish 
 angrily, and he went off to interview them and 
 ask them what they meant by telling him such 
 falsehoods. 
 
 They had an animated discussion in Malay, 
 at the end of which Mr Fish came back to 
 Moll, and said, 'There seems to have been 
 some false alarm about a panther having eaten 
 you, and these men say your parents have gone 
 into the jungle to kill it and find you.' 
 
 Moll gave a peal of laughter. 'What 
 nonsense ! How could they think such a thing 
 when I was in the bungalow all the time ? ' she 
 cried. 
 
 'Nonsense or not, your father and cousin 
 have gone off with their guns, and I think 
 we 'd better follow and tell them that you are 
 safe,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' But it is lunch-time ; they can't have gone 
 out after panthers at this hour, and I think 
 they might have taken me. I should like to 
 be at a panther-shoot,' said Moll. 
 
 ' They imagined you were there — very much 
 there,' said Mr Fish with grim emphasis. 
 
 'Well, tell them to make haste back to 
 makan, as I am hungry. I wish I could come 
 with you, but I mayn't,' she called after them. 
 
 About an hour afterwards the whole party 
 
 U.U. a 
 
98 A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 
 
 arrived, looking very hot, tired, hungry, and, 
 it must be added, not a little cross. 
 
 ' Where on earth have you been, Moll ? ' said 
 her father, when at last they came up on to the 
 veranda and threw themselves on long chairs. 
 
 ' Me ? At home. Where else should I 
 be ? ' asked Moll. 
 
 Mr Meredyth's spirits, which were as buoy- 
 ant as a young man's, rose at sight of his 
 daughter safe and sound, and he was inclined 
 to see the ludicrous side of the affair, now 
 that he was comfortably at home drinking, his 
 favourite iced cocoa-nut milk and ' within hail,' 
 as he put it, of makan. 
 
 ' If you were always where you should be, 
 which you are not, or your teachers malign 
 you, we should not have expected you to be 
 in the jungle or in the clutches of a panther.' 
 
 It took some time to make Moll understand 
 that she really had been thought to be killed by 
 a panther. When she found that they thought 
 she had gone for a walk in the jungle she was 
 much aggrieved. ' But, father, you forbade 
 me to go out of the bungalow,' she protested. 
 
 ' Ah Moll, do you always do what you are 
 told ? ' asked her father. 
 
 'I don't know that I do, but I shouldn't 
 disobey you the very first day, anyhow, and 
 I wouldn't disobey you at all if I remembered,' 
 said Moll ; whereupon they all laughed. 
 
A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 99 
 
 'And now, thank goodness, we can have 
 makan. Boys, you must stop here. Whew ! 
 I don't know when I Ve had such an exciting 
 morning. — It may not be your fault, Moll, 
 but you 've given everybody a fair amount of 
 trouble on your first day. I hope it is not a 
 sample of what your stay is going to be,' said 
 her father. 
 
 ' What I don't understand is what made you 
 think I was taken by a panther. Who told 
 you so?' inquired Moll, when they were all 
 sitting down to makan. 
 
 ' Upon my word, I really don't know how we 
 did think so, now that I come to think of it, ex- 
 cept that we could not think of any other place 
 for you to have gone but into the jungle, and as 
 a panther had just gone that same way there was 
 a strong presumption that you two had met.' 
 
 * Oh Eustace, don't speak of it ! ' cried his 
 wife, shuddering. 
 
 Moll looked at her mother, and with great 
 tact changed the conversation. 'Yes, but 
 why did you make up your mind that I had 
 gone out of the bungalow ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Because we couldn't find you in it ; and 
 that reminds me, Moll, where were you ? You 
 certainly were not on the veranda nor in your 
 bedroom, nor were you with your friends the 
 monkeys. Come, what hiding-place have you 
 found for yourself? ' cried Mr Meredyth. 
 
100 A HORRIBLE RUMOUR. 
 
 'I haven't found any hiding-place, and I 
 haven't been anywhere but in my room,' cried 
 Moll, looking puzzled. 
 
 ' But I looked there,' said her mother. 
 
 ' Yes, I was not asleep ; I was only tired, 
 and my head ached. I heard you come in,' 
 said Moll. ' Oh now I know ; you must have 
 come in while I was fishing,' she added suddenly, 
 grasping the situation. 
 
 Everybody stared in amazement at Moll 
 
 ' Fishing ? ' they repeated vaguely. 
 
 ' Yes, and I caught six little fish, such dear 
 little fish ! I caught them with a bent pin and 
 a little piece of bread, and the fish came and 
 ate it quite eagerly, and didn't seem to mind, 
 and of course I told the tukang ayer — you see 
 I am beginning to talk Malay quite well — I 
 told him to put them back in the stream again.' 
 
 ' That accounts for it, fishing in her bath. 
 She tried to get into it, and had to be cut 
 out ! ' cried her father. ' I wonder to what use 
 she will put her bath next ! ' 
 
 ' Oh I shall get used to it in time, I expect, 
 but it is rather a funny sort of bath, you must 
 own,' observed Moll. 
 
 ' And I suppose we shall get used to you in 
 time, but at present we don't seem to be used 
 to you.' 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 
 
 ' PATHER ! ' shouted Moll after Mr Mere- 
 
 ■*■ dyth one morning when he was just 
 starting off on his walk over the estate. 
 
 Life had been passing very quietly since 
 Moll's first day, for the excitements of which 
 it must be owned she had not been to blame, 
 and his fellow-assistants demanded of Kenneth 
 Meredyth what he had meant by maligning 
 his young cousin, who was lively, but by no 
 means the handful he had declared her to be. 
 
 ' She is new yet, and the strangeness of the 
 life is enough to occupy her attention at 
 present ; but you wait till it begins to pall 
 upon her and she begins to want amusement, 
 and see if she does not lead us all a life,' Ken 
 had replied. 
 
 'I can't imagine why you are so hard on 
 her ; she's the j oiliest little thing in the world, 
 and keeps us all alive here, and she 's very 
 obedient to her mother,' cried Mr Waughope, 
 defending her warmly, for he was her staunch 
 friend. 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said Ken, and said no more. 
 
 As for her father, he adored Moll, and let 
 her do whatever she liked, and in spite of his 
 wife's remonstrances he withdrew his orders 
 
102 MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 
 
 forbidding her to go outside the bungalow 
 without leave. 
 
 * You need not be afraid, mother ; I promise 
 not to go into the jungle alone. To tell you 
 the truth, I am afraid of meeting a panther,' 
 Moll had announced with a laugh, which the 
 others echoed, for Moll did not know what fear 
 meant. 
 
 So when he heard Moll's voice, her fathei 
 turned and came back towards the bungalow 
 again to see what his favourite wanted. 
 
 ' Father, you have never taken me over the 
 estate with you. May I come this morning, 
 it is quite cool to-day ? ' begged Moll. 
 
 ' Quite cool — eighty-two degrees in the 
 shade ! Well, it is not so hot, and there is a 
 nice breeze ; but. there 's nothing to see but 
 "those everlasting rubber-trees," as you said 
 the other day,' replied Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' I want to improve my mind ; besides, it 's 
 ridiculous to live on a rubber estate and not 
 know what rubber is like. Mr Fish says it 's 
 like milk ; but 1 don't believe him, and I want 
 to see how such sticky stuff as india-rubber can 
 run out of a tree by simply tapping it,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 ' It is about time you increased your know- 
 ledge of rubber-planting if that is all you know 
 about it ! I thought every penny magazine 
 had had articles on the subject, until even 
 
MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 103 
 
 babies knew all about rubber. I 'm sure I 
 heard nothing but rubber talked of when I 
 was last at home,' said her father. 
 
 ' Oh that was shares ! I want to be learned,' 
 declared Moll, tripping along beside her father 
 with as light and dancing a step as if she were 
 in temperate England, and looking the last 
 person in the world who desired to be learned- 
 
 ' Good-morning ; I 've come to learn tapping 
 and things,' she called out as they passed the 
 office in which the young assistants were 
 standing, making some reports.- 
 
 They came out to her with friendly greeting, 
 for Moll was a great favourite. ' Mind you 
 don't spoil the trees,' said Ken. 
 
 Moll did not deign to give a reply to this 
 sarcastic remark, but went on with her father 
 to the nearest plantation, and he began to tell 
 her about rubber and its manufacture, and 
 Moll watched with interest the tappers cleverly 
 running their tapping- knives along the bark of 
 the tree and making the thick, milk-like juice 
 to flow from them. 
 
 ' I could do that,' she said suddenly. 
 
 ' I bet you what you like you could not,' 
 remarked Mr Waughope, who happened to 
 pass by at the moment. 
 
 ' Couldn't I ? I am sure I could ; it 's quite 
 easy, just like putting a cheese-scoop along a 
 cheese,' declared Moll. 
 
104 MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 
 
 ' Ah, that 's what I thought when I came out 
 and first saw the coolies tapping for rubber; 
 but I soon found out my mistake. I can't tap 
 properly even now, though I have been out 
 three months, and tap a little every day for 
 practice,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 'Is that your tapping chisel hanging by 
 your side ? ' demanded Moll, pointing to a tool 
 Mr Waughope was wearing. 
 
 ' Yes ; but it 's a knife, not a chisel,' correated 
 the young man. 
 
 ' What 's in a name ? Besides, it 's no more 
 like a knife than it is to a chisel. Don't be 
 so particular,' said Moll airily. 
 
 'It's always well to call things by their 
 proper name. Call a spade a spade, as the 
 proverb says,' he replied. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, the kindest-hearted of men, 
 was so glad to see this sober and silent young 
 man, who had seemed rather home-sick and 
 miserable, talking cheerfully to Moll that he 
 walked away and left him to show Moll how 
 to tap, expecting them to come after him when 
 Moll tired of ' rubber ' and its production, 
 which he supposed would not he long. So he 
 sauntered along the plantation, talking to one 
 momdor or overseer after another, until he had 
 gone some distance, when Mr Fish met him 
 and asked him to come and look at the ravages 
 of a wild pig in a ' nursery ' he had just planted. 
 
MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 105 
 
 ' The wretched animals ! We must have a 
 wild-boar hunt, Fish, or we sha'n't have a 
 seedling left! ' cried Mr Meredyth, and hastened 
 to the scene of devastation, forgetting Moll ; 
 and when later on he did remember, consoling 
 himself with the thought that Mr Waughope 
 would take care of her, and that at any rate 
 she was quite safe from mischief in the planta- 
 tion, where there were no wild beasts and only 
 his employes, who would kill any snake or 
 centipede that attacked her if she wandered 
 away from Mr Waughope. 
 
 Moll meanwhile was amusing herself getting 
 a rise out of her companion, a very easy thing 
 to do, as has been seen, and she replied to his 
 last remark by saying, ' If it comes to calling 
 a spade a spade, this thing ought to be called 
 a cheese-scoop ; that 's exactly what it 's like. 
 Whoever saw a knife like a tube? But this 
 tree isn't as easy to scoop out as a cheese. Oh 
 bother ! ' 
 
 Mr Waughope came forward to see what 
 had called forth this exclamation, and found 
 Moll had dug into the trunk of the tree 
 instead of just shaving the bark as she should 
 have done, and so deep had she gone that the 
 knife — or scoop, as she persisted in calling it — 
 stuck fast in the tree and would not come out. 
 
 ' If you '11 excuse my saying so, Miss Moll, 
 you are spoiling this tree and my knife. You 
 
106 MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 
 
 see, tapping trees for rubber is not so easy as 
 it looks,' he observed, trying in vain to take 
 the knife out. 
 
 ' I '11 get it out ; you 've no energy, you 
 people who live out here,' she said. 
 
 ' I 've plenty of energy, but it 's no use ex- 
 pending it on the wrong object, and that knife 
 must stay there now ; it will only cut the tree 
 about if we take it out. More 's the pity, for 
 it cost three dollars,' he declared. 
 
 ' Nonsense ! I can easily get it out, and 
 what does it matter if it spoils the tree ? One 
 tree more or less makes no difference when you 
 have hundreds of thousands of them. If it 
 had been a pretty tree it would have made all 
 the difference,' replied Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope smiled in a superior way. 
 ' That shows how little you know about rubber; 
 it spoils the look of a plantation to have a tree 
 missing. Don't you see how regularly they 
 are planted, exactly the same distance from 
 each other ? Planters take a great pride in 
 the regularity of their trees.' 
 
 'A very stupid sort of pride, I call it, and 
 it makes the scenery very monotonous. It 
 would be much more picturesque if they 
 planted the trees in groups, all different sizes,' 
 remarked Moll, out of sheer contradiction, for 
 she knew quite well that trees of the same age 
 and size were tapped at the same time. 
 
MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 107 
 
 « 
 
 ' That is absurd ' began Mr Waughope ; 
 
 but Moll, who was tired of being lectured and 
 instructed, interrupted him. 
 
 'Never mind about these stupid rubber- 
 trees ; come and see what those Malays are 
 fishing for,' she put in, pointing to two men 
 who were standing fishing on the bank of the 
 stream. 
 
 ' They are not Malays ; they are Bengalis. 
 I wonder you do not know the difference be- 
 tween Malays and Indians ! ' he exclaimed. 
 
 Moll stamped her foot. ' If I said you were 
 a white man I suppose you would contradict 
 me and say you were black,' she cried. 
 
 ' No, that I should not,' he replied with 
 emphasis ; ' but when you say a Bengali, who 
 is a tall black man, is a Malay, who is a short 
 brown man, of course I contradict you,' he 
 remarked. 
 
 ' Brown or black or yellow, it 's all the same 
 to me ; I call them all savages,' she retorted. 
 
 But in spite of her warnings Mr Waughope 
 declined to let this pass. 'The natives are 
 anything but savages, and Sir Frank Swetten- 
 ham, who knew them better than any one else, 
 says every Malay is a gentleman.' 
 
 He spoke to the air. Moll had taken a 
 flying leap over the stream, and was running 
 as no one does in the tropics. 
 
 ' Miss Moll, stop — pray, stop ! you '11 get 
 
108 MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. 
 
 fever if you run so fast in the heat. Where 
 are you going ? ' 
 
 ' To meet my father. Please don't come 
 after me ; I can find my way quite well.' 
 
 ' Keep to the path to the right, then ! ' he 
 shouted after her, and went off to do his work, 
 after having taken another look at the tree 
 Moll had hacked about; and after a long tramp 
 over his division of the estate he came back to 
 the bungalow where he lived with Mr Fish, to 
 find that gentleman standing on the veranda 
 looking out for him. 
 
 ' Hallo ! what have you done with Moll 
 Meredyth ? ' he shouted. 
 
 ' Nothing. What should I have done with 
 Miss Meredyth ? ' replied Mr Waughope, lay- 
 ing stress on the ' Miss.' 
 
 * Her father says she 's a child, and we are 
 to treat her as such, and keep an eye on her 
 like elder brothers, so don't come snubbing me 
 with your "Misses." If you like the question 
 better, where is Moll? Mrs Meredyth has 
 just sent a chit * down to ask.' 
 
 Mr Waughope stood staring for a moment 
 before he threw hiijiself into a long chair to 
 rest his weary, heated body. ' She left me 
 long ago — a couple of hours ago at least — to 
 join her father, and if she hasn't met him yet 
 she 's probably hacking at all the trees she 
 
 * Note or letter. 
 
MOLL LEARNS ABOUT RTTBBBR. 109 
 
 passes ; and as it 's in your division, you 'd 
 better go and find her/ he announced ; and 
 then shouted for a lime-squash at once. 
 
 ' That 's a pretty cool way of treating the 
 "manager's daughter, even if she is a little girl. 
 What do you mean by leaving her alone in 
 the plantation to find her way about ? I call 
 it very ungentlemanly, to say the least of it, 
 to say nothing of the danger,' said Mr Fish 
 hotly. 
 
 * There can be no possible danger to her ; 
 the only danger is for the trees, and as for 
 leaving her, she left me; bounded over a 
 stream, and ran off at full speed. As for 
 steeplechasing after my manager's daughter 
 in the heat of the day — all I can say is that 
 it was not in my contract, and I '11 see her 
 farther first.' 
 
 'Well, you'd better send a chit up to 
 Meredyth to that effect ; it '11 rather please 
 him, I should think,' remarked Mr Fish sar- 
 castically, putting his topee on as he spoke. 
 
 'Here, Fish, where are you going? It's 
 time for tiffin; I'm frightfully 'hungry !' cried 
 Mr Waughope, sitting up and looking after 
 him. 
 
 'Going to look after Miss Meredyth,' he 
 replied pointedly. 
 
 ' You 'd better look after your trees,' retorted 
 Mr Waughope, and sat for a minute doubtfully 
 
110 MOLL LEARNS ABOUT -RUBBER. 
 
 on his long chair. Then reluctantly getting 
 up, he muttered to himself, 'Ken was right; 
 he said she 'd be a handful, and so she is. 
 First she gets lost in a bathroom, and then 
 in a rubber plantation — a thing nobody in their 
 senses could do. I suppose she 's fishing again 
 — she seems to have a mania for it — and I 
 suppose I must go and look for her. I '11 go 
 to the bungalow first, and see if she 's in 
 her bathroom again ; ' and he too put on his 
 hat. 
 
 But this time Moll was not in the bungalow, 
 for every one in procession searched it through 
 to assure themselves and each other that she 
 was not there. 
 
 ' I 'm awfully sorry, Mr Meredyth,' stam- 
 mered Mr Waughope, ' but she wouldn't let 
 me come with her, and I never thought she 
 could lose her way in a rubber plantation, 
 especially with coolies .working at intervals.' 
 
 ' It 's my fault, if it is any one's, and I 'm 
 not really alarmed ; she can't possibly be lost, 
 and I 'm not going to get into a state about 
 her again in a hurry. Stop and have tiffin, 
 and she will be in before it is over,' said Mr 
 Meredyth. 
 
 But the young man declared that their cook 
 would be spoilt if they were out so much, and 
 Mr Meredyth promised to send down if she 
 were not back in an hour. 
 
MOLL BEARNS ABOUT RUBBER. Ill 
 
 'Come, Eulalie, eat your tiffin, or I shall 
 send you off home,' threatened her husband. 
 
 Poor Mrs Meredyth was not much inclined 
 for food, but made some kind of a pretence. 
 But when her husband went calmly off to his 
 midday siesta, although the whereabouts of his 
 daughter had not been known for three hours, 
 her patience was sorely tried, and she was 
 rather glad to see him really disturbed to find 
 that she had not returned after he had had 
 his sleep. 
 
 'We must send round to the different 
 Tnandors, and ask whether she has been seen. 
 She can't have got off the estate — it 's too big ; 
 I can't understand it at all,' he exclaimed. 
 
 While he was sending messages to the 
 maTidors, Mrs Meredyth was writing chits to 
 the assistants. Kenneth was at the other end 
 of the estate, but she sent him a note too, and 
 within an hour they calculated every one on 
 the estate would know that Moll was missing. 
 . The assistants were just starting off for the 
 afternoon's survey when Mrs Meredyth's notes 
 were brought to them. 
 
 Mr Fish was much disturbed; but Mr 
 Waughope declined to be anxious. ' If she 's 
 going to get lost every day we'd better take 
 it easy, or we shall wear ourselves out,' he 
 declared as he started to search his division. 
 
CHAPTEE XL 
 
 moll's adventures in a rubber plantation. 
 
 'T^HE tropical jungle, as has been observed, 
 -*■ was not the gorgeous-coloured tangle of 
 flowering trees and brilliant birds, butterflies, 
 and reptiles that Moll expected ; but, on the 
 other hand, the rubber plantation, which she 
 had imagined to be a dreary succession of 
 white-trunked trees with little cups attached 
 to them, proved to have a fern-banked stream 
 running through it, and in the stream were 
 little fish and big fish, to say nothing of fas- 
 cinating little pink crabs. 
 
 So, feeling very hot after her run, Moll sat 
 down and watched the crabs, and bathed her 
 face in the clear water. The Chinaman who 
 was tapping near by grinned insolently as he 
 shouted something in his unmelodious tongue 
 to a fellow-tapper some trees off; 
 
 Moll looked up at the Chinamen, and, dis- 
 liking their manner, she did not know why, 
 she moved on, only to stop again to poke an 
 eel out of its sleep with a stick. It was like 
 a perfect summer day in England, with this 
 pleasant breeze, and the shady trees meeting 
 overhead, and this pretty stream with its green 
 banks. It was only the pangs of hunger which 
 reminded Moll that it must be near luncheon- 
 
ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 113 
 
 .time, and this fact reminded her that she was to 
 have had a walk with her father before lunch, 
 instead of which she had been wasting a good 
 deal more time than she had meant to do by 
 this stream, in which she again bathed her face 
 and hands for the pleasure of feeling the cool 
 water on them. 
 
 ' Mem, mem! ' shouted a voice, adding a good 
 deal more in an unknown tongue ; and Moll 
 saw a tall, dark man (a Tamil, as a matter of 
 fact) walking towards her and gesticulating 
 violently. 
 
 * Are you talking Malay to me ? ' she inquired 
 of him, without moving from the bank of the 
 stream where she was seated, regardless of her 
 white dress or of possible reptiles. 
 
 ' Ya, Malay, mem,' he replied, happening to 
 understand the words 'talking Malay.' 
 
 ' Well, it 's no good, because I can't under- 
 stand a word that you are saying. Do you 
 hear ? No, not one word,' she repeated, as the 
 man poured out a rapid torrent of words, very 
 melodious but quite incomprehensible to his 
 hearer. 
 
 Moll looked at the excited man for a time 
 in perplexity. 'If I knew what you were 
 trying to say I might be able to pacify you. 
 As it is, it's no use your trying to talk to 
 me,' she observed, to the poor man's evident 
 despair ; for of course he could not understand 
 
 U.U. H 
 
114 ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 
 
 what she was saying, and he supposed she 
 thought he could. 
 
 At last Moll had a brilliant idea. * I don't 
 wish to be rude ; but " Piggie," as they say 
 here when they want you to go away.' 
 
 But Moll did not know that pegi is ' drive 
 on ' or ' go away ' in Malay, and this man, 
 being a Tamil who had only just arrived, did 
 not understand it ; so that unfortunately it 
 had no effect except to make him gesticulate 
 still more frantically. 
 
 ' I 'm tired of this. I think I had better 
 "piggie" myself;' and she got up to go, to 
 the man's evident relief 
 
 Now there was no path to show Moll which 
 way to go ; but it struck her that the best 
 thing she could do would be to go back the 
 way she had come by following the stream, 
 and she turned to do so. To her surprise, the 
 Indian, with a swift, tiger-like spring, put 
 himself in her way, at a respectful distance, 
 and with a deep bow barred the way, and 
 pointed in the opposite direction. 
 
 In vain Moll tried to dodge him ; he might 
 have had a hundred feet and arms to judge 
 by the way they seemed to stretch in front of 
 her. Thoroughly out of patience, she stamped 
 her foot, and, waving him aside, set off at a run 
 along the bank of the rivulet, followed all the 
 time by the Indian at a distance of a few yards. 
 
ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 115 
 
 'Go away, I tell you,' said Moll several 
 times when she turned round and saw the 
 man still following her ; but she might have 
 saved herself the trouble. At last she resigned 
 herself to her fate, and walked on, trying to 
 pretend to herself that she did not care, 
 though, to tell the truth, she would have 
 preferred his not being there. 
 
 However, after a long walk, when she seemed 
 to be no nearer her destination, and wondered 
 how much farther she would have to walk, 
 she saw a Malay hut, out of which came a 
 superior -looking young man. At sight of 
 him her uninvited companion burst forth into 
 another torrent of talk. 
 
 'It's no use your talking to me, because I 
 can't understand Malay, I tell you,' she said 
 td) the man, who was evidently coming to 
 speak to her. 
 
 'But I speak English, madam, and as you 
 have erred in your ways, I can make you 
 go in the right way,' he replied, taking off his 
 hat respectfully. 
 
 ' Oh can you ? That 's a blessing ! ' ex- 
 claimed Moll, too much relieved at hearing her 
 own tongue to care what kind of English it was. 
 
 ' Yes, and you are a long way from the 
 manager's bungalow,' he remarked. 
 
 ' Oh dear, am I ? How far ? ' asked Moll, 
 looking rather melancholy. 
 
116 ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 
 
 'About an hour's walk over the clearing, 
 and it ia all in the sun ; you will get a sun- 
 stroke,' he observed. 
 
 They were at the edge of a rubber planta- 
 tion, and Moll leant up against a tree. ' I 
 think I must rest before I walk another bit. 
 Could you give me a glass of water, please ? ' 
 
 ' I have no good water, but I could get you 
 a cocoa-nut ; the manager always drinks one 
 when he arrives here,' suggested the young 
 man courteously. 
 
 ' Drink a cocoa-nut ? Oh I suppose you 
 mean that watery stuff they call milk. Yes, 
 I '11 have one, please.' 
 
 The man who had annoyed her by following 
 her brought out a stool from the tent for her 
 to sit on. 
 
 ' Who is this man ? And would you, please, 
 ask him what he has been trying to say to me ? ' 
 asked Moll, seating herself with a sigh of relief. 
 
 ' He is a Tdngannie* and he has been afraid 
 to see you bathe in that river in your heat. 
 He also tried to take you in the right way, 
 and stop you erring and straying. He says 
 you were nearer the manager's bungalow where 
 he met with you than you are now, madam,' 
 he explained. 
 
 * What a bother ! ' said Moll, her eyes fixed on 
 th,e cocoa-aut tree in front of the hut, up which 
 
 * A headman over a gang of coolies, 
 
ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 117 
 
 a little black bpy was swarming to knock down 
 a cocoa-nut for her. 
 
 * It 's delicious, simply delicious ! ' she ex- 
 claimed, as she drank the liquid as directed 
 through a hole pierced in the cocoa-nut. 
 
 Moll was hot and tired, and it was very 
 pleasant sitting under the shade of a cocoa-nut 
 palm and drinking cocoa-nut milk, and it was 
 at least half-an-hour before she rose to go 
 home, 
 
 ' This man will show you the way,' said the 
 young Indian. 
 
 * Thank you ; good-bye. I wish there was a 
 carriage of some kind ; I don't feel much in- 
 clined for a walk in this sun.' 
 
 'Would you wish to stay here, and send a 
 message to the manager's bungalow ? There is 
 a bullock- cart going that way at this time.' 
 
 'A bullock-cart? Where? Over those 
 fields ? ' cried Moll, looking round in surprise, 
 for there was not only no bullock-cart to be 
 seen, but no road over which a cart could 
 possibly go. 
 
 He gave a grave smile — for these men, as 
 Moll found when she knew them better, never 
 laughed much or were otherwise than grave and 
 dignified — and remarked, ' If madam will walk 
 this way she will see the road winding away, 
 and the bullock-cart is just loading with rubber 
 cans.' 
 
118 ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 
 
 ' Oh SO it is. And it is going past the bunga- 
 low, you say ? ' inquired Moll eagerly. 
 
 ' It will pass near to go to the factory,' said 
 the man. 
 
 ' Then I will go in it,' announced Moll. 
 
 The young man did not dare to argue with 
 his master's daughter ; but he was rather 
 puzzled what to do. The idea of an English 
 mem getting ipto a bullock-cart shocked him 
 dreadfully, even though she was only a very 
 young lady ; besides which, there was nowhere 
 for her to sit, and it was not very clean. How- 
 ever, the wish of the English mem was law to 
 him, and he spoke to the driver, who politely 
 dismounted and entered into a long discussion 
 as to how the matter was to be arranged. 
 
 ■^^hile Moll, who guessed what they were talk- 
 ing about, sat leaning back against her cocoa-nut 
 palm and watched the proceedings, she received 
 a terrific bang on her left arm — such a blow 
 that for the moment she felt perfectly dazed, 
 and only a habit of suppressing her feelings 
 when she was hurt prevented her from screaming 
 with the pain. Two or three black men ran 
 forward, and one picked up a green cocoa-nut 
 which had fallen from the tree. 
 
 ' If it had fallen on your head you would be 
 dead,' said the young Indian. 
 
 Moll stifled a groan. 'Is the cart ready? 
 I feel rather tired,' she said faintly. 
 
'If it had fallen on your head you would be dead,' said tlie young 
 
 Indian, 
 
 M.M. Tagb lis. 
 
ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 119 
 
 ' It will be directly — in a minute,' he replied. 
 
 Moll leant back her head and shut her eyes, 
 and felt that it was just as well that she had 
 not to move for a minute, for everything was 
 going round and round, and she had a bad 
 headache. 
 
 Very cleverly the men had arranged a kind 
 of seat of sacking, slung up so as to make a 
 swing seat, and Moll, having with difficulty 
 swung herself into it, found it very comfort- 
 able. 
 
 The two humped gray bullocks jogged oiF, 
 and Moll, with renewed thanks to the young 
 Indian, leant back in her hammock-seat and 
 shut her eyes. In two minutes she was fast 
 asleep ; the atap roof shaded her from the sun, 
 and the breeze, which always rises in the middle 
 of the day, cooled her a little, and she slept 
 on comfortably. 
 
 The young Indian had been quite correct in 
 saying that it was an hour's walk to the 
 manager's bungalow across the clearing-, but 
 he had not explained that it was a good two 
 hours' drive, as the road wound about in a ser- 
 pentine fashion. If he had told her it would 
 have made no difference to Moll, who would 
 rather have made a round of two hours in a 
 conveyance, even though it was only a bullock- 
 cart, than walk another mile. She had no idea 
 that she had gone to the extreme end of the 
 
120 ADVENTURES IN" A RUBBER PLANTATION. 
 
 estate ; but such was the case. However, sleep, 
 as it happened, was the thing she most needed, 
 and she was fortunate in being able to sleep 
 after a cocoa-nut had fallen on her arm. 
 
 As the bullock-cart jogged along, Mr Fish 
 passed by on his motor-bicycle on his search 
 for Moll, and never stopped or took any notice 
 of the signs of the driver, which he took for a 
 polite greeting, and Moll, of course, was fast 
 asleep inside the cart, and not visible to passers- 
 by unless they looked into it. 
 
 Mr Waughope, meanwhile, leisurely taking 
 his usual walk through his division, could 
 only be said to be * searching ' for the missing 
 girl by walking over the estate where she was 
 supposed to be lost ; but he did not appear to 
 be looking for any one or anything, nor did he 
 make any inquiries among his coolies as to 
 whether they had seen her or not. 
 
 Consequently, when he got a chit by a heated 
 messenger from Mr Meredyth, saying, ' Moll 
 found — a thousand apologies for having given 
 you all this trouble ; come to makan to-night 
 and eat the fatted calf in honour of the 
 prodigal's return,' he felt that he was being 
 thanked for what he had not done. He wrote 
 a civil reply declining, and walked on to finish 
 his round. 
 
 Mr Fish, coming in at six o'clock, found him 
 in a sarong and baju, or native jacket, in a long 
 
ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION. 121 
 
 chair. * I say, you know she 's found, and in a 
 bullock-cart, which I passed, as it happened ? ' 
 
 ' In a bullock-cart was she ? ' remarked Mr 
 Waughope indifferently, puffing away at his 
 cigarette. 
 
 ' Yes, didn't you know ? She was dead-beat, 
 poor kiddie. But, I say, Waughope, hurry up, 
 makan is at seven o'clock, as Moll is tired.' 
 
 ' That *s all right ; I 'm going to have makan 
 like this,' he replied. 
 
 Mr Fish looked at him in horror. 'You 
 must be mad ! It 's all very well to dine in 
 sarongs in our own bungalow, but you can't 
 when ladies are about; and certainly not 
 at the manager's bungalow. Go and dress, 
 man!' 
 
 ' I 'm not going. Say I 'm tired if you like ; 
 I don't want to go,' announced Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Not want to go ! Why not ? You haven't 
 fever, have you ? ' asked Mr Fish. 
 
 ' No, I 'm all right,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Then, come on ; don't be lazy,' urged Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 ' Not I. I 'm fed-up with her.' 
 
 ' With whom ? Moll ? Why, you never even 
 looked for her, I hear ! ' exclaimed the latter. 
 
 * Not I. I wish she 'd lost herself for ever,' 
 declared Mr Waughope crossly. 
 
 Mr Fish looked at him severely. 'You 
 must have fever, or ought to have, talking like 
 
122 ADVENTURES IN A RUBBER PLANTATION, 
 
 that. I shall leave you to your own company, 
 the only kind you 're fit for. Good-bye ; ' and 
 Mr Fish went off, disapproving highly of such 
 an unfriendly attitude towards the manager and 
 his little daughter. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MOLL REPENTS. 
 
 ' T 'VB come to eat the fatted calf, Moll, and 
 -■■ drink to your safe return ; but, I say, 
 you had better not take these long voyages 
 of discovery — you look fagged-out,' Mr Fish 
 wound up kindly, after a keen look at Moll, 
 who had not even changed her dress, on the 
 score of being tired, and she looked it. 
 
 ' I 'm not going to,' replied Moll, with a very 
 subdued air. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked rather worried. ' You 
 must please excuse Moll's dirty frock ; she is 
 tired, and I do not know that she deserves to 
 be fSted after having caused us so much anxiety 
 and trouble. — -"You must thank Mr Fish for 
 going out to look for you after a tiring day, 
 Moll,' she observed. 
 
 ' Pray, don't mention it ; we were all young 
 once, and I expect she wanted to inspect the 
 estate, and my word she 's done it too by all 
 accounts. We will tell the Visiting Agent that 
 he can take a holiday this month, as a visitor 
 from home has been all over the estate and 
 
 reports How do you report on it?' he 
 
 inquired in a jocular tone. Mr Fish was good- 
 nature itself, and he wanted to turn the matter 
 into a joke and save Moll a scolding ; but that 
 
124 MOLL REPENTS. 
 
 young lady was evidently in a bad temper, and 
 not to be smoothed down. 
 
 ' I don't know anything about the horrid 
 estate, and I don't want to, and what 's more, 
 I don't want any dinner, so please leave me 
 alone,' she replied. 
 
 Dinner had just been announced by a great 
 tom-toming on the Chinese gong by the Chinese 
 ' boy ; ' but Moll would not stir. Her mother 
 went off to dinner without taking any notice of 
 her ; but Mr Meredyth said sharply, ' None of 
 your nonsense, Moll ; come and have dinner at 
 once. — It 's no use giving way to her,' he added 
 in Malay. 
 
 Mr Fish, who sat opposite to Moll, noticed 
 that she never moved her left arm, and only 
 helped herself to dishes which were soft and 
 could be eaten with one hand. He took no 
 notice of course, and her mother either did not 
 observe this or else prudently abstained from 
 making any remarks on Moll's slightly awkward 
 way of eating. 
 
 The three elders talked together, and left 
 Moll alone until pudding was served ; then 
 Mr Meredyth, his anger with Moll having 
 evaporated, turned to her, and said, * Come, 
 Moll, have some cheesy toast. No ? Why 
 not ? It is your favourite pudding, so you said 
 yesterday.' 
 
 ' It 's not a pudding,' said Moll. 
 
MOLL REPENTS. 125 
 
 ' Moll ' began her father angrily. 
 
 'Take some, dear,' said Mrs Meredyth 
 gently. 
 
 Moll shook her head ; but Mr Meredyth 
 signed to the Chinese servant to give her some ; 
 and Moll, rather crossly, took it in her fingers 
 and began to eat it so, which, as it was rather 
 a liquid paste, was not easy nor elegant. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth begged her husband (in 
 Malay) to take no notice ; but he was, as has 
 been said, very obstinate, and he told Moll to 
 eat properly or leave the table. 
 
 With a look of relief, Moll got up from her 
 seat ; and Mr Fish, who liked a smooth life, was 
 as relieved as she. 
 
 The two men sat and talked and smoked for 
 an hour, and then Mr Fish rose to go, saying, 
 ' If you will excuse me I think I will go now, as 
 I have to be up at six o'clock muster in the 
 morning.' 
 
 Every one said good-night, and Mr Fish was 
 lighting his bicycle lamp when he heard his 
 name called in a low tone. ' Hallo ! who 's 
 that ? ' he replied. 
 
 ' I — Moll. Have you got a sharp penknife ? ' 
 said she. 
 
 ' A penknife ! What for ? ' demanded Mr 
 Fish cautiously. After his experience of Moll 
 he felt he must be careful in his dealings with 
 ber. 
 
126 MOLL REPENTS. 
 
 ' Only to cut my sleeve off,' replied Moll. 
 
 * Cut what off ? ' asked Mr Fish, coming close 
 up to the veranda, on which she was standing. 
 
 ' My sleeve — the sleeve of my dress. I can't 
 get it off without,' declared Moll. 
 
 ' Why not ? You can't cut up your dress 
 every time you take it off. What's the 
 matter ? Why don't you ask the amah to 
 come and help you, or your mother ? ' Mr Fish 
 very naturally suggested. 
 
 ' Because I don't choose to, and if you won't 
 lend me your penknife or a pair of scissors I 
 shall have to go to bed in my dress, and it is so 
 hot and uncomfortable,' said Moll. 
 
 ' That you will not, and, I say — I won't give 
 you away — what 's the matter ? Have you hurt 
 your arm, young un ? ' said Mr Fish. 
 
 Moll nodded. ' It 's swollen an awful lot,' 
 she observed. 
 
 Mr Fish came on to the veranda. ' Let 's 
 look,' and he cut the sleeve, which was evidently 
 tight for the swollen arm, and gave a whistle. 
 ' I say, you must have this seen to. How did 
 you do this ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' I won't ; I should never hear the last of it 
 — only a cocoa-nut fell on it — they 'd never let 
 me outside the bungalow again by myself 
 You promised not to tell, so you can't. It will 
 be all right ; if you just cut a little more I 
 shall be able to slip out of it then. I '11 bathe 
 
MOLL REPENTS. 127 
 
 it, and no one need be any the wiser,' announced 
 Moll. 
 
 ' All right,' said Mr Fish ; but he felt that 
 it was anything but all right. However, he 
 had promised, and ' disliked a row,' as he put 
 it, and so he left Moll to be her own doctor, 
 consoling himself with the thought that there 
 were no bones broken, but only a bad bruise 
 and swelling which would go down in a few 
 days, the pain of which might do her good. 
 With this satisfactory conclusion he bicycled 
 back to his bungalow, where he found that Mr 
 Waughope had been entertaining Kenneth 
 Meredyth. 
 
 ' Hallo, a kind of change of partners ! Well, 
 you had the best of it to-night. Your young 
 cousin was not in top-hole style, and it rather 
 upset the manager,' he remarked. 
 
 ' I was aware of those facts, and that was 
 why I came down here. I know what those 
 two are when it comes to a tug of wills, and I 
 keep out of their way. By the bye, how did 
 Moll manage to eat her dinner ? She hadn't 
 much appetite, had she ? ' 
 
 * Oh yes, pretty fair,' said Mr Fish cautiously. 
 
 ' What ! she did eat her dinner ? ' inquired 
 Ken. 
 
 ' She had a very fair dinner,' said Mr Fish, 
 and pretended to be busy with his bicycle. 
 
 ' Humph I I suppose you are telling the 
 
128 MOLL REPENTS. 
 
 truth ; but how she did it I don't know, for I 
 could have vowed she had broken her arm,' he 
 declared. 
 
 Mr Fish left his bicycle and came up to join 
 the other two on the veranda. ' What makes 
 you think that ? ' he inquired. 
 
 ' Because she couldn't move it when she got 
 out of the cart, and when I took hold of it to 
 help her down she called out, and nearly jumped 
 down my throat, because, she said, I pinched 
 her ; but I noticed that it hung down stiffly. 
 So I promptly decided to retire from the scene 
 and dine here, and leave her parents to find out 
 what was wrong themselves, which apparently 
 none of you have done,' said Kenneth. 
 
 ' And you have left that child with a broken 
 arm unattended to ? I call that awfully shabby 
 on your part, Meredyth ; it will be deformed 
 for life very likely,' expostulated Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' I thought any idiot could see there was 
 something wrong, and expected to hear the 
 doctor's motor go by, to tell you the truth.' 
 
 ' It 's not as bad as all that ; and, since you 
 know it already, I suppose I sha'n't be breaking 
 my word if I tell you the facts,' remarked Mr 
 Fish. So he gave an account of his evening 
 and Moll's arm. 
 
 ' Upon my word, you are a pair of rotters ! 
 I 've a good mind to go up and tell the manager 
 to-night,' declared Mr Waughope. 
 
MOLL KEPENTS, .129 
 
 ' You 'd better mind your own business ; you 
 won't get any thanks for interfering, and Moll 
 would be furious,' said Kenneth. 
 
 'I don't care twopence about Moll's fury, 
 and if her arm has not been attended to in the 
 morning I shall certainly tell her mother.' 
 
 ' Go to bed and sleep it off, Waughope ; 
 you '11 never make old bones if you go worrying 
 over trifles like this. What 's a bruised arm, 
 after all ? ' said Kenneth Meredyth, as he got 
 up to go. - ^ 
 
 ' Pretty bad from Fish's account,' was Mr 
 Waughope's final remark. 
 
 And ' pretty bad ' would have been Moll's 
 description if she had chosen to say what she 
 felt, which, however, nothing would induce her 
 to do. 
 
 Mr Waughope went to bed ; but, far from 
 sleeping off" his anxiety, he dreamt that Moll's 
 arm had to be amputated. 
 
 'You are a funny fellow, Waughope; you 
 wouldn't stir a finger to find her yesterday, and 
 now she might be your young sister by the fuss 
 you are making,' said Mr Fish at breakfast. 
 
 Mr Waughope took no notice ; but when he 
 was coming home to eleven o'clock tifiin he 
 called at the bungalow, where, as luck would 
 have it, he saw Moll lying on a long chair 
 alone. ' Good-morning. How is your arm ? ' 
 he stammered. 
 
 M.M. I 
 
130 MOLL REPENTS. 
 
 Moll had been rather pale, but she grew 
 crimson with anger. 'Who told you there 
 was anything the matter with it? Mr Fish, 
 I suppose ? And you can just tell him he is 
 a mean, dishonourable man,' she replied. 
 
 Mr Waughope, curiously enough, ceased to 
 stammer when he was roused; opposition 
 seemdd to cure his nervousness. ' Your cousin 
 told us, and I have come to tell your mother, 
 since Mr Fish thinks himself bound to secrecy,' 
 he remarked pointedly. 
 
 ' My arm is all right ; at least you needn't 
 worry about it,' said Moll. 
 
 ' Will you tell Mrs Meredyth, or shall I ? ' 
 persisted the young man. 
 
 'It's got nothing to do with you. If 
 Kenneth has too much sense to go worrying 
 mother about nothing, I think you might leave 
 me alone, meddlesome ! ' said Moll, hurling the 
 last word at him, as she saw that he looked 
 obstinate. 
 
 But it had no effect upon him, for hearing 
 Mrs Meredyth's voice he forthwith told her 
 his tale. 
 
 Moll sat up in her chair, and glared at poor 
 Mr Waughope. 'I'll never speak to you 
 again,' she declared. 
 
 'Thank you, Mr Waughope. I saw "there 
 was something wrong, and I was waiting for 
 Moll to tell me ; but it appears she does not 
 
MOLL BEPENTS. 181 
 
 choose to do so, and till she wishes me to 
 attend to her arm I will certainly not interfere. 
 It is not broken,' said Mrs Meredyth, half- 
 smiling at the young man's concern and surprise 
 at her apparent indifference. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth had her own theory about the 
 management of Moll, and it is certain that no 
 one had so much influence over the girl, who, 
 her mother declared, could only become more 
 sensible by being allowed to learn by experience. 
 
 Mr Waughope went away, feeling that he 
 had better, after all, have 'minded his own 
 business,' and sorry that he had quarrelled with 
 Moll, whom he liked in spite of her faults. 
 
 'It's not very bad, mother,' observed Moll 
 after the young man had gone. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth made no reply. 
 
 'Mother, don't be cross; I'm very sorry 
 about yesterday,' said Moll. 
 
 'So am I, MoUie, for it shows how little 
 thought or consideration you have for other 
 people. You knew you ought to have either 
 stayed with Mr Waughope or gone to your 
 father ; instead of which you stay out all day, 
 and give a number of people the trouble of 
 looking for you in this heat, and then you leave 
 it for a stranger to tell me that your arm is 
 hurt and requires attention.' 
 
 'I am sorry, mother, and I really will try 
 and be more thoughtful, and you can look at 
 
132 MOLL REPENTS, 
 
 my arm and see for yourself that it is all right/ 
 said Moll, quite penitent. 
 
 ' It is not all right enough for you to move 
 it yet, I notice. Come and show it to me,' 
 said her mother, who could hardly suppress 
 an exclamation when she saw the discoloured 
 and swollen state of Moll's arm. 
 
 Moll gave a sigh of satisfaction as her mother 
 bathed it and bound it up with some wet 
 bandages. 'I didn't sleep a wink last night, 
 so I 'm punished ; and the day before B^b^ 
 tore my hair out, so I 've got a bald place on 
 my head that hurts,' she said, making a 
 clean breast of her adventures in the East 
 so far. 
 
 ' You had better be careful with B^b6 ; she 
 is very ill-tempered at times,' said her mother, 
 as she bathed that place too. 
 
 Fortunately the arm was only badly bruised. 
 A few days put it right, and peace was restored 
 at the manager's bungalow, for Moll was on 
 her very best behaviour, and when that was 
 the case no girl could be more charming. 
 
 Mr Waughope did not come near his 
 manager's bungalow, and refused Mr Mere- 
 dyth's good-natured invitations on one pretext 
 or another, until it dawned at last upon the 
 latter that the young man must have some 
 reason for it. He decided at last that 
 Waughope must have had bad news from 
 
MOLL REPENTS. 133 
 
 home, for he looked down in the dumps, and 
 would not come up to tennis or anything. 
 
 Moll listened to this statement in silence, 
 and Mrs Meredyth only said she was sorry, as 
 he was a very nice boy. 
 
 But if Moll said nothing, like the parrot 
 she thought the more, and presently took a 
 resolution, the result of which will be seen in 
 the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 moll's method of 'making friends.' 
 
 ' T CAN play tennis again now, Ken,' said 
 -■- Moll. ' Let 's have a tennis tournament 
 this afternoon.' 
 
 'We can't very well with three people. 
 Waughope has got the sulks or something, 
 and won't come near the courts ; but I '11 play 
 you a single, if your arm is aU right and you 
 want a game,' replied her cousin. 
 
 ' I don't want a single in this climate ; it 's 
 too hot to go flying about the court after your 
 balls ; you always try and pitch them to the 
 farthest off place from me,' objected Moll. 
 
 ' Good play, Moll ; but if you want a child's 
 game I '11 oblige you ; anything for a quiet 
 life,' joked her cousin. 
 
 ' I 'm going to play a four. Mr Waughope 
 must come up ; he can't be allowed to be so 
 selfish as to spoil a set, and I shall go and tell 
 him so,' she declared. 
 
 Kenneth laughed. 'I bet you what you 
 like you will get snubbed for your pains ; 
 Waughope is a queer beggar and gets on his 
 dignity at times, and he answered Fish and 
 me quite shortly when we tried to get him up 
 to tennis,' he observed. 
 
 ' How much wiU you bet ? ' demanded Moll. 
 
MOLLS METHOD OF 'MAKING FRIENDS. 135 
 
 ' I don't bet with young people on principle ; 
 but if you get Waughope out to tennis this 
 afternoon I will give you a box of chocolates,' 
 said Kenneth. 
 
 ' A large box ? ' inquired Moll. 
 
 ' Well, I don't mind promising a large box, 
 because I sha'n't have to buy it, seeing that 
 Waughope refused point-blank this morning ; 
 said he had his check-roll to do up or some- 
 thing,' the young man replied. 
 
 Moll said no more ; but having obtained 
 leave to go out, so long as she wore a topee 
 and kept in sight of the house, she set off 
 towards the assistants' bungalow, and standing 
 in front of it remarked in a clear tone, 'Boy,* 
 is that savage named Waughope at home, 
 please ? ' 
 
 Mr Waughope was lying in a long chair in 
 the veranda, and the 'boy' was just giving 
 him a lemon-squash when he heard Moll's 
 voice, and sat up with a start to see Moll 
 calmly looking at him. ' Pegi ! ' he said to the 
 ' boy,' and lay down again on his chair, without 
 a word to Moll. 
 
 It was certainly very rude of Mr Waughope ; 
 but to be called a savage before his ' boy ' was 
 certainly equally insulting, and Mr Waughope 
 was very young and sensitive. So he deliber- 
 
 • All coloured servants in the East are called ' boys,' even when 
 they are gray-haired. 
 
136 moll's method of 'making friends.' 
 
 ately took no notice of Moll, whom he decided 
 was a rude little girl, but went on reading, or 
 at all events pretending to do so. 
 
 Moll watched him for a moment, and then 
 walked on tiptoe to the flower-bed. Taking 
 up a handful of the hard, lumpy, red soil, 
 she threw it with a very good aim at 
 Mr Waughope's book, and knocked it out of 
 his hand. She could see even from that 
 distance that the young man became very red 
 and angry as he leant over the side of the 
 chair and picked up the book, at the same 
 time brushing off the dirt from his clothes. 
 
 * Stupid boy ! he can't take a joke,' observed 
 Moll in an audible aside ; and, presumably to 
 give point to the joke, she took a large bunch 
 of red hibiscus, of which the hedge round 
 the garden was made, and threw it at Mr 
 Waughope. 'Please, "boy," tell your master 
 there 's a savage out here who wants to speak 
 to the gentleman of the house,' came next in 
 a small voice. 
 
 ' " Boy," please tell the lady no savages are 
 allowed on this estate,' replied Mr Waughope, 
 without glancing at Moll, who stood in the 
 garden, her hands behind her back, looking 
 very mischievous. 
 
 ' If I couldn't take a joke better than you 
 can, I 'd — I 'd dig a deep hole and live in ii,' 
 announced Moll. 
 
moll's method of 'making friends.' 137 
 
 ' It wouldn't be a bad idea ; but I thought 
 you were not going to speak to me again,' 
 observed Mr Waughope, coming to the side 
 of the veranda. 
 
 ' I can't help your thinking stupid things,' 
 began Moll. 
 
 ' But you said so,' persisted Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Is that what you have been brooding over 
 so long ? Well, you had better not take all I 
 say for gospel — because it isn't,' replied Moll. 
 
 ' So I see ; but excuse my correcting you. 
 I have not been brooding ; I simply didn't 
 come up because a gentleman does not go 
 where he is not wanted.' 
 
 ' Oh gentlemen ! we 're not talking about 
 gentlemen — we 're talking about you. Come 
 and play tennis,' scoffed Moll. 
 
 ' Thank you, but ladies don't generally play 
 with men who are not gentlemen, and so I 
 think I had better not,' replied Mr Waughope, 
 getting huffy again, 
 
 'I'm not a lady, so it doesn't matter; 
 you 're only a boy and I 'm a girl, and, I say, 
 do come on. My arm 's all right again — thanks 
 to your telling mother, so that she bandaged 
 it up,' observed Moll. 
 
 'In that case I shall be very pleased to 
 come,' said Mr Waughope going to fetch his 
 racket with alacrity, for he was longing for a 
 game of tennis. 
 
138 MOLt's METHOD OF 'MAKING FRIENDS;* 
 
 ' I suppose you '11 think it your,- djiiy to go 
 and tell mother that I threw mud ^i you and 
 called you a savage?' Moll remairked^ as they 
 walked up to the tennis-court together. 
 
 * What do you take me for ? ' inquired her 
 companion indignantly. 
 
 'Take you for?' repeated Moll innocently. 
 ' I take you for a person who always does his 
 duty however disagreeable it is.' 
 
 ' My duty does not consist in making any 
 complaints about your treatment of me ; and 
 if you will believe my word, which perhaps 
 you will not, as you have such an extraordinary 
 opinion of me, I shall not mention the matter 
 at all,' said Mr Waughope stiffly. 
 
 ' Oh dear, you do talk on stilts ! Come 
 down!' cried Moll, making a pantomimic 
 gesture with her hand to describe a descent. 
 
 Mr Waughope laughed, and, his bad temper 
 being dispelled, he talked more naturally to 
 Moll, with whom, being only a youth himself, 
 he felt more at home than with the others at 
 Bukit Ayer. 
 
 ' Have you written for that box of chocolates, 
 Ken ? ' Moll called out as they approached the 
 tennis ground, where Kenneth Meredyth and 
 Mr Fish were having a game of singles. 
 
 ' Oh-h ! ' said Kenneth, in his surprise stand- 
 ing still to stare at Moll and her companion. 
 
 'Game and set!' shouted Mr Fish, where- 
 
moll's method of 'making friends.' 139 
 
 upon his opponent awoke to the fact that he 
 was in the middle of a serve and had let the 
 ball drop unheeded quite near him. 'There 
 now, Moll, look what you have done I ' he 
 exclaimed. 
 
 ' What have I done now, pray ? ' demanded 
 Moll, throwing herself down on a seat in the 
 shade. 
 
 ' You 've made me lose my game, of course,' 
 jeeplied her cousin. 
 
 * I like that — Adam ; always throwing the 
 blame on Eve. That 's the worst of men ; 
 they are all mean, more or less. I do wish I 
 had some girls out here. I used to think they 
 were rather petty, and that boys were better 
 fun ; but I have found out my mistake since 
 I have been out here with nothing but boys 
 and men and men and boys all round.' 
 
 'Well, that's funny, because this place has 
 had just the opposite effect upon me,' said Mr 
 Waughope. 
 
 'What do you mean? You can't have got 
 tired of mems, as you call them, because there 
 aren't any here,' observed Moll. 
 
 ' I didn't quite mean that ; but I do think 
 society without any mems is nicer than with 
 them out here ; I mean as a general rule,' 
 stammered Mr Waughope, who had spoken 
 without much thought, and regretted his rash- 
 ness when he saw the faces of his hearers. 
 
140 moll's method of 'making friends.' 
 
 ' Thanks ! Then I '11 go hoipe and leave 
 you to a nice game of tennis,' declared Moll, 
 getting up to go. 
 
 ' What nonsense ! Waughope doesn't know 
 what he 's talking about. Every one 's awfully 
 glad to have a mem to play with,' cried Mr 
 Fish politely. 
 
 'I don't know what you mean, Waughope, 
 Our great complaint out here is that there are 
 no mems, and no mems mean no society and no 
 dances or anything. — He 's the only man who 
 likes that state of things,' Ken remarked. 
 
 ' I 'm nothing of the sort. You know your- 
 self Brown and Bishop, and all those fellows 
 who were here the other day, said how much 
 nicer it was on estates where there were no 
 mems, and that as soon as one arrived she 
 spoilt everything, and you had to wear collars 
 and things,' persisted Mr Waughope, who was 
 very obstinate and not very tactful. 
 
 ' The horrid wretches ! I believe that those 
 were the young men who came to tiffin the 
 other day (without being, asked or anything), 
 and talked rubber with you and father the 
 whole time, and never took any notice of 
 mother or me. I said to mother that they 
 were very bad-mannered, and she said it was 
 the result of there being no ladies, only 
 bachelors, and that they became regular 
 savages, like Mr Waughope,' remarked Moll. 
 
moll's method of 'making friends.' 141 
 
 ' I am quite sure that she never said any- 
 thing of the sort,' protested Kenneth. 
 
 'She did; those were her very words,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 *In that case I shall certainly not trespass 
 on my manager's private grounds,' declared 
 Mr Waughope, getting up in his turn to go, 
 
 ' What rot this is, Waughope ; my aunt 
 never said any such thing, you may take my 
 word for it, I don't know what Moll is 
 thinking of to talk like that; she's only 
 chaffing you, old man.' 
 
 ' I don't know what Mr Waughope is getting 
 into a temper about now ; if it is because 
 mother said men became savages when there 
 were no mems about, I don't see why he should 
 be offended any more than you or Mr Fish; 
 besides, as it happens, there are vnems here, so 
 it doesn't apply to you,' observed Moll, who 
 had quite forgotten that she had mischievously 
 added Mr Waughope's name to her mother's 
 remarks (which she had repeated quite ac- 
 curately), making it appear that Mrs Meredyth 
 had called that young man a savage. 
 
 * Stop being a couple of children, and have a 
 game, you two,' suggested the peace-loving Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 ' Yes, do, Mr Waughope ; I promise I won't 
 call you a savage or anything any more- 
 to-day, if you will stop and play with me ; 
 
142 moll's method of 'making friends.* 
 
 besides, you'll make me lose a large box of 
 chocolates if you don't,' urged Moll. 
 
 ' Are we playing for a prize, then ? That 's 
 good,' inquired Mr Fish, as he went to take 
 his place, Mr Waughope having allowed him- 
 self to be calmed down again enough to play. 
 
 'You are not, but I am to have a box of 
 chocolates — a large box — as a reward for kindly 
 bringing Mr Waughope up to make a fourth at 
 tennis,' explained Moll. 
 
 They all laughed, and Kenneth remarked, 
 ' Yes, and I must say, seeing the mood you are 
 in, that I rather wonder how you managed it.' 
 
 'I threw mud at him,' jerked out Moll as 
 she made her first serve. 
 
 ' You never did ! — I say, Waughope, you 
 must keep her in order better than that ; she '11 
 lead you the life of a dog if you let her. — I 
 certainly don't think, Moll, that you deserve 
 chocolates gained in such a way,' said Kenneth 
 severely. 
 
 'You can't get out of it like that. There 
 wasn't anything about the way I got Mr 
 Waughope here ; he is here, and that is all I 
 promised to do,' declared Moll, who was most 
 energetic and evidently enjoying her game 
 very much. 
 
 After the game was over, and they had 
 rested a few minutes, Moll suddenly remarked, 
 ' I do wish I could go down that lovely shady 
 
moll's method of 'making friends.' 143 
 
 walk into the jungle there. Don't you feel 
 inclined for a stroll, Ken ? ' 
 
 ' No, I do not, nor would you if you had been 
 walking about the estate all day,' he replied. 
 
 ' You weren't too tired to play tennis, you 
 selfish man ! ' said Moll. 
 
 'I'll take you, if you like, Moll,' said Mr 
 Waughope. 
 
 'AH right, come along,' said Moll, and the 
 two went off amicably together. 
 
 The other two looked after them with 
 amused looks, and then burst out laughing. 
 
 ' They are a funny couple ! ' said Kenneth. 
 
 ' I say, Moll, don't you fall out in the jungle 
 with Waughope, or he '11 leave you there, and 
 you '11 get eaten by a tiger or a bear, like the 
 naughty little children ! ' cried Mr Fish. 
 
 But Moll was talking gaily to Mr Waughope, 
 and paid no beed. 
 
 ' It 's well to be young,' said Mr Fish with 
 a melancholy air. He was twenty-eight, and 
 declared that he felt thirty-eight in this lonely 
 jungle till Moll came out to liven them up. 
 
 ' Cheer up ! ' said Meredyth ; and then the 
 two walked off to talk 'rubber' till dinner- 
 time, while Moll and Mr Waughope walked 
 on and on along the beautiful jungle-path, 
 enjoying every inch of it, with its insects and 
 lizards and butterflies and the luxuriant fresh 
 green all round them. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MOLL GOES FISHING. 
 
 * T SAY, you fellows, have you got a spare 
 -*■ bedroom here, do you think ? ' demanded 
 Kenneth Meredyth of his two fellow-assistants 
 one evening. 
 
 He had strolled down after dinner to smoke 
 a cigar with them, and found them lying on 
 their long cane chairs in sarongs and bcy'us, 
 as was their custom. 
 
 'Considering that you built this bungalow, 
 or at any rate superintended the building of it, 
 I consider that inquiry disingenuous, a trait in 
 the character which I dislike,' observed Mr Fish. 
 
 ' What 's she done now ? ' inquired Mr 
 Waughopa 
 
 'I don't see that we shall get much "for- 
 'arder" if you answer question by question; 
 and as for being disingenuous, I only tried to 
 be polite,' retorted Kenneth. 
 
 ' I see,' said Mr Fish ; * then I, making the 
 same effort, reply, it is a tight job for three, 
 but there is always the coal-hole.' 
 
 'There being no coal or coal-hole, I may 
 take it that you are full up,' said Kenneth, not 
 in the least offended apparently by this chill- 
 ing reception of his suggestion that he should 
 make a third in the assistants' bungalow. 
 
MOLL GOES PISHING. 145 
 
 ' What has «bhe " eternal feminine " done, as 
 Waughope here tersely put it ? For I presume 
 it is to her vagaries that we are indebted 
 for this anxiety to share our humble abode,' 
 remarked Mr Fish. 
 
 ' Oh dry up with your pompous speeches, 
 Fish ; your abode is not in the least humble, 
 it 's a jolly fine bungalow — every bit as good as 
 ours, only a bit smaller. You should have had 
 to rough it as I did in a Malay hut, with two 
 rooms and a mud floor ; it would have done 
 you good, and knocked some of the starch out 
 of you "haw-haw" young 'varsity men,' de- 
 clared Kenneth. 
 
 ' If you mean me, nothing would have in- 
 duced me to live in that hut of yours. Why, 
 a native wouldn't live in it ; even the poorest 
 of them have their huts raised oflF the ground. 
 I wonder you were not killed by a snake,' said 
 Mr Waughope with energy. 
 
 'Poof! I didn't sleep on the floor, man, 
 and they don't come through mosquito curtains. 
 You '11 never make a colonist if you are not 
 prepared to face trifles like that. Your heel 
 kills a snake at a pinch when you have no 
 stick handy. I have polished off more than 
 one that way,' said Kenneth. 
 
 ' I polished off one the other day much more 
 easily than that,' said Mr Fish. 
 
 ' How ? ' inquired Mr Waughope, very much 
 
 M.M. J 
 
146 MOLL GOES PISHING. 
 
 interested in the subject ; for, however lightly 
 Kenneth might talk of snakes, they are a 
 serious danger in all warm climates and new 
 country. 
 
 'I mesmerised it,' announced Mr Fish very 
 gravely, 
 
 * You don't say so ! How did you do it ? ' 
 asked the other. 
 
 'I looked at it with a glassy eye, made a 
 few passes over it, and, hey presto ! it was 
 dead.' 
 
 There was silence for a moment after this, 
 and then Mr Waughope remarked, ' That 's a 
 very strange tale.' 
 
 ' Very,' echoed Kenneth dryly. 
 
 Mr Waughope cast a withering glance at 
 the mendacious Mr Fish, who only smiled and 
 said, 'Talking of strange tales, have you none 
 to tell us ? What is Moll's latest ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing. Peace and quiet reigns at our 
 bungalow. Waughope has tamed the shrew ; 
 and as long as he takes her weird expeditions, 
 and thus uses her superfluous energy, she seems 
 to be quite normal. So you can continue your 
 attendance ad lib.,' Kenneth Meredyth assured 
 him, 
 
 ' Then why on earth do you want to come 
 and crowd us out ? I must say I consider it 
 very selfish of you. Ken, when you 've got the 
 run of a big bungalow up yonder and a com- 
 
MOLL GOES FISHING. 147 
 
 fortable bedroom, to want to take our best 
 room, for of course we should have to give it 
 up to you. It's not the desire for our societ3^ 
 for you can have that as it is. You 've not had 
 a row with your uncle, have you ? ' 
 
 ' Dear me, no ; it 's merely — sarongs,' said 
 Ken. 
 
 The other two understood and laughed, as 
 they looked at their visitor in an immaculate 
 white suit, buttoned up to the neck with the 
 Siamese old silver coins, which is the fashion 
 at present among Englishmen in Malaya, while 
 they were lightly attired in the native dress — 
 a dark printed roll of linen, two yards round, 
 as a skirt, and a loose tusser-silk haju as a. 
 shirt, which is the coolest attire possible. 
 
 ' If that 's all, why don't you slip out of 
 your bathroom door in yours ? It 's dark, and 
 no one would see you ; or have one of ours, 
 and let us play dummy bridge,' suggested Mr 
 Fish, always desirous of peace and a pleasant 
 life. 
 
 Ken shook his head. ' It 's not worth while ; 
 I should have to change back into the togs of 
 civilisation. Moll's eyes are too sharp, and I 
 should never hear the last of it if I demeaned 
 myself, as she calls it, by putting on native 
 dress.' 
 
 ' No, it 's awfully comfortable, but it 's not 
 exactly the dress to interview ladies in. Oh, 
 
148 MOLL GOES FISHING, 
 
 help ! ' and, with one bound like the spring 
 of a tiger, Mr Fish was off his long chair and 
 .out of the veranda. 
 
 ' What on earth has taken him ? ' began Mr 
 Waughope, gazing after the disappearing figure 
 of his colleague. 
 
 ' Clear, man — sharp ! ' muttered Kenneth. 
 
 Mr Waughope, being very deliberate in 
 his movements, turned to look at Kenneth 
 Meredyth. ' Why ? ' he demanded ; and then, 
 following the direction of Kenneth's eyes, he 
 saw Moll standing at the top of the steps of 
 the veranda and looking with disapproval at 
 him. 
 
 Without another word, and with no attempt 
 at a greeting to Moll, Mr Waughope gathered 
 himself together and ran at full speed into his 
 bedroom. 
 
 'Come along, father, we'd better go back 
 home ; we are not wanted here,' said Moll's 
 clear voice. 
 
 ' Don't go, Moll ; we '11 be back in a second ! ' 
 called out Mr Fish, and almost as he said this 
 he reappeared, hastily buttoning up his white 
 coat. — 'Come in, Meredyth. Have a drink? 
 —What is it to be, Moll ? ' ^ Mr Fish invariably 
 greeted his visitors in this way. 
 
 ' Nothing. I 've told you before I 'm not a 
 dried-up well. You 're far too fond of drink 
 out here,' replied Moll. 
 
MOLL GOBS FISHING. 149 
 
 Mr Fish looked most injured at this un- 
 grateful reception of his offer and the ground- 
 less accusation. 
 
 'Considering that I never drink anything 
 but cocoa-nut milk or water during the day, 
 and one or two stingers at most in the even- 
 ing, I can scarcely be said to be fond of drink,' 
 he replied. 
 
 'You drink at least a gallon of water or 
 cocoa-nut a day, and if that isn't drinking too 
 much I don't know what is. But you had 
 gone to bed, I 'm afraid,' Moll observed. 
 
 'Not at all — not at all,' Mr Fish assured 
 her. 
 
 'Sorry if we disturbed you, Fish; but I 
 wanted to tell you that there will be no 
 second shift [of work] to-morrow, and Moll 
 wanted a walk, so she came with me,' explained 
 Mr Meredyth. 
 
 'Good news. I shall go over to Parker's 
 after tiffin,' announced Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I '11 come with you,' remarked Kenneth. 
 
 ' Don't you say you '11 go too, Mr Waughope, 
 because I want you to go fishing with me,' 
 said Moll. 
 
 ' Fishing ! Not in your bath I hope ? ' 
 laughed Mr Fish. 
 
 'There's no fishing here, Moll, unless you 
 go in for crab-hunting or tadpoles,' protested 
 her father. 
 
150 MOLL GOES FISHING. 
 
 ' Yes, there is ; there are real fish in that 
 dear little shady stream in your plantation, and 
 I should so like to catch some,' insisted Moll, 
 
 ' I — I should be delighted, but I haven't got 
 my rod out here,' stammered Mr Waughope, 
 who had not recovered from the shock of Moll's 
 unexpected appearance while he was in his 
 free-and-easy attire. 
 
 ' That doesn't matter ; I 'm going to use a 
 fishing-net,' explained Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope was not fond of touching 
 animals, as will be remembered, and he did not 
 very much care about fishing ; but he did 
 enjoy an afternoon with Moll, in her better 
 moods ; so, conquering his aversion to handling 
 ' creatures,' he agreed to go. 
 
 'Fancy talking about fishing, and then 
 going out with a net ! And where will you 
 get the net ? ' asked Mr Fish. 
 
 * Mosquito-netting,' said Moll. 
 
 ' I 'm sorry to be a spoil-sport,' put in 
 Mr Meredyth at this point ; ' but I 'm afraid 
 your division will have to be worked in the 
 afternoon as well, Waughope.' 
 
 ' Oh father, what a bother ! Can't you 
 leave those tiresome old rubber-trees for one 
 day ? It can't make any diflFerence surely ? ' 
 cried Moll, looking so disappointed that her 
 father relented. 
 
 ' We can't stop tapping unfortunately, or we 
 
MOLL GOES FISHING. 151 
 
 should certainly not tap on Sundays, which 
 we have been obliged to do ; but I '11 tell you 
 what I will do. I can motor round that way 
 and just get out and give a look to them if you 
 will be back by five o'clock to take muster; 
 that will give you a good couple of hours to 
 fish in,' he agreed good-naturedly. 
 
 Mr Waughope expressed his gratitude ; and, 
 the morrow's programme being satisfactorily 
 arranged, Mr Meredyth, with a twinkle in his 
 eye, observed, 'We will leave you to enjoy 
 peace and liberty. Good-night ! ' 
 
 'I shouldn't wonder if those young men 
 became quite savages in time,' declared Moll 
 to her father as they strolled home together, 
 Kenneth having stayed to have a game of 
 cards. 
 
 ' I should, if you are alluding to their wearing 
 sarongs in the bungalow. I may inform you 
 that I wear nothing else when I am alone, 
 and I felt quite regretful when your mother 
 returned from England and I gave it up. 
 Some men don't give it up even when they 
 have women-folk,' announced Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' I 'm glad you do ; I shouldn't feel as if you 
 were my father if you wore that dress,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 Moll spent the next morning making two 
 fishing-nets out of mosquito muslin and wire, 
 and was ready for a start at two o'clock. 
 
152 MOLL GOES FISHING. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth demurred a little at her 
 setting out in such heat instead of having a 
 midday rest first; but Mr Meredyth said she 
 had better let Moll expend her superfluous 
 energy ; and so, well protected from the sun by 
 a topee and green veil and coarse white linen 
 frock, Moll, under Mr Waughope's charge, 
 went off on their fishing expedition. 
 
 'And mind you are back at five sharp to 
 take the names ! ' shouted Mr Meredyth. 
 
 * You may depend upon me,' replied Mr 
 Waughope, as he took Moll's nets from her and 
 carried them. 
 
 The plantation was soon reached, and the 
 two sauntered along in the cool and refreshing 
 shade till they came to the stream. 
 
 'This looks a good place,' suggested Moll, 
 making a halt. 
 
 Mr Waughope looked doubtful. ' It 's very 
 shallow, and I don't see any fish. Why this 
 spot?' 
 
 Moll pointed to the tree overshadowing it. 
 ' Lonely and shady, and as for the fish, we can 
 stick our nets in the stream and catch anything 
 that comes along,' she explained. 
 
 ' That 's one way of fishing,' remarked Mr 
 Waughope, seating himself under the tree and 
 watching Moll as she fixed her net so as to 
 catch any fish that came along. He thought 
 it very unlikely that they would swim straight 
 
MOLL GOES FISHINQ. 153 
 
 into this obvious trap ; but as he did not want 
 to catch any fish, and was enjoying Moll's 
 conversation, she beijig in her best mood 
 apparently, he did not object to her methods. 
 
 ' Wretch ! ' cried Moll, suddenly breaking off 
 in the middle of a remark to her companion. 
 
 * What have I done ? ' he demanded, think- 
 ing she was addressing him. 
 
 'Nothing; it's a horrid frog that has got 
 into my net and torn a hole in it ! ' she cried. 
 
 ' You can have mine ; I am not particularly 
 keen about fishing,' he replied. 
 
 ' Thank you, I will ; you are no sportsman. 
 Oh here comes a lovely big long fish ! ' she 
 exclaimed. 
 
 * It 's an eel, and it will tear the net to 
 pieces,' expostulated Mr Waughope. 
 
 But Moll never listened to advice ; and 
 having made a dive with her net to catch 
 the eel, she had the mortification of seeing it 
 wriggle and writhe until it had torn her net 
 off its wire and swept it down the stream. 
 
 ' If you 'd attended to what I said ' began 
 
 Mr Waughope unwisely, getting up as he 
 spoke to rescue the other net, and removing 
 his coat to do so. 
 
 'If ifs and ands were pots and pans we 
 shouldn't be fishing at all perhaps, but catching 
 fish by wishing,' retorted Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope struggled with the net, and 
 
154 MOLL GOES FISHING. 
 
 Moll cast her eyes upon his watch ; it was 
 half-past four. She put the hands back an 
 hour and a half, and laid it down again. 
 
 • What is the time ? ' asked Mr Waughope, 
 seeing Moll putting down his watch. 
 
 'By your watch it is three o'clock,' she 
 replied. 
 
 'Is that all?' asked Mr Waughope. 'I 
 thought we had been here much longer.' 
 
 ' That is very rude ; it sounds as if you 
 were bored with me,' said Moll. 
 
 ' Not at all ; it was only the sun. I fancy 
 my watch must have stopped. No, it hasn't ; 
 but for once in its life it has gone wrong, for 
 the sun is long past three. I 'm sorry, Moll, 
 but we must go back ; I can't trust this watch,' 
 repeated Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' It 's only ten minutes' walk to the office,' 
 said Moll. 
 
 ' Yes, but I don't know the time ; it can't 
 be far off five,' declared Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' It's only half-past four,' said Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope stared at her. ' How do you 
 know ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' I made it three o'clock for a joke,' she 
 remarked. 
 
 Mr Waughope said nothing, but put on his 
 coat. 
 
 ' I shouldn't have let you be late,' she 
 argued. 
 
MOLL GOES FISHING. 155 
 
 ' No, I should not have allowed you to,' he 
 retorted, and walked on in silence. 
 
 'I should be sorry to be you, not able to 
 take a joke,' remarked Moll. 
 
 ' I should be sorry to call that a joke,' said 
 Mr Waughope. 
 
 Moll sighed. ' Well, I 've enjoyed my after- 
 noon very much, all the same. Haven't you ? ' 
 
 'Yes, but you have spoilt it by taking an 
 unpardonable liberty, if it was nothing worse. 
 I wish you were more trustworthy,' he re- 
 marked. 
 
 To his surprise, Moll replied, ' So do I.' 
 
 Whereupon Mr Wauchope came off his 
 dignity and forgave her ; but he did not return 
 to the fishing. 
 
CHAPTER XV, 
 
 A 'non-rubber' dinner-party. 
 
 A FEW days after the fishing expedition, 
 -^^ Mr Fish and Mr Waughope found 
 among their daily post and newspapers two 
 small envelopes addressed in a childish round- 
 hand ; and, though they had not seen her hand- 
 writing before, they both ejaculated, ' Moll ! 
 What's her latest?' 
 
 Inside each envelope there was a card hand- 
 printed as follows : ' Moll Meredyth requests 
 the pleasure of Mr Fi^'s [or Waughope's] 
 company to a non-rubber dinner on Tuesday 
 next, 1st May, 7.50 p.m. p.t.o.' 
 
 ' I suppose it is a May-day festival,' remarked 
 Mr Fish, 'and that is why Moll invites us.' 
 
 'Yes, but why a non-rubber dinner?' asked 
 the other. 
 
 ' That 's only her playful way of putting it ; 
 she means that we are not going to eat rubber. 
 She says we think and talk rubber all day 
 and dream rubber all night,' explained Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 'H'm, she doesn't generally make feeble 
 jokes like that ; there 's usually some point 
 in her jokes,' mused Mr Waughope. 
 
 'Rather too much point; inclined to prick, 
 eh ? ' laughed Mr Fish, sitting down to answer 
 
A 'non-rubber' diniwr-partt, 157 
 
 the invitation at the writing-table in the 
 mosquito room, a room on the veranda made 
 entirely of wire-gauze, in which the young 
 men took refuge when the lamps were lit and 
 the mosquitoes and other insects became un- 
 bearable. 
 
 ' I say, Waughope, it 's a case of dress-clothes, 
 I suppose ? ' he shouted out. 
 
 Mr Waughope had been turning about the 
 card in his fingers, and noticed p.t.o., and on 
 the back, 'White clothes de rigueur,' which 
 he read out. 
 
 ' That 's a blessing anyway ; it 's cruelty to 
 animals to make us wear European evening- 
 dress out here. They never used to, the old 
 planters tell me ; it 's these fashionable mems 
 who have done it ; but Mrs Meredyth 's a brick, 
 I will say that for her, and doesn't stand on 
 her dignity as most of them do out here.' 
 
 Mr Waughope, having nothing better to 
 do, was playing with the invitation card, the 
 wording of which seemed to excite his curiosity. 
 ' I bet you anything Moll has got something 
 up her sleeve about this non-rubber dinner,' 
 he said at last. ^ 
 
 'Done for you — what shall it be?' began 
 Mr Fish. 
 
 But Mr Waughope replied stiffly, ' It was only 
 a figure of speech. As you know, I don't bet.' 
 
 'Then you had better amend your speech. 
 
158 A 'non-rubber' dinner-party. 
 
 When a fellow offers to make a bet you 
 suppose he means it,' retorted Mr Fish, irri- 
 tated at his companion's superior attitude. 
 
 What would have been the end of this 
 altercation is uncertain ; for, spying Kenneth 
 Meredyth passing along the road to the office, 
 Mr Fish hailed him to ask what this dinner- 
 party of Moll's meant. 
 
 'She's asking. all the sinnct durai for miles 
 round ; she says the poor boys need a change 
 and some excitement badly,' replied Kenneth, 
 laughing. 
 
 'There's nothing very exciting about a 
 dinner-party, even a non-rubber one, whatever 
 that may mean, with nothing but young men ; 
 Moll says so herself I wonder, if she wanted 
 excitement, that she did not go in for a tennis 
 tournament or a gymkhana,' observed Mr 
 Fish, coming out of the mosquito room with 
 his acceptance in his hand, and giving it to 
 Kenneth to deliver for him. 
 
 ' That 's what I said to Moll, but she says 
 it will be exciting enough,' he replied ; ' but 
 what a non-rubber dinner means I know no 
 more than yourself Some of my cousin's 
 nonsense ; she is as full of tricks as a monkey.' 
 
 ' I expect she has got a surprise for us, or 
 why should she send out the invitations ? ' 
 
 ' Oh didn't she say it 's her birthday ? ' 
 said Ken. 
 
A 'non-rubber' dinner-party. 159 
 
 ' Her birthday ! I say, I wish we could 
 give her some sort of a surprise, Ken. What 
 do you say to a Kling dance — you know, with 
 tom-toms and songs and torches, and the tiger- 
 dance, and all that ? ' cried Mr Fish. 
 
 ' That is not a bad idea ; let 's give it in her 
 honour as a birthday present; it won't cost 
 so much divided between three. — Waughope, 
 you '11 join, won't you ? ' said Kenneth. 
 
 ' With pleasure ; not that I know what a 
 Kling dance is,' replied Mr Waughope readily. 
 
 ' Of course you 've never seen one ; it 's a 
 weird and wonderful affair, and well worth 
 seeing and hearing once ; but it 's a trifle noisy, 
 and apt to pall after a time. The Malay dance 
 is better, but we haven't any working on our 
 estate, and I like our Klings ; * they are the 
 nicest coolies on the estate,' explained Kenneth, 
 who had been wondering what he could give 
 his cousin, and was pleased at this way of 
 amusing and paying a compliment to his young 
 cousin on her birthday. 
 
 For the next week about a dozen young 
 men called at different times upon the assistants 
 of Mr Meredyth's rubber estate to ask what 
 on earth a non-rubber dinner meant, and to 
 propound their own theories on the subject, 
 but went away as wise as they were before 
 they came. No one understood the expression. 
 
 * A Kling is an imported coolie, generally a native of India, 
 
160 A 'non-rubber' dinner-party. 
 
 At 7.25 punctually fourteen young men in 
 motor-cars, on motor bicycles, and in rickshaws, 
 forming an impromptu procession, were seen 
 coming up the drive in the bright moonlight, 
 and Moll, in her pretty schoolgirl's evening- 
 dress, leant over the balcony and watched the 
 procession arrive. 'They are wrapped up,' 
 she observed. 
 
 ' They want to keep their white clothes clean 
 for the dinner. I wonder how they will enjoy 
 it,' said her father, an amused look on his 
 face. 
 
 The young men, who were very shy in the 
 presence of two ladies, though one was only 
 a child, had hardly got rid of their outwraps 
 and tidied themselves when the dinner-bell 
 rang, and the curtains, which had been erected 
 for the occasion, were drawn back by two 
 Chinese ' boys ' and disclosed the dining-room 
 one mass of crimson hibiscus, flame of the 
 forest, bright red, and acacia blossoms, while 
 on the long table by way of contrast were tiny 
 rubber-trees, from one to two feet high, planted 
 in rubber-seeds, long, shiny, oval seeds about 
 the size of a sparrow's egg ; rubber-seeds hung 
 in festoons from the lamps, and the menus 
 stood in pyramidal pedestals of rubber-seeds, 
 and each one's place was indicated by his 
 initial in rubber-seeds, which occasionally had 
 slipped from their places, making the reading 
 
A * non-rubber' dinner-party. 161 
 
 of the letters a little difficult, which, however, 
 broke the ice. 
 
 Loud were the exclamations at sight of the 
 unusual decoration of the dining-table. 
 
 ' But look here, Miss Moll, this is a rubber 
 
 dinner. You said " non " ' cried one. He 
 
 stopped abruptly as a rubber-seed hit him 
 above the eye. 
 
 * I suppose that was sarcastic, and you meant 
 
 it was a rubber dinner' Again a seed 
 
 hit the second speaker. 
 
 'Because we are all rubber-planters,' sug- 
 gested a third, to meet with the same fate. 
 
 'I say, have you got many more rubber- 
 seeds on your lap ? ' inquired Mr Waughope, 
 who was sitting next Moll. He immediately 
 received a rubber-seed on his cheek, and 
 demanded, ' What did you do that for ? ' 
 
 'Why, that's the joke, can't you see, 
 Waughope ? ' cried Mr Fish, who was very 
 quick-witted. 
 
 ' No, I don't see any joke,' retorted Mr 
 Waughope, whom the seed had hit rather 
 hard, and who felt his dignity injured by the 
 liberty. He was surprised, to tell the truth, 
 to see Mrs Meredyth sitting quietly at the 
 bottom of the table smiling at Moll, while Mr 
 Meredyth laughed outright at the young men's 
 mystified faces. 
 
 ' I see,' cried Ken, ' we are, none of us, to 
 
 M.M. K 
 
162 A 'non-bubber' dinner-party. 
 
 say — no, Moll, I haven't said it — the substance 
 which has brought us out from our native 
 land.' 
 
 ' Rubber ! ' they cried simultaneously, and 
 were greeted with a perfect shower of seeds, 
 as Moll flung them at all her guests. 
 
 'Now, that will do, Moll,' said her mother 
 quietly. * I think you have impressed upon 
 your guests the meaning of the title you have 
 given to your dinner-party and the subject of 
 conversation which is tabooed.' 
 
 ' That was neatly put. Well, if we are not 
 to talk of — it — what are we to talk about ? ' 
 inquired Mr Meredyth. 
 
 * Anything you like, papa, only not that ; 
 I am so tired of it,' declared Moll. 
 
 Half-a-dozen times did a young man begin 
 and get half the word out, only to swallow it 
 in haste and turn the conversation ; but by the 
 time the third course was served conversation 
 was in full swing on other topics than rubber 
 and rubber-planting, with its trials and troubles 
 and difficulties, which are more numerous than 
 the complacent holder of shares imagines. 
 
 At the end of the dinner one of the visitors 
 remarked, 'Well, I had no idea it would be 
 such a relief not to talk shop, and I had no 
 idea that we could get through a dinner-party 
 without it.' 
 
 ' Now you know it you had better start an 
 
A 'non-rubber' dinner-party. 163 
 
 Anti-Shop Talking League, or you will become 
 monomaniacs,' declared- Moll, as they sat about 
 in easy-chairs on the veranda, where they had 
 not long been seated when they heard a most 
 unearthly hubbub. 
 
 'Is it a riot?' cried Moll, starting up in 
 alarm, for there had been a good deal of unrest 
 among the coolies on the neighbouring planta- 
 tions lately. 
 
 'Let's look and see,' suggested Mr Fish, 
 leading the way to the front of the veranda, 
 and placing Moll's chair in the middle at the 
 top of the flight of steps. 
 
 The torchlight procession was visible now, 
 and the singing and beating of the tom-toms 
 sounded clearer. 
 
 'Sounds like a religious procession,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 ' It is a Kling dance in your honour, Moll,' 
 said Ken, smiling at his cousin's bewilderment. 
 
 And now the picturesque throngs were seen, 
 dancing and throwing their heads, arms, and 
 bodies about with a queer jerky movement in 
 time to the loud monotonous chant that they 
 sang to the accompaniment of the tom-toms 
 and triangles which they beat. 
 
 On they came, lighted by the torch-bearers, 
 and followed by a crowd of women and chUdren 
 : — all very dark, being natives, in this case, of 
 Southern India. They formed a large ring 
 
164 A 'non- rubber' dinner-party. 
 
 on the gravel in front of the veranda, under 
 the direction of the chief hingannie, or over- 
 seer, who kept men, women, and children in 
 good order by means of a long cane, which 
 seemed to reach for yards and chastise an unruly 
 member of his troupe. The moon was down, 
 but the torches lit up the scene brilliantly. 
 
 The three givers of the surprise f^te looked 
 at Moll from time to time to see how she 
 was enjoying the show, and were well satisfied 
 with her absorbed attention and little cries of 
 delight as the men twirled lighted torches 
 above their heads, twisting and turning and 
 contorting their bodies all the time. 
 
 'It's simply wonderful. How did they 
 know we had a party ? ' cried Moll ; and then, 
 seeing the pleased looks of her nearest neigh- 
 bours, who happened to be her cousin and 
 the two young assistants, she added, 'Why, I 
 believe it 's your surprise ! Well, it 's the 
 nicest birthday treat I could possibly have. 
 I never had anything like this in England.' s 
 
 And then her attention was caught by the 
 antics of the new dancer, who was swinging 
 about a burning hoop, into which, after a little 
 time, he jumped, and then used as a skipping- 
 rope, with which he did all sorts of feats. But 
 all these were only precursors of the great 
 event, the tiger-dance, for which the arena was 
 cleared by the hingannie, with the aid of his 
 
' Well, It 's the nicest birthday treat I could possibly have.' 
 M.M. PAUJi 164. 
 
A 'non-rubber' dinner-party. 165 
 
 long stick, which descended upon big and Httle 
 intruders on the space required for this curious 
 performance. 
 
 ' They are pretending to be two tigers,' Mr 
 Fish explained to Moll, as she sat and gazed 
 fascinated at the strange movements of the 
 men — now advancing with leaps and bounds 
 on each other, now stealthily moving round 
 and round, now crouching, now rising to their 
 full height, with fingers curled like claws. 
 Other spectators held their breath besides 
 Moll, whose vivid imagination carried her 
 away until she almost fancied that she was 
 watching the struggle between two wild beasts, 
 so natural and realistic was the display. At 
 last the stronger and more nimble man pre- 
 vailed, and, grappling his opponent in a mock 
 death-struggle, he got him underneath, and, 
 after having vanquished him, leapt triumphant 
 to his feet and commenced a triumphal dance 
 round the dead ' tiger,' who for his part ' played 
 the game,^ and lay dead until he was dragged 
 off the scene by some of his fellow-Indians. 
 
 'Oh is it over?' cried Moll, with a long- 
 drawn sigh, as the performers (all men of 
 course, as no woman would be allowed to 
 perform in public) and their wives and families 
 crowded up to the veranda for thanks and 
 appreciation, which they duly received — first 
 by applause and clapping, and then by hand- 
 
166 X 'non-rubbkr' dinner-partt. 
 
 fills of small coins thrown by all the spectators 
 at once. 
 
 It was mistaken kindness, as it turned out, 
 for there was a wild rush to the front, a 
 scramble in the dark, for the torches were 
 speedily abandoned and flung to the ground 
 in the mad search for wealth, in which men, 
 women, and little children, some almost babies, 
 joined. 
 
 The monotonous beating of the tom-toms 
 was exchanged for the weeping and wailing 
 and shrieks of women and children, growing 
 shriller and shriller as the excitement increased, 
 until a veritable pandemonium reigned. 
 
 Moll grew pale and trembled with fright, 
 and even Mrs Meredyth was seriously alarmed ; 
 bui; Mr Meredyth, who had seen this sort of 
 performance often before, and was now quietly 
 writing in his mosquito room, came out at 
 this unwonted termination to the play, and, 
 stepping to the front of the veranda, called 
 out in Tamil. His voice rang above the 
 shrieks and yells of the frenzied crowd ; and 
 in less time than it takes to relate the tumult 
 died away, and the chief kingannie, taking 
 once more the command, marshalled his troupe 
 and led them away. 
 
 ' What a scene ! ' cried Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Do you refer to the dance or its sequel ? ' in- 
 quired Moll, copying his stilted way of talking. 
 
A * non-rubber' DINNBR-PARTT. 167 
 
 ' I meant both. It has quite tired me out, 
 it was so exciting,' he replied. 
 
 'It is almost as good as an Earl's Court 
 exhibition,' observed Mr Fish. 
 
 ' Oh how can you 1 ' cried Moll indignantly. 
 
 ' Well, I 've seen that lighted hoop business 
 at home, and by niggers too,' declared Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 ' That was only a horrid copy ; this is the 
 original thing, and far cleverer,' protested 
 Moll. 
 
 'They gave me a fright at the end; I 
 thought some of the children were being^ 
 crushed to death,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' A lot of that w&s put on — that screaming, 
 I mean — and a lot of it was overwrought 
 nerves; they worked themselves up in the 
 dance,' said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Put on ? ' inquired Moll. 
 
 'Yes, they wanted to scare each other 
 away so as to get the money themselves. You 
 will hear scratching and scraping round the 
 bungalow all night, so don't be alarmed — it 
 will only be searchers for stray coins,' said 
 Ken. 
 
 And then Moll's non-rubber dinner-party 
 broke up, and the guests went away, after 
 very sincere thanks and assurance that they 
 had not enjoyed themselves so much for a 
 very long time. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 
 
 ' '\7'ES, it has answered very well having 
 •*■ Moll out ; she is a little paler, but she 
 is in excellent health,' said Mrs Meredyth to 
 the doctor, who was paying one of his periodical 
 visits to the estate, and was asking after his 
 favourite. 
 
 ' Yes, and she does not seem to be the mad- 
 cap her schoolmistress made out. You see I 
 was right, after all ; the girl is as good as one 
 could wish when she is properly handled ; 
 there 's nothing like a mother's care. I don't 
 mind confessing to you now that I was more 
 than a trifle nervous about the whole business, 
 because it is not easy to find safe occupation 
 for a young lady in this country — even India 
 would be better ; but Moll's love of nature and 
 all creatures that dwell upon the earth evidently 
 seems to make her quite happy upon the 
 estate,' agreed the doctor. 
 
 ' It is true, her love of her mother and her 
 love of nature are very strong points with Moll. 
 She amuses herself under the bungalow trying 
 to teach the monkeys tricks ; she has inherited 
 her father's love of animals, and if I did not pro- 
 test very strongljT- they would have them over- 
 running the bungalow,' said Mrs Meredyth. 
 
MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 169 
 
 The doctor laughed. ' I was wondering what 
 she would do for young companions. So she 
 consoles herself for the absence of girl friends 
 by playing with the monkeys, does she?' he 
 observed. 
 
 'And with our youngest assistant, a very 
 good and quiet boy, who, however, has a will 
 of his own, and, to tell you the truth, I have 
 to thank him for stopping many a prank that 
 Moll would otherwise have played ; and though 
 she is generally indignant at the time, they are 
 as good friends as ever the next day ; and I 
 trust him to take her for yv^alks in the jungle 
 and for fishing expeditions,' explained Mrs 
 Meredyth. 
 
 She had scarcely said this when Moll came 
 into the bungalow in a great state of excite- 
 ment; ' Oh mother ' she began. Then, 
 
 seeing the doctor, she added, 'I beg your 
 pardon, how do you do ? I 'm in such a hurry. 
 I want to go to Kuala in the car with Mr 
 Waughope. — May I, mother ? Do say yes. 
 He says he's on estate business, and can't 
 waste time and petrol waiting for me.' 
 
 Mrs Meredyth and the doctor smiled at the 
 young man's ungallant attitude, and the doctor 
 remarked, ' Let her go with him, Mrs Meredyth. 
 After all, life is a httle dull for her in the jungle, 
 and young Waughope is a very safe chaufieur, 
 I know, and a day's outing will do her good.' 
 
170 MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 
 
 ' Yes, yes, mother ; let me go ! ' cried Moll, 
 dancing with impatience. 
 
 ' Very well ; be sure you are good and sit 
 still, and be back for tiffin.' 
 
 'AH right, and thank you,' cried Moll. 
 ' Good-bye ; we '11 have a lovely day and come 
 back quite safe,' and she ran down the steps 
 and along the palm-tree avenue as if it were a 
 cool day, without stopping to hear her mother's 
 parting injunctions. 
 
 The doctor got up to look after her. ' Steady 
 there ; petrol is cheaper than fever,' he called 
 out. 
 
 But Moll only waved her hand, without 
 turning to look back or slacken her pace. 
 
 ' What energy in the tropics ! She won't 
 keep that up long. How many months has 
 she been here ? ' inquired the doctor. 
 
 'Three months and a day, to be exact, and 
 I don't suppose we have been farther than 
 the next estate half-a-dozen times since she 
 arrived. But I hope she will not stay out 
 too long,' said Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 ' I should not imagine she will stay a minute 
 longer than her chauffeur wishes, and that will 
 be as long as his business takes to get through, 
 judging from that remark of his,' said the 
 doctor. 
 
 ' He is very conscientious, but Moll circum- 
 vents him sometimes,' and Mrs Meredyth 
 
MOLL aOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 171 
 
 smiled at some recollection, which made the 
 doctor inquire what was amusing her. 
 
 ' It was really very naughty of her. They 
 went fishing, and Mr Waughope, who would 
 not omit a duty on any account, said he would 
 take her on condition that they got back in 
 two hours, as he had some coolies to pay, I 
 fancy ; and what did the naughty girl do but 
 put his watch, which he had laid on the bank 
 beside him, back every ten minutes or so.' 
 
 The doctor laughed long and heartily. 
 'How long did it take to make up that 
 quarrel ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' Mr Waughope was very angry, and nearly 
 reduced Moll to tears by saying that she had 
 no sense of honour, in which it seems he con- 
 siders women deficient.' 
 
 ' The young prig ! I should think Moll's 
 companionship would do him good,' exclaimed 
 the doctor. 
 
 The doctor and Mrs Meredyth were soon 
 joined by the planter, and the three sat and 
 talked until lunch-time, when Mrs Meredyth 
 said rather uneasily, 'Has the car not come 
 back yet ? ' 
 
 ' No, and not likely to be here till late this 
 evening. I told Waughope to have tiffin in 
 Kuala, as he has to wait for some repairs to a 
 piece of our machinery which I particularly 
 want back to-night.' 
 
172 MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 
 
 ' Oh dear ; I would not have let Moll go if I 
 had known that ! ' cried her mother. 
 
 ' Has Moll gone with the car ? She '11 be 
 rather bored in Kuala, I should think, for 
 Waughope has a lot of rather uninteresting 
 business to do, and there are only a few Chinese 
 shops for her to look at,' said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' She '11 enjoy herself all right. Trust Moll 
 for getting fun out of everything ; besides, it is 
 a pretty drive,' observed the doctor. 
 
 ' But perhaps there is no moon, and it will 
 be dark when they come home,' said the anxious 
 mother. 
 
 ' Waughope would drive a car in the blackest 
 night. Don't worry, Eulalie. If you like I 
 will telephone to the hotel and tell him not to 
 wait for the repairs, but to bring Moll home 
 first,' said her husband. 
 
 ' I really think it would be better ; she will 
 have had her drive and a long morning in 
 Kuala, and she had much better come home by 
 daylight,' urged Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 'Very well,' agreed her husband. Then 
 looking up at the clock, he added, ' I shall just 
 catch them at tiffin if I ring up the hotel now;' 
 and he went to the telephone, where they heard 
 him roaring ; he always shouted at the tele- 
 phone if he could not make himself understood 
 at once or did not get the answer he wanted. 
 
 ' What ! Not been there ? Yes, my assist- 
 
MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 173 
 
 ant Mr Waughope, and my daughter, a little 
 girl with brown curls. Yes, white, of course. 
 It 's Mr Meredyth this end — Bukit Ayer estate. 
 Go and inquire. Thank you. Yes, that 's it. 
 They have not come for tiffin yet. Let me 
 know when they arrive, will you ? Thank you.' 
 
 ' They 've not gone to tiffin yet. But it 's all 
 right; the car's there, so they've arrived all 
 right. I suppose Waughope could not get his 
 business done,' said Mr Meredyth, sitting down 
 comfortably to finish his lunch. 
 
 After lunch he was just going to have his lie 
 off, as a siesta is called out East, but his wife 
 stopped him. 'Just ring up Kuala Hotel, 
 Eustace; I cannot make my small voice heard,' 
 she remarked. 
 
 'They said they would ring me up when 
 Waughope arrived. I suppose they have for- 
 gotten ; they must be there by this time,' pro- 
 tested Mr Meredyth, and again they heard him 
 arguing over the telephone. 
 
 ' What — not been to lunch ? You don't mean 
 it ? Are you sure ? No, there must be some mis- 
 take; it 's quite impossible !' they heard him say. 
 
 The doctor smiled, wondering to himself 
 what impossible thing Moll had managed to 
 accomplish now. 
 
 ' What is it, Eustace ? ' inquired his wife. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, who had the tube to his ear, 
 replied, ' The manager says Waughope has gone 
 
174 MOLL aOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 
 
 to Singapore with Moll ; but it must be a mis- 
 take. I 've told them to put me on to the 
 station.' 
 
 ' Perhaps he found the repairs could not be 
 done in Kuala, and has taken them to Singa- 
 pore,' suggested the doctor. 
 
 ' He had no business to do that without my 
 leave. — What is that — the station-master? 
 Have you seen my daughter. Yes, brown 
 curls — and a young man who stammers. What ! 
 Are you sure ? No, no, it 's all right. Thanks 
 — ring off.' — Thfey've gone to Singapore,' he 
 remarked, putting down the receiver and coming 
 to join the other two, who had been listening 
 to this conversation. 
 
 ' By what train ? ' asked Mrs Meredy th. 
 
 ' I never asked, and really, to tell you the 
 truth, I don't want to make any more fuss 
 about it ; they '11 think Moll has run away or 
 something. I must say I don't understand 
 Waughope ; he ought not to have gone with- 
 out consulting me,' said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 Kenneth, who had been out and only arrived 
 now, was told the news, and was as surprised as 
 the others at Waughope's doing such a thing. 
 
 * Of course it 's the repairs to the machinery; 
 but I wonder at his going right to S'pore and 
 taking Moll with him. Anyhow, he has some 
 good reason, we may be sure,' said Kenneth, 
 who, like his aunt and uncle, and indeed every 
 
MOLL GOBS OFF ON A JAUNT. 175 
 
 one who knew the young assistant, trusted him 
 implicitly, 
 
 ' Well, they can't be home by daylight now, 
 I should think,' remarked Mr Meredyth ; not, 
 however, troubling himself very much about 
 that fact. 
 
 'That depends upon what train they went 
 by,' argued Kenneth. 
 
 'Your uncle did not ask that. I rather 
 wish I knew. I can't help thinking that Mr 
 Waughope must have left some message for 
 us which has gone wrong, as things do in 
 this land, with natives of different countries to 
 work them,' remarked Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 ' I '11 tell you what. Aunt Eulalie, I have a 
 good mind to borrow Fish's motor-bicycle and 
 run over to Kuala. I could make inquiries at 
 the machine-shop and hotel, and find out if there 
 is any message or explanation,' said Kenneth. 
 
 * I should be so much obliged to you if you 
 would. Of course I know Moll is quite safe 
 with Waughope ; still, if you went you could 
 tell them to come straight back when they 
 arrive from Singapore, and not wait about any 
 business,' said his aunt. 
 
 ' All right ; I '11 see to any business he has 
 not done, and I '11 telephone any news as soon 
 as I arrive there,' said Kenneth. 
 
 Mr Fish lent his bicycle willingly, remark- 
 ing as he did so, ' Fancy Waughope going off 
 
176 MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT. 
 
 on his own like that? If it had been me, I 
 should have gone to the races.' 
 
 ' By the way, it is the races to-day. I hope 
 to goodness that it is not there they have gone. 
 It would be just like Moll to do so,' cried 
 Kenneth, as this thought suddenly struck him. 
 
 ' Yes, but it wouldn't be like Waughope ; he 
 disapproves of racing and betting, and he knows 
 that your uncle objects to his assistants going 
 to the races,' said Mr Fish. 
 
 'He had an assistant here who made a 
 terrible hash of things by betting, and he lost 
 a lot of money. It has made Uncle Eustace 
 dead against races ; but Moll is mad about 
 horses, and she may have persuaded Waughope 
 to take her.' 
 
 ' It would take her all her time to do that ; 
 he didn't want to take her to-day. He said he 
 had a lot of business to do and could not attend 
 to her properly. No, he has gone to Singapore 
 on business and taken Moll with him, because 
 he did not know what to do with her. She '11 
 spend a piping -hot day at the engineering 
 works, which will cure her of going out on 
 business with Waughope,' declared Mr Fish. 
 
 Kenneth Meredyth laughed, and went off, 
 after some struggling with the bicyoje, which 
 took a good deal of starting. 
 
 About an hour afterwards Mr Meredyth was 
 rung up at his office. ' I thought I had better 
 
MOLL GOES OFF ON A JAUNT. » 177 
 
 tell you that Waughope has left the machinery 
 here to be mended, and it is ready for me to 
 bring. He then went off to Singapore by the 
 ten o'clock train without doing any of the other 
 business,' he telephoned. 
 
 'What does he mean by it? He must be 
 cracked ! ' protested Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' I don't know ; there is no explanation here 
 at the hotel, and the *asfcation-master says one 
 of the porters saw them go off, and neither 
 Waughope nor Moll had any tickets, and he 
 seemed to be quarrelling with the young lady.' 
 
 ' What on earth does it all mean ? I had 
 better ring up your aunt,' said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 * Hadn't you better wait a bit ? The last 
 train is due in an hour ; I '11 stay for it and 'phone 
 you the meaning of it all,' suggested Kenneth. 
 
 'Very well, but your aunt will be getting 
 anxious ; I can't understand it at all. I '11 be 
 bound it's some prank of Moll's, and she has 
 made poor Waughope go with her. No wonder 
 he scolded her, naughty girl ; but I wish he had 
 left some message,' said Mr Meredyth, senior. 
 
 Kenneth privately agreed with his uncle, 
 and went off to meet the last train from Singa- 
 pore, only to find, to his disappointment and 
 concern, that the two wanderers were not in it. 
 For a few moments he stood in Kuala Station, 
 wondering what he was to do, for things were 
 beginning to look serious. 
 
 U.M. L 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES, 
 
 ' T 'M afraid you '11 have rather a slow time of 
 -■■ it to-day, because I have a lot of import- 
 ant business to do which will take me several 
 hours, and you will have to wait in the hotel,' 
 announced Mr Waughope, when Moll, breath- 
 less but beaming, arrived at the garage where 
 Mr Waughope was just starting the car. 
 
 ' I shall come with you ; I 'd love to see 
 shops again,' replied Moll. 
 
 ' You would not be interested, really ; think 
 better of it and stay at home, and I 'U ask if I 
 can take you a drive through some awfully 
 pretty country where there is a very old 
 Portuguese village,' urged the young man, his 
 hand resting on the door-handle of the car. 
 
 ' Not I—" a bird in the hand is worth two 
 in the bush." Thanks to that dear old doctor, 
 mother has let me go out for the day, and I 'm 
 going to enjoy myself. We '11 tiffin at the 
 hotel, and I'll have curry with prawn sambal 
 and every other sambal.^ 
 
 ' Get in, then,' said Mr Waughope ; but Moll 
 was not disturbed by his coldness, nor by a 
 look on his face which she knew meant an 
 argument, to put it mildly, over these for- 
 bidden dainties. 
 
OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 179 
 
 ' I Q/m enjoying myself,' she said once or 
 twice as they whizzed along, making a cool 
 breeze as they went, and Mr Waughope could 
 not help being infected by her gaiety, and by 
 the time they got to Kuala he was quite 
 reconciled to having a companion whom he 
 would have to look after when he really had 
 a good deal of troublesome business to get 
 through. 
 
 ' We '11 just see to this machinery first, as it 
 will take a long time to mend ; and I want to 
 get home before dark, or else your mother will 
 be getting nervous about you,' he remarked, as 
 he slowed down at the engineer's offices. 
 
 ' No, she won't, they think you are as safe 
 as old Time ; you are worse than any gover- 
 ness,' said Moll. 
 
 ' I won't be long ; just sit there and see that 
 no one runs away with the car,' he remarked, 
 as he told the 'boy' to carry the broken 
 machinei*y into the shop. 
 
 'AH right,' said Moll, and her companion 
 knew that the car and its occupant were safe 
 once Moll gave her word. 
 
 But many times during that day did he wish 
 he had taken her into the shop with him, for 
 his business took longer than he expected ; and 
 Moll was beginning to be bored, when the 
 assistant on another estate near them drove 
 past, and stopped short at sight of Moll. 
 
180 OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 
 
 * Good-morning, are you going to the races ? ' 
 he inquired. 
 
 ' Races ? What races ? Horse-races here 
 to-day ? Oh what luck ! Yes, of course I '11 
 come if you '11 take me. Mr Waughope is 
 here on business, and I am out on a day's 
 holiday, and he was just wondering what he 
 should do with me,' cried Moll. 
 
 For a moment the young man hesitated. 
 Moll looked so eager and bright that he hated 
 to disappoint her ; but he doubted whether her 
 parents would approve of her going off to the 
 races at Singapore under his chaperonage. 
 ' The races are at Singapore ; of course I 
 should be delighted to take you, but perhaps 
 your people would not like it. We'd better 
 ask Waughope,' he replied. 
 
 'They will let me go anywhere with Mr 
 Waughope ; he 's like an old grandmother. 
 You must persuade him to come ; it 's only 
 two hours' journey after all,' urged Moll. 
 
 ' Right you are ; I '11 just put my car up at 
 the hotel, and you meet me there. We '11 try 
 and fix it up,' agreed the young man. 
 
 ' I 'm awfully sorry to have kept you so long ; 
 I 'm afraid you Ve been terribly bored,' observed 
 Mr Waughope, when he came out shortly after. 
 
 ' I should have been if I hadn't met Mr 
 Clark. He wants to speak to you at the 
 hotel,' remarked Moll. 
 
OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 181 
 
 'AH right; we will go straight there and 
 order tiffin, and do our shopping afterwards. 
 I dare say I could take you for a drive round 
 Kuala ; there is a lighthouse we might visit, or, 
 if you would like it better, we could have a sail 
 in the Straits. I shall have an hour or two to 
 spare, as this thing won't be mended till four 
 o'clock,' he explained. 
 
 'That would be jolly; but Mr Clark has 
 another plan if you approve of it,' said Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope was flattered, as Moll knew 
 he would be, at having his approval demanded, 
 and he was consequently in a very good temper 
 when at length they arrived at the hotel, only 
 to hear that Mr Clark had gone to the station, 
 where he wanted them to meet him — so the 
 hotel-porter told them — as he wanted to catch 
 the train to Singapore. 
 
 ' Rather cool cheek of him to expect me 
 to chase him all over the place ; I 've a good 
 mind not to go. These planters have no 
 manners at all,' said Mr Waughope, who 
 seemed to forget that he was a planter himself, 
 and only an assistant, as a matter of fact. 
 
 ' Oh yes, do go ; he wants to see you most 
 particularly, and make haste or the train will 
 go off!' cried Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope went off rather reluctantly, 
 accompanied by Moll, who, however, stopped 
 and ran back to tell the hotel-porter that he 
 
182 OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 
 
 was to telephone to Bukit Ayer to say that 
 she had gone to the Singapore races, which 
 the man agreed to do, with many polite 
 salaams. 
 
 The railway station was quite near, and 
 Moll arrived just in time to hear Mr Waughope 
 saying very decidedly, ' I 'm sorry, but we can't 
 possibly come. Good-bye, Clark ; I hope you 
 will enjoy yourself.' 
 
 ' Why can't we go, Mr Waughope ? You 
 have just said you had a few hours to spare. 
 Why can't we go into Singapore and see a 
 race ? I 've never seen a horse-race in my life, 
 and I do love horses,' pleaded Moll. 
 
 ' Come on, Waughope, be a sport ; it 's only 
 a couple of hours' run, and you can see the 
 chief races and be back by six o'clock. Come 
 along, and give the kiddie a good time ; she 
 must have a pretty rotten one at Bukit Ayer,' 
 urged Mr Clark. 
 
 ' I am very sorry, Clark, but the thing is 
 impossible. My manager does not approve of 
 his assistants going to the races ; besides, I 
 couldn't possibly go in khaki, and Moll is not 
 dressed for Singapore either,' he said stiffly. 
 
 ' Your manager only objects to his S. D.'s 
 betting ; you go and show him that you can 
 go to a race without ruining yourself. As for 
 khaki, who cares about clothes; Moll is all 
 right in that white rig-out. Come along, man! 
 
OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 183 
 
 Here 's the train ; never mind about a ticket,' 
 said Mr Clark. 
 
 ' I can't possibly come, and I forbid you to 
 go either, Moll,' declared Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Forbid me ? What business have you to 
 forbid me ? You are just a horrid prig, and 
 don't want me to enjoy myself!' cried Moll, 
 stamping her foot with impatience as the train 
 came in, and she saw her chance of seeing 
 horse-racing disappearing. 
 
 ' I 'm sorry, but the thing is quite impossible,' 
 declared Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' It is not in the least impossible, and what 's 
 more, if you don't go, I will go with Mr Clark,' 
 declared Moll ; and so saying, she climbed into 
 the train. 
 
 ' I think you had better not come if 
 Waughope won't come,' said Mr Clark. 
 
 But Moll did not heed him. The station- 
 master gave a whistle, and the train went off as 
 Moll waved gaily to Mr Waughope, who was 
 standing on the platform nonplussed by this last 
 move of Moll's. Then a sudden determination 
 seized him to look after Moll at any cost, and he 
 jumped on to the train as it was going, in spite 
 of energetic protests from porters and officials. 
 
 ' That 's right, Waughope ; cheer up, we '11 
 have a jolly day. There are some ripping 
 horses running, and I can give a good tip, if 
 you want one. You back Durbar for all you 
 
184 OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 
 
 are worth ; it 's a dead certainty,' said Mr 
 Clark, rattling off his speech, to avert the 
 scolding which he saw Mr Waughope was 
 going to give Moll. 
 
 ' Thank you, I don't mean to bet to-day, nor 
 am I going to the races ; I am going to take 
 the next train back, and so is Moll. She is 
 under my charge, and she must do what I tell 
 her,' said Mr Waughope coldly. 
 
 It was rather late in the day to talk of Moll 
 doing what he told her, seeing that she was now 
 in the train against his express command, and 
 that it was he who was doing what she wished, 
 and it was altogether a rather unwise remark. 
 He might have succeeded in bringing Moll 
 back when they arrived at Singapore if he had 
 appealed to her honour ; but as it was, she 
 resented his dictatorial tone, and only laughed 
 at this speech. 
 
 Mr Clark meanwhile, who was out to enjoy 
 himself and did not feel any responsibility as 
 regards Moll beyond a good-natured desire to 
 let her have a good time, and who did not 
 particularly care for Mr Waughope, whom he 
 dubbed goody-goody, and whom he thought it 
 would be rather fun to get into a hole, made 
 himself very entertaining to Moll, and pointed 
 out the various tropical trees and flowers which 
 they passed ; while Mr Waughope sat and 
 glowered at them from his corner. 
 
OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 185 
 
 'Moll, are you coming home or not?' he 
 demanded when they reached Tank Road, 
 Singapore. 
 
 ' Not ! ' said Moll, getting out of the train 
 with a jump. 
 
 Mr Waughope said no more ; but having 
 paid for their two tickets, he followed her out 
 of the station. After having watched her get 
 into a rickshaw, he followed her and Mr Clark 
 and a stream of rickshaws to the town to 
 Raffles' Hotel, where there was a special race 
 tiffin and band ; but without saying a word. 
 
 'I've telephoned to mother from Kuala to 
 say we have gone to the races, so you need not 
 be so glum,' remarked Moll to him, seeing him 
 make off for the telephone. 
 
 Mr Waughope stopped short. ' Why did 
 you not tell me that before ? Did your mother 
 say you might go ? ' he asked, 
 
 ' No, because I did not wait for the answer. 
 The hotel-porter telephoned for me,' said Moll. 
 
 ' I shall 'phone again, and see what she says,' 
 he replied stiffly. 
 
 But, alas ! the 'phone was out of order, and 
 there was no telephonic communication between 
 Kuala and Singapore for the moment ; so Mr 
 Waughope sent a telegram, triply paid, urgent, 
 to the hotel at Kuala to explain the whole 
 affair, and resigned himself to the task of 
 following Moll about wherever the spirit (a 
 
186 OFF TO THE SINGAPORE RACES. 
 
 most perverse one to-day) chose to lead her, 
 and consoled himself with the thought that at 
 least it was not his fault, and that Mrs Mere- 
 dyth would be assured that he was, in the 
 words of his telegram, 'taking great care of 
 Moll,' though he vowed to himself, at least a 
 dozen times, that a day on the estate would 
 not tire him half so much. However, after a 
 wash, he managed to enjoy the band and the 
 lunch in spite of his khaki ; and Moll, whose 
 toilet did not worry her in the least, was in 
 high spirits all tiffin time. 
 
 Many were the glances cast at this bright, 
 happy-looking English girl, who was a very 
 rare sight in Singapore, and greatly did the 
 other young bachelors, who swarm in Singa- 
 pore, envy Mr Waughope and Mr Clark for 
 having such a nice little girl to take to the 
 races, the sight of whom made more than one 
 of them home-sick for their own young sisters. 
 
 'Hallo, Waughope, you've come to the 
 races, I see ; but, man alive, what do you mean 
 by getting yourself up in khaki ? Don't you 
 know that out here it is strict etiquette to 
 wear dark clothes for Singapore, especially for 
 the races and when you have a mem with you ? ' 
 cried a fellow-planter, who caught sight of Mr 
 Waughope and his company, and thought that 
 he, being a new-comer, did not know this fact. 
 
 ' I am perfectly aware of that, but I did not 
 
OFF TO THE SINaAPORE RACES, 187 
 
 mean to come to Singapore races when I 
 started,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Oh I see ! Well, it doesn't matter, after 
 all, and Clark is smart enough to make up for 
 you. Between you and me I think it 's idiotic 
 to put on cloth suits in this climate ; it 's 
 frightfully hot and uncomfortable. Much more 
 sensible if they'd start wearing white silk or 
 something like that for smart wear. Well, 
 good-bye, I 've got a lot of men waiting for 
 me ; see you later at the races,' he remarked, 
 going off. 
 
 *We had better be off too, as I shall have 
 to get a ladies' pass for Moll, and a ticket for 
 you for the members' stand, Waughope. I 
 suppose you are not a member ; I had for- 
 gotten about that.' 
 
 ' No, I am not a member,' said Mr Waughope, 
 as he got into his rickshaw and set off at a 
 rattling pace after his companions, Moll pro- 
 testing all the time with her rickshaw coolie 
 for going so fast and making himself so hot, 
 which, however, was not of much use, as she 
 talked English, and the Chinaman could not 
 understand a word of any language but his own. 
 
 So the three drove up with a flourish at the 
 members' entrance to the Singapore race- 
 course, where poor Mr Waughope was faced 
 with further difficulties and troubles, the tale 
 of which will require another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAY. 
 
 TV /TOLL, with her back to the turnstile, was 
 ^^^ watching with amusement the stream 
 of motor-cars, gharries, private carriages, and, 
 most numerous of all, rickshaws driving up and 
 depositing their freight of every conceivable 
 nation under the sun — Europeans in smart 
 dinner gowns; Malays in European dress, if they 
 were advanced, or in gay sarongs and bajus (a 
 kind of Magyar jacket coming half-way down to 
 the knees) ; rich Chinese, with gaudily dressed 
 wives ; Japanese, Indian, Javanese, as well as 
 every European nation, were represented there, 
 and more or less on an equality, at all events 
 as far as the private enclosure for members 
 went. 
 
 Perhaps the most ardent sportsman there 
 was the sultan of a Malay state, who competed 
 successfully against the horses of Europeans, 
 Chinese, Jews, and Malays. This brilliantly 
 coloured throng engrossed Moll so completely 
 that she was oblivious of a rather heated dis- 
 cussion that was going on behind her, and 
 only turned round when Mr Waughope, look- 
 ing very angry and Mr Clark very vexed, 
 joined her ; and the former said, ' I 'm very 
 sorry, Moll, but they have just made an idiotic 
 
MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAT, 189 
 
 new rule that no tickets are to be issued for 
 the members' stand and enclosure, and no 
 ladies' passes given out after twelve o'clock ; 
 so I am afraid we must go straight home.' 
 
 'I am awfully fed up about it, Moll. I 
 would take you in like a shot ; but this stupid 
 secretary declares it's against the rules, and 
 won't let me,' said Mr Clark. 
 
 ' What a shame ! Isn't there any other 
 stand ? What is this non-members' stand 
 that those people are going into ? Can't we 
 go there ? ' inquired Moll. 
 
 ' No one goes there,' objected Mr Clark. 
 
 ' Indeed they do ; let us try,' said Moll. 
 
 Mr Clark was too good-natured to refuse, 
 and the three, in spite of remonstrances from 
 Mr Waughope, who was furious at being 
 refused entrance to the proper place, went to 
 the non-members' stand, which Mr Clark ob- 
 served had only a few ' outsiders.' 
 
 ' What do the people matter ? I haven't 
 come to see the people in the stand ; I have 
 come to see the racing, and we can see that 
 quite as well from here as from the members' 
 stand. I am enjoying myself so much ! ' cried 
 Moll, her eyes shining with excitement. 
 
 ' It 's not the proper place to be,' grumbled 
 Mr Waughope, * and it all comes of being here 
 without leave. I don't know what the manager 
 will say.' 
 
190 MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAT. 
 
 ' Don't worry, Mr Waughope ; look at the 
 crowd opposite playing football and games just 
 like a lot of children. Isn't it a pretty sight 
 to see all those colours and those funny little 
 boys in yellow and pink and blue trousers ? 
 What are they — Malays or Chinese ? ' 
 
 'Both, and a lot of them are girls. Both 
 sexes wear trousers in China. It's rather 
 different from the Derby, isn't it ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, but here come the horses to be weighed. 
 Oh what a beauty ! ' cried Moll. 
 
 ' I 'm going to bet on him ! Will you excuse 
 me ? ' cried Mr Clark. 
 
 ' Oh put some money on for me ! Here is 
 a piece of paper ; put it on that horse ! ' ex- 
 claimed Moll, handing the young man a ten- 
 dollar note. 
 
 'Moll, you are not to bet. — Clark, don't 
 take the money ! ' cried Mr Waughope. 
 
 Mr Clark hesitated a moment while Moll 
 and Mr Waughope argued hotly ; but he was 
 in a great hurry to be off, so saying, ' It 's her 
 own money, Waughope ; don't be such an old 
 grandmother,' and went off with it. 
 
 Mr Waughope looked at Moll; but Moll 
 was too excited at the sight of the horses and 
 the whole scene, and he saw that it would be 
 useless to say anything to her ; so he sat there 
 gloomily wondering how he should excuse 
 himself for having given way to Moll as he 
 
MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAT. 191 
 
 had done, and feeling more and more uncertain 
 that they would believe it was Moll's doing 
 and not probably his own wish to see the races, 
 which he now remembered having said to Mr 
 Meredyth would be an interesting sight in 
 the brilliant sunshine of Singapore. 
 
 But Moll was troubled by no such thoughts, 
 and was watching her horse eagerly. ' There, 
 he 's going — head leading ! I knew he would. 
 Sultan, you '11 win ! Oh dear, oh dear, hurry 
 up 1 ' she cried in great excitement. 
 
 ' Sultan has no chance at all ; Merry Widow 
 is going to win this race,' Mr Waughope 
 observed, standing up to get a better view, and 
 finding some satisfaction in giving this gloomy 
 opinion. 
 
 ' How do you know ? ' demanded Moll 
 sharply. 
 
 ' Anybody with half an eye for horses could 
 tell that ; he has a better stride, better every- 
 thing,' replied Mr Waughope, who knew some- 
 thing about horses. 
 
 ' I think you might have told me, instead of 
 making me waste that money,' said Moll, sitting 
 down abruptly as her horse Sultan cantered in 
 last. Then as Mr Waughope had relapsed 
 into a gloomy silence, she inquired, 'How 
 much was that piece of paper ? ' 
 
 'It looked like a ten-dollar note,' observed 
 Mr Waughope. 
 
192 MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAT. 
 
 ' I mean, how much was it worth in proper 
 money ? I don't know anything about dollars ; 
 I only know that cents, which ought to be a 
 penny like it is in France and Germany, is 
 threepence out here ; and I can't possibly cal- 
 culate dollars.' 
 
 ' Eight and a half dollars go to a pound ' 
 
 began Mr Waughope ; but an exclamation of 
 annoyance from Moll made him pause and ask 
 what was the matter. 
 
 ' Are you sure ? Then I 've spent twenty- 
 four shillings about ! What a bore ! It isn't 
 mine, and I don't believe I 've got as much 
 as that till I get my next allowance,' she 
 remarked. 
 
 Mr Waughope gave Moll a very disapprov- 
 ing look, and said, ' Nice behaviour yours ! 
 Well, it will be a long time before I take 
 you out again. As regards that money, of 
 course I shall pay it ; I should not think of 
 allowing a little girl like you to bet, besides 
 its against the rules. Clark ought to be 
 ashamed of himself for encouraging you in 
 such folly.' 
 
 Moll, it will be remembered, was very small 
 for fourteen ; a fact which annoyed her very 
 much, consequently she greatly resented being 
 called a little girl, as Mr Waughope quite well 
 knew. 
 
 ' Ybu won't pay my bets, and I 'm not a 
 
MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAY. 193 
 
 little girl, and I want some tea. As they 
 won't bring it to us here, I shall go down to 
 the tea-room and get it,' announced Moll. 
 
 But here Mr Waughope put his foot down. 
 ' There 's no tea-room here — only a bar, and go 
 there you shall not, if I have to hold you by 
 force. Now then ! ' 
 
 ' Why not ? ' asked Moll, who saw that he 
 meant what he said. 
 
 'Because there are only men there, and it 
 is no place for a lady.' 
 
 ' Then let us go and ask that soldier at the 
 door where we can get tea ; it 's past four, and 
 no race for twenty minutes, and I am so 
 thirsty,' urged Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope had no objection to this, and 
 they both went down, only to hear that tea 
 was served on the lawn of the members' en- 
 closure, but nowhere else. 
 
 ' Then I must go there ; I 'm thirsty,' an- 
 nounced Moll, joining in the discussion between 
 Mr Waughope and the doorkeeper. 
 
 The man looked at her, and said civilly, ' I 'm 
 very sorry, miss. Have you a ticket ? ' 
 
 'No, but I must have tea, and if you can't 
 send it to me I must go to it ; it 's nonsense 
 having a tea-room that you can't go to even 
 if you pay.' 
 
 'That's quite true, miss, and you're in the 
 rights of it. As the secretary isn't here, I '11 
 
 H.M. M 
 
194 MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAY. 
 
 risk it, and let you through, if this gentleman 
 will take you to the tea-garden,' 
 
 ' Thank you ; I sha'n't do any damage,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 ' We must just have a cup of tea and get 
 back ; it won't do for the secretary to see me 
 in here after he refused me admittance,' said 
 Mr Waughope, looking round nervously. 
 
 ' Fiddlesticks ! he ought to have let us in ; 
 there 's no hurry, and I want another cup of 
 tea,' said Moll. 
 
 ' Hallo ! How did you get in ? I am glad 
 to see you. The secretary thought better of 
 it ? ' said Mr Clark, coming to their table. 
 
 ' / thought better of it. I was tired of that 
 stand, and came to this place ; it 's rather nice. 
 I 'm going to stay here.' 
 
 ' You can't ' began Mr Waughope, 
 
 ' Yes, she can ; old Smith won't say anything 
 if he sees you, and there's a race beginning; 
 come and watch it. Besides, you can't hear 
 the band over in the non-members' stand.' 
 
 In the end, Mr Waughope gave way in 
 despair, and they had tea on the lawn, watched 
 two more races, and there was no more talk of 
 leaving the enclosure. 
 
 ' I lost my bet,' said Moll. 
 
 'Oh no, you didn't; I didn't put it on. 
 Here 's your ten dollars,' said Mr Clark hastily. 
 
 Moll looked at it closely. ' That 's not the 
 
MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAY. 195 
 
 same piece of paper. The other was dirtier ; 
 you 're only saying that out of politeness.' 
 
 'Anyway, I pay my charge's debts,' said 
 Mr .Waughope. 
 
 ' Oh bother debts ! There 's an auction of 
 all the racehorses ; let 's go and see it,' said 
 Mr Clark, to change the conversation. 
 
 Moll was only too pleased ; and though Mr 
 Waughope continued to look uncomfortable at 
 being on forbidden ground, he went with her. 
 
 The horses were brought out one by one 
 and walked round the ring, in the foremost of 
 which were Moll and her companions. How 
 it happened no one quite knew; but one 
 particular horse took Moll's fancy, and she 
 said she should like to buy it, and asked Mr 
 Clark to bid for it. Whether he thought she 
 was the petted daughter of a rich planter 
 who was supplied liberally with pocket-money, 
 and was allowed to do what she liked, or 
 whether, as he afterwards averred, the auc- 
 tioneer mistook his sign, is not certain ; but 
 what is certain is that at the end of the auction 
 Moll found herself the possessor of a race- 
 horse, which cost the small sum of two hundred 
 dollars, or twenty-four pounds ! 
 
 It was some time before Mr Waughope 
 grasped this last catastrophe, and when he did 
 his wrath burst forth ; this time on Mr Clark. 
 ' A nice day's work you 've done, Clark ! If 
 
196 MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAT. 
 
 we hadn't met you we should never have come 
 here at all ; it 's been a bad job right through, 
 and this is the end of it. What are we going to 
 do with that ugly brute I should like to know ? ' 
 
 ' I 'm going to ride it ; father said I might 
 have a horse, and this is very cheap, and a 
 racehorse too ! I might run it again in some 
 more races and win a lot of money,' cried Moll. 
 
 ' I never bought him. I wonder if we could 
 get off our bargain. I '11 try,' said Mr Clark, 
 going off to interview the authorities. 
 
 But they thought the young planter had been 
 playing a trick on them, and disbelieved the 
 story about its being for a girl, and made him 
 abide by his bargain and pay cash down. 
 
 This he could only do by Mr Waughope's 
 help, and they finally found themselves the 
 unwilling possessors of a racehorse, and not 
 enough money to pay their fares home. 
 
 'Of course I must telephone or wire to 
 Kuala for a friend to meet us there and pay,' 
 said Mr Waughope, who, as it happened, had 
 no acquaintances in Singapore. 
 
 ' That 's all right ; I '11 get a man I know to 
 lend us money,' said Mr Clark. 
 
 This seemed the only thing to do ; but un- 
 fortunately the friend lived some way off, and 
 by the time they had been to him in rickshaws 
 they had run it very close for the last train at 
 6.50, and just missed it. 
 
MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAY. 197 
 
 'Now, Clark, perhaps you'll tell us what we 
 are to do ? ' inquired Mr Waughope, who felt 
 that this was indeed the last straw which 
 broke his back. 
 
 ' We must motor across the island [of Singa- 
 pore] and try and catch the train at Johore,' 
 said Mr Clark. ' It 's only seventeen miles.' 
 
 ' I doubt if we can race the train,' demurred 
 Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' I 've done it, only we must hurry up,' said 
 Mr Clark. 
 
 Luckily a car had just come into the garage, 
 and the three set off at a good rate across the 
 island to the railway terminus on the opposite 
 side of the Straits to Johore, where the main 
 line starts up the Malay Peninsula through the 
 Federated Malay States to Penang. 
 
 It was a very pretty drive, and Mr Waughope, 
 watch in hand, timed the car, which was going 
 at a high speed on the deserted parts, and 
 found to his relief that they were ahead of the 
 train at the crossing half-way. 
 
 ' We shall do it,' he said. 
 
 ' Easily,' said Mr Clark, * and, after all, it is 
 not much more expensive, only ten dollars 
 instead of three, and a much more pleasant 
 way of travelling. Oh-h ! ' 
 
 This was owing to a violent explosion, which 
 meant a tire burst. 
 
 ' Ten minutes lost ! ' groaned Mr Waughope. 
 
198 MOLL SPENDS A MISCHIEVOUS DAT. 
 
 ' Only three. — Hurry up, chauffeur ; another 
 five dollars if you catch the boat across the 
 Straits.' 
 
 In five minutes they were on again ; but, 
 alas ! the extra bribe meant haste along a 
 serpentine bit of road, and a grazing against 
 a tree nearly upset the car but for a miracle, 
 and the chauffeur stopped to examine the 
 damage. There was no serious harm done, 
 but they arrived at the Straits to see the 
 steamboat which connects with the train half- 
 way across. 
 
 'A sampan — get a samipan!' shouted Mr 
 Clark. But, alas ! as the sam/pan neared the 
 shores of Johore, the train puffed out of 
 Johore Bham station and up the mainland. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 
 
 AT last, if he had but known it, Moll's 
 much-tried guardian had his revenge ; 
 for his young charge — and a heavy charge he 
 found her — was really disturbed, for they were 
 now about one hundred miles from Kuala by 
 the road, which wound about far more than 
 the railway, and then there were twenty miles 
 more to go to Bukit Ayer, and it was now 
 eight o'clock, and quite dark. 
 
 ' The mischief ! ' muttered Mr Clark, looking 
 helplessly after the retreating train, 
 
 'There's no other train, I suppose — not 
 even a goods ? ' inquired Mr Waughope of the 
 black stationmaster. 
 
 ' Oh yes, to-morrow morning at eight o'clock, 
 and there is an hotel very good here, like at 
 Singapore ; you can stay there,' he replied. 
 
 ' I must 'phone to Meredyth and ask what 
 I am to do. I suppose this 'phone is all 
 right ? ' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' I do not think so, sir ; there has been a 
 bad storm here to-day, and no wires are in 
 order since this morning,' replied the man. 
 
 ' What ! no communication since this morn- 
 ing ? Then what about a telegram sent from 
 Singapore at one o'clock? Wouldn't that 
 
200 MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW OAR. 
 
 arrive all right ? ' asked Mr Waughope, suddenly 
 bethinking himself of his last telegram. 
 
 'Oh yes, that would arrive here all right,' 
 the stationmaster told him. 
 
 ' But to Kuala, man ! ' cried Mr Clark, who 
 was beginning to wish he had never met Moll 
 and her companion, or at least had not incited 
 the former to break bounds as he had done. 
 
 ' No telegrams have gone through to Kuala. 
 I will ask if there are any for you, if you 
 wish.' 
 
 They gave him up as hopeless. As for 
 a special, it was out of the question, as there 
 was no engine there at the moment, and no 
 one to drive it if there had been ; nor was 
 there such a thing as a motor for hire. 
 
 ' I 'm awfully sorry, Waughope, upon my 
 word I am ; but no one could foresee such bad 
 luck,' said Mr Clark, 
 
 'Yes, they could, if they knew Moll Mere- 
 dyth ; she 's a regular madcap, and I ought to 
 have pulled her out of the train at Kuala. I 
 shall get the sack for a certainty,' said Mr 
 Waughope, full of gloom. 
 
 ' Where is the young one ? ' inquired Mr 
 Clark, looking round. 
 
 Mr Waughope groaned. ' Lost, I suppose,' 
 he replied. 
 
 'I wonder you ever took her out for the 
 day ; it 's more than I would do. I shouldn't 
 
MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 201 
 
 wonder if I get into no end of a row from my 
 manager for buying that miserable brute of a 
 horse ; for I suppose they '11 say I bought it,' 
 said Mr Clark, which was rather mean of him, 
 considering his share in the day's doings. 
 
 ' It 's no use abusing her now ; she is nice 
 enough, and a jolly companion except when 
 she behaves as she has to-day, and the thing 
 to do at this moment is to find her, or goodness 
 knows what she may be at,' said Mr Waughope, 
 hurrying out of the station. 
 
 There was no sign of her in the station-yard, 
 which was full of coolies and rickshaws, the 
 lights of which cast a glow upon the shining 
 skins of their runners and upon the ground. 
 
 ' I say, that 's not her going round the corner 
 in that motor ? ' said Mr Clark, pointing to a 
 motor which was just disappearing round the 
 coolie lines. 
 
 ' No, of course not ; it 's a private car. How 
 on earth could she go off in a stranger's motor- 
 car ? She doesn't know any one in Johore.' 
 
 ' There may be a planter down here with his 
 car who has taken her off to the hotel. I think 
 she is a little upset about missing this train, 
 and if she has met some friends I expect she 'd 
 rather stay at the hotel with them if there is 
 a lady there,' suggested Mr Clark. 
 
 ' Whose car is that, stationmaster ? ' inquired 
 Mr Waughope, half-inclined to hope Mr Clark 
 
202 MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 
 
 was right, and that Moll had found a chaperon 
 to relieve him. 
 
 ' That, sir ? That yellow car, do you mean ? ' 
 asked the man. 
 
 ' Yes, of course ; there was only one car 
 here, wasn't there 1 ' 
 
 ' Oh that belongs to a Towkay, a rich 
 Chinaman of Singapore ; he 's going up to an 
 estate he has in the Malay States,' said the 
 stationmaster, who knew every one and every 
 one's business. 
 
 ' That settles it ; it can't have been Moll in 
 that car,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' No, of course not, but I could have vowed 
 that was her topee,' observed Mr Clark. 
 
 * Every one wears a topee here,' said Mr 
 Waughope. 
 
 'Y-es — but — every one hasn't brown curls,' 
 said Mr Clark in a meaning tone. 
 
 ' It can't have been her,' said Mr Waughope ; 
 but the other knew by his tone that he was 
 saying this to convince himself 
 
 'Well, then, where is she?' demanded Mr 
 Clark impatiently. 
 
 'Are the gentlemen looking for the young 
 memf inquired the stationmaster, who had 
 been listening to their conversation, and on 
 being told, he said, ' The young mem is gone 
 in the yellow car.' 
 
 • You idiot ! Why couldn't you have told 
 
MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 203 
 
 US that before? Where has she gone? I 
 mean where does this Chinaman live?' cried 
 Mr Waughope, stammering in his excitement. 
 
 ' In Singapore, sahib,' said the man. 
 
 ' I know that. I mean, where does he stay 
 in Johore — at the hotel ? ' 
 
 'Yes, he stayed there last night, if he has 
 not started on his tour,' explained the man. 
 
 ' Come on, Clark ; don't let 's wait to hear 
 that man drawling stupid suggestions. They *re 
 enough to drive one wild these Asiatics, one 
 and all. Let's go to the hotel, and hope to 
 goodness that they have not gone yet,' said 
 Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Hold hard, Waughope ; let 's get rickshaws. 
 No one ever walks out here ; it 's bad form. 
 Don't lose your head ; she 's at the hotel all 
 right. Why on earth should she go off with 
 an old Chinese Towkay? She's not quite 
 mad ! ' cried Mr Clark. 
 
 Mr Waughope let himself be persuaded to 
 get into a rickshaw, though the hotel was 
 almost in sight — first, in his hurry, wanting 
 to get into Mr Clark's rickshaw, to which the 
 latter objected as looking mean and uncom- 
 fortable. But on arrival at the hotel no yellow 
 car was to be seen, and the Englishmen in the 
 porch declared that no car and no English 
 mem, young or old, had been there that 
 evening. 
 
204 MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 
 
 Mr Waughope walked through the group 
 of Englishmen with such a white face that one 
 of them, looking at him as he sat with his head 
 in his hands at one of the tables of the dining- 
 room, asked, ' Fever ? ' 
 
 ' No, it 's — I say, you fellows, we Ve lost a 
 girl,' said Mr Clark in desperation. 
 
 Every man was up in a moment. ' A girl ? 
 How? Has she run away, or what?' they 
 asked. 
 
 ' I don't know ; it 's a young girl — a child, 
 in fact. She 's off on the spree, I suppose, in 
 an old Chinaman's car ; she a schoolgirl, only 
 out from home a few months.' 
 
 ' You don't mean Meredyth's daughter ? I 
 heard she had come out. I say, we'll do all 
 we can ; let 's start a search-party — not the 
 first for her, eh ? She 's rather a madcap, isn't 
 she ? ' said one of them with a laugh at the 
 recollection of the tales he had heard of Moll 
 at Bukit Ayer. 
 
 ' It 's no laughing matter ; the young one 
 may want a lark ; but she does not know the 
 country, or she wouldn't go off for a spin with 
 an old Chinaman,' said one of the men. 
 
 ' There 's the old Chinaman who owns the 
 car ! ' cried one of the young men suddenly, 
 pointing to a good-natured-looking old man in 
 gorgeous garments who passed under the street 
 lamp in a rickshaw. 
 
* Poleese ! No, I will not go to poleese.' 
 
 PAUiil 205. 
 
MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A TELLOW CAR. 205 
 
 'What has he done with her?' gasped Mr 
 Clark. 
 
 'Go after him and ask him,' suggested the 
 other. 
 
 'Here, Waughope, here's the Chinaman 
 who has carried off Moll ! ' cried Mr Clark, 
 going into the dining-room. 
 
 Mr Waughope was up and out of the hotel 
 in a moment, and following the Chinaman, 
 whom at last they persuaded to stop, to his 
 great indignation, which increased tenfold at 
 their clamour to know what he had done with 
 the little English girl, whom he was ordered 
 to produce at once or go to prison. 
 
 'I not know any English mem. I one 
 honourable Chinaman ; I not go prison ; I 
 put you prison, you bad men ! ' screamed the 
 man. 
 
 But Mr Waughope was determined to keep 
 hold of him until he gave Moll up, his denials 
 of any knowledge of her notwithstanding. 
 
 'Here, Towkay, come to the police-station 
 and have it out,' suggested Mr Clark in con- 
 ciliatory tones. 
 
 '. Poleese ! No, I will not go to poleese,' 
 and making a flying leap out of his rickshaw 
 with wonderful agility for so old and stout a 
 man, he fled in the opposite direction, which 
 happened to be towards the hotel, into which 
 he ran as a possible haven of refuge, where 
 
206 MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 
 
 at least he would find Englishmen less mad 
 and more just than these. 
 
 Fortunately he happened to be known there, 
 and one of the habitues of the hotel exclaimed, 
 'Why, you've got Chop Lee Wing. This 
 isn't the owner of the yellow motor-car ; this 
 is a shopkeeper here. You 've got hold of the 
 wrong man ! ' 
 
 Mr Waughope by this time was completely 
 beside himself. 'She was like my own little 
 sister, and an awfully good sort, really — only 
 rather full of fun. I say, you fellows, I don't 
 know you, but you are English, help me to 
 find her.' He appealed to the group who were 
 sitting having iced drinks in the hotel vestibule. 
 
 The men were more moved than they cared 
 to say, and one, slapping him on the back, said, 
 ' Cheer up, man ! we '11 find her if she 's in 
 Johore, and be after her in no time if she isn't. 
 Wilkins here will lend his car, and it's the 
 swiftest in the state.' 
 
 ' Rather ; get into her now, and go to the 
 
 police-station. A yellow car is easily 
 
 Hi, ho ! stop it ! ' he shouted as a yellow car 
 appeared, and at their shouts made for the 
 hotel. 
 
 ' Let me get at him — I '11 choke the life out 
 of him ! ' cried Mr Waughope violently, as he 
 saw the car with a young man driving, and in 
 the back seat was Moll. 
 
MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR, 207 
 
 'Shut up! — Hold him some one. — That's 
 not the owner; that's his chauffeur — an 
 Englishman — Waughope. Easy there ! Listen 
 to reason, man. There 's some mistake ; this 
 young fellow is as decent a man as you '11 find 
 anywhere. He often comes over from Singa- 
 pore.' 
 
 Mr Waughope, who had been kept by main 
 force in the background by the other English- 
 men, was not visible when Moll jumped out 
 of the car ; but Mr Clark came forward, and 
 Moll, -glad to see a familiar face, called out, 
 ' There you are ! Where 's Mr Waughope ? 
 I 've been looking for you everywhere.' 
 
 ' Oh have you ? ' said Mr Clark sarcastically. 
 * Funny way to look for any one going off with 
 Chinamen ! ' 
 
 ' Chinamen ! What silly nonsense are you 
 talking ? I went with Charles. Where 's Mr 
 Waughope,' said Moll. 
 
 She looked so childish and so happy about 
 something that even Mr Clark could not be 
 very angry with her, though he said severely, 
 ' Waughope 's gone off his head or thereabouts 
 with worry over you. And who is this Charles, 
 pray ? ' 
 
 'That has nothing to do with you; I am 
 under Mr Waughope's care. Take me to him,' 
 said Moll with dignity. 
 
 The men, who were interested listeners to 
 
208 MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 
 
 this conversation, though they pretended not 
 to hear anything, smiled at this speech. 
 
 ' Oh ! are you under my care ? Well, it 's 
 for the last time, and so I tell you. Now 
 you 'd better go to bed ; I '11 tell them to 
 show you to a bedroom,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' No need for that ; my wife will put her up,' 
 said Mr Wilkins promptly. 
 
 ' Thank you very much, but Charles is going 
 to take me home,' said Moll, smiling at him. 
 
 ' No, I 'm hanged if he shall ! ' cried Mr 
 Waughope, starting forward and seizing Moll's 
 wrist in a grasp which made her wince. 
 ' You 're in my charge, as you say, and though 
 I 've made a pretty bad mess of it, I '11 see you 
 home myself to-morrow morning.' 
 
 ' But mother will be frightened ; let us go 
 to-night. Don't hold my wrist like that — 
 you hurt ; I won't run away ! ' cried Moll. 
 
 ' I '11 take you home, sir, if you '11 let me ; 
 I know the road well. The master has kindly 
 lent his car to Miss Moll, when I told him 
 who she was and how you 'd missed the train,' 
 said the chauifeur, politely touching his hat 
 to Mr Waughope. 
 
 The latter stared at him in amazement. 
 • Who — who on earth are you ? ' he spluttered. 
 
 'Charles Jackson, sir. I was Mr Kenneth 
 Meredyth's chauffeur for three years, and 
 many 's the time I 've driven Miss Moll out 
 
MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 2(^9 
 
 when she was at school there,' explained the 
 man. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' said Mr Waughope, too much taken 
 aback to say anything else. 
 
 ' Hurrah ! All 's well that ends well. If 
 this chap will take us to Bukit Ayer to-night 
 so much the better,' cried Mr -Clark, jubilant, 
 
 ' Can you do it really ? ' asked Mr Waughope. 
 
 * I '11 have you there by eleven o'clock ; the 
 road will be clear, and it's only ninety miles 
 if I take a cross-cut, and the car goes like 
 greased lightning when I let her,' said the 
 chauffeur. 
 
 'Then let's have a drink to celebrate the 
 happy ending, and start,' said Mr Clark, 
 
 'It is not ended yet, and, if you'll excuse 
 me, I think we'd better be off,' said Mr 
 Waughope. ' But I am most awfully obliged 
 to you fellows for your sympathy, and so will 
 Mr and Mrs Meredyth be,' he said. 
 
 'Yes, get off sharp, and good-luck to you, 
 and next time you miss the train come straight 
 to my bungalow,' Mr Wilkins remarked. That 
 was the last they heard. 
 
 ' I can't imagine what on earth you wanted 
 sympathy for ! ' exclaimed Moll when they 
 were off. 
 
 ' Yery likely not,' said Mr Waughope, as he 
 leant back in a corner of the car. 
 
 Moll climbed in beside Charles, and had 
 
 M.U. K 
 
210 MOLL DISAPPEARS IN A YELLOW CAR. 
 
 turned to make this remark ; but seeing that 
 the two young men seemed sleepy and dis- 
 inclined for conversation, she confined her 
 remarks and inquiries as to how Charles liked 
 his new employment ; and in talks about her 
 aunt and uncle and old times, the three hours 
 passed very pleasantly for her. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 MR WAUGHOPE's opinion OP MOLL. 
 
 AT the same time that Mr Waughope and 
 -**■ Mr Clark, with mingled feelings of relief 
 and depression, leant back in their separate 
 corners, wishing they were safely home and 
 their reception by Mr and Mrs Meredyth 
 safely over, Kenneth Meredyth was standing 
 in Kuala Station in a state of uncertainty as 
 to what was the best thing to do. If he 
 'phoned to Mr Meredyth that Moll had not 
 come by the last train, Mrs Meredyth would 
 be in a great state of alarm, and as she was far 
 from strong, Kenneth was anxious to avoid 
 this. There was no chance of telephoning to 
 Singapore, owing to the violent storm there 
 had been about half-way between Kuala and 
 Johore, and he would not have known where 
 to telephone even if the communication had 
 not been broken. Slowly and with bent head 
 he strolled back to the hotel and ordered 
 dinner. After all, nothing was to be gained by 
 starving himself, and some time he had to eat. 
 The manager, who was a planter himself and 
 a gentleman, looked at him for some time, and 
 at last, coming across, joined him. 'What's 
 up, Mr Metedyth ? Has your little sister lost 
 the last train ? ' 
 
212 MR waughope's opinion of moll. 
 
 Kenneth nodded, not troubling to explain 
 that Moll was his cousin. 
 
 ' That 's a nuisance ; but it 's always a rush 
 to get back by that train after the races if you 
 wait to the end,' he observed. 
 
 ' I don't know that they have gone there,' 
 observed Kenneth. 
 
 ' Didn't you get the message then ? Miss 
 Meredyth left it with the hall-porter, and said 
 she hoped they would not mind, but she was 
 going to the Singapore races, and should be 
 quite safe with Mr Waughope ; but if they 
 objected they were to telephone to the station 
 at Singapore and stop them, and she'd come 
 back at once, although she hoped they would 
 let her go.' 
 
 Kenneth dropped his knife and fork. ' Just 
 like her ! I tell you, Wilson, girls are more 
 bother than they are worth out here ; they 
 have nothing to do like us men, and get tired 
 of the jungle and look round for some amuse- 
 ment,' he grumbled. 
 
 ' And you can't blame them, especially when 
 they have no companions. I hope they won't 
 scold her when she gets home, for she did look 
 so delighted at the thought of going to the 
 races, and it's a pretty enough sight too, 
 though I should not have thought young 
 Waughope was game for any such sport,' he 
 remarked. 
 
MR WAUGHOPE's opinion OP MOLL. 213 
 
 Kenneth could not help smiling. ' He 
 wasn't, but there's no holding Moll — she is 
 a regular madcap — when she has set her mind 
 on anything. Anyway, I'm glad she had 
 the decency to send that message ; though it 
 never got there, worse luck, or she certainly 
 would have been stopped at Singapore Station,' 
 he explained. 
 
 ' She doesn't know the ways of this country, 
 or she certainly would have given the message 
 to a European. However, the nuisance is that 
 they 've lost the train, and there 's nothing to 
 do but wait till to-morrow morning, and meet 
 her by the first train.' 
 
 ' Yes, I '11 send Moll's message — better late 
 than never,' said Kenneth; and then it occurred 
 to him to delay the news of Moll having 
 missed the train until he could go home and 
 explain it himself, and perhaps soften the news 
 to his aunt ; besides, as he argued with himself, 
 the later she got the news the shorter time she 
 would have to worry until next morning. As 
 Moll could not be back until half-past nine at 
 earliest, and he would be back at eleven o'clock, 
 he decided that it would be quite time enough 
 to tell her then ; so he just 'phoned to say that 
 Moll had, after all, left a message which had 
 not been delivered. 
 
 Mr Meredyth was all good-humour again. 
 * Ah, I thought it was all jcight ! Good girl 
 
214 MR WACG hope's OPINION OF MOLL. 
 
 to ask leave. Of course if we had got the 
 message I would have stopped her ; but, as it 
 is, it can't be helped, and, after all, this fling 
 will keep her quiet for a bit. All right, Ken,' 
 shouted his uncle through the telephone. 
 
 It was now half-past nine, and if Mr Mere- 
 dyth had been a less careless man he would 
 have calculated that the train must have come 
 in, and have asked where Moll was ; but, as it 
 was, he forgot, and it was Mrs Meredyth who 
 reminded him of this fact and made him ring 
 Kenneth up again. But this time it was the 
 manager who answered, and he informed them 
 that Kenneth had started for home. The 
 manager also carefully abstained from mentioa- 
 ing that Moll had missed the train, so her 
 parents, concluding that Moll was with Ken- 
 neth, waited her coming with patience. 
 
 Mr Fish, who was lying in his chair, came 
 out and asked for news anxiously. 
 
 'She's gone to the races and missed the 
 train,' said Kenneth, 
 
 ' Waughope 's an owl ! Fancy not being 
 able to manage a chit like that ! He ought 
 to have made her catch the train. It 's stupid 
 enough to have taken her to Singapore, but I 
 did think he had more backbone than to be 
 led by the nose like that,' said Mr Fish 
 indignantly. 
 
 'Well, here's your bicycle returned with 
 
MR WAUGHOPe's opinion OF MOLL. 215 
 
 thanks, as the saying is, and I must be off to 
 break the news to my aunt and uncle,' said 
 Kenneth. 
 
 ' Hallo ! who is that motoring so late ? ' ex- 
 claimed Mr Fish, as the hooting of a car was 
 heard along the main road. 
 
 ' I don't know. It 's a strange car ; I don't 
 know the sound of it at all,' replied Kenneth. 
 
 There were not a dozen cars all along this 
 the one main road across this part of the 
 peninsula, and not only their owners but their 
 hooters were well known to all the planters, so 
 the two stood and listened out of curiosity to 
 this new car, and wondered what it could be 
 doing at this time of night, and where it was 
 going when, to their surprise, it turned in at 
 the entrance to the Bukit Ayer plantation, and 
 stopped at the turning to their bungalow. A 
 minute later, Mr Waughope, looking very tired 
 and gloomy, walked up the steps on to the 
 veranda, and said, ' I say, is there any makan 
 left ? I 've had no dinner, and I 'm frightfully 
 hungry.' 
 
 ' Where 's Moll ? ' cried the other two in 
 chorus. 
 
 ' Don't bother,' said Mr Waughope sullenly, 
 going to the back of the veranda to shout to 
 the ' boy ' for food. 
 
 Kenneth and Mr Fish looked at each other 
 in amazement and consternation. That Mr 
 
216 MR waughope's opinion of moll. 
 
 Waughope should be cross, they understood ; 
 but that he should arrive in a strange car alone 
 — it had not occurred to them that Moll had 
 naturally gone to the manager's bungalow — 
 was alarming, and they thought some dreadful 
 catastrophe had taken place. 
 
 Mr Fish, who was very kind-hearted, 
 followed him into his room. 'Look here, 
 Waughope, we're awfully sorry for you, but 
 hadn't you better go up to the manager and 
 have it out with him ? ' he said. 
 
 Poor Mr Waughope, who thought this 
 meant, as he had feared, that Mr Meredyth 
 suspected him of having secretly wished to go 
 to the races himself, and had made an easy 
 cat's-paw of Moll, and was very angry with 
 him, replied, ' I simply can't stand any more 
 to-day. Fish ; I 'm regularly done up. I 'm 
 going to send in my resignation in the morn- 
 ing ; it '11 save him chucking me out.' 
 
 ' Oh perhaps it will not be so bad as that. 
 What happened ? ' 
 
 ' I '11 tell you to-morrow ; I 'm going to bed 
 now. I don't want any makan, after all,' 
 declared Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' But I say, man, you must think of Moll,' 
 protested Mr Fish. 
 
 ' Must I ? Why must I, pray ? I never 
 undertook to do nursemaid, did I ? I came 
 out here to be a planter, not to look after 
 
MR WAUGHOPB's opinion OF MOLL. 217 
 
 madcap schoolgirls ! ' burst forth Mr Waughope, 
 at the end of his patience. 
 
 Kenneth, finding there was nothing to be 
 got out of Mr Waughope but this sort of talk, 
 which might relieve his own feelings, but did 
 not relieve their anxiety, went off home, and 
 Mr Fish also left his fellow-assistant to his 
 own devices, which seemed, by the sounds 
 issuing from his room, to consist in further 
 relieving his feelings by throwing the contents 
 of the room about. 
 
 However, after a time he calmed down, and 
 Mr Fish was just going to ask him to come 
 and have some makan, when Moll's voice was 
 heard in the garden, saying, ' Mr Waughope — 
 Mr Waughope, I want to speak to you ! ' 
 
 'Go away — go away home at once, do you 
 hear ! How dare you come here disturbing 
 me at this time of night? You are a badly 
 behaved little girl. I don't want to speak to 
 you to-night ; you 've done enough mischief as 
 it is ! ' cried Mr Waughope from his window, 
 or, as Moll put it, the open space in the plank 
 wall. 
 
 'Come, come, Waughope, I know she has 
 been very naughty to-day, but she has come to 
 make it up,' said the manager's voice. 
 
 Mr Waughope gasped, and then coming 
 out, said, ' I beg your pardon, sir ; I 'm very 
 sorry for my rudeness to Moll, and for all 
 
218 MR WAUGHOPES OPINION OF MOLL. 
 
 to-day's business ; it shan't occur again,' he 
 stammered. 
 
 ' No, that it shall not, and as for being sorry, 
 from all accounts you are the only one who is 
 not to blame, and Clark is so penitent that I 
 suppose we must forgive him. After all, 
 there's no harm done, and you've seen the 
 races, which you said would be a pretty sight,' 
 said the manager slyly. 
 
 Mr Waughope smiled sheepishly, and avoided 
 looking at Moll, who was beaming, and looked 
 as bright and fresh as if she had just got up, 
 instead of having had a tiring and eventful 
 
 day- 
 
 ' It 's very kind of you to take it like this, 
 
 sir ; I feel I ought to have been firmer ' 
 
 Here Moll laughed, whereupon Mr Waughope 
 gave her what he meant to be a withering 
 glance, and subsided into silence. 
 
 'All's well that ends well,' repUed Mr 
 Meredyth, echoing Mr Clark's words, and 
 adding, ' and it 's an ill wind that blows no 
 one any good. I've probably found a new 
 chauffeur, who has already served the family 
 faithfully, for this man is leaving his present 
 employment. I think I shall take him on.' 
 
 Moll meanwhile was giving Mr Pish a 
 graphic account of her day's outing, over 
 which he was chuckling till it came to the 
 scene between the two Englishmen and the 
 
MR WAUGHOPE's opinion OF MOLL. 219 
 
 Chinaman, which made him laugh so immoder- 
 ately that Mr Meredyth demanded an explana- 
 tion of their merriment, in which he joined on 
 being told. 
 
 ' Well, there 's one thing, it shows that Eng- 
 lishmen can be trusted anywhere to protect a 
 woman, however trying and naughty she may 
 be. — Good-night, Waughope ; you are a good 
 fellow, and I 'm much obliged to you for your 
 goodness to my little girl,' said the manager, 
 putting out his hand and shaking that of his 
 assistant heartily. 
 
 'Good-night, Mr Waughope. Thank you 
 for taking me to the races ; I have enjoyed 
 myself immensely ; we 'U have another nice 
 long day together soon,' said Moll, putting 
 out her hand. 
 
 Mr Waughope looked at it as if it were 
 something dangerous ; but seeing no way of 
 escape, he just touched it. Her remark, which 
 he felt added insult to injury, he treated with 
 the silent contempt it deserved. 
 
 * And now, having unnecessarily smashed 
 up all the furniture in your room and given 
 way to your nasty temper, perhaps you will 
 come and have your mahan, which must be 
 cold by now,' said Mr Fish dryly, 
 
 'I'm sorry if I disturbed you' — Mr Fish 
 raised his eyebrows, as if to say that that was 
 putting it mildly — 'but upon my word, Fish, 
 
220 MR waughope's opinion of moll. 
 
 I Ve had a day of it, I have indeed,' said Mr 
 Waughope. 
 
 ' You seem to have had. I wish I had been 
 in your place, I should have enjoyed it; 
 whereas it seems to have been wasted on you. 
 But, if you '11 excuse my saying so, I wonder 
 you let that girl take you here, there, and 
 everywhere at her own sweet will ; I 'd have 
 seen her farther before she took me to 
 Singapore or anywhere else against my will,' 
 said Mr Fish. 
 
 * I bet you what you like if you went out 
 for the day you'd do no better,' said Mr 
 Waughope, who was only speaking figura- 
 tively, not being, as has been said, a betting 
 man. 
 
 But Mr Fish took him up. ' Done, for an 
 even five dollars, that I take Moll out and 
 make her do what she is told the whole time,' 
 said Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I don't bet ; but I will give you a present 
 of five dollars if you do,' said Mr Waughope. 
 
 Mr Fish laughed at this way of reconciling 
 betting with his conscience, and said, * All right, 
 that's fixed up, and I'll give you five dollars 
 as a present if Moll makes me do a single thing 
 I don't want, or does anything I don't wish 
 her to do ; and as you are evidently not on 
 terms with her for the present, she is sure to 
 fall back upon me for a companion. Ken not 
 
MR WAUG hope's OPINION OF MOLL. 221 
 
 being too obliging in that matter. Then I will 
 fix up what the programme of the day is to be, 
 and stick to it.' 
 
 Mr Waughope, whose spirits were higher 
 than usual as a reaction after the anxieties of 
 the day, agreed laughingly, and made plans for 
 laying out his present to the best advan- 
 tage, hovering finally between a safety-razor 
 and a rattan chair for his room ; while Mr 
 Fish retaliated by deciding to spend his ' bet ' 
 on cigars ; till, tired out, they both bethought 
 themselves that they had to be up by half- 
 past five next morning for six o'clock muster, 
 and went off to bed. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A MALAY KAMPONG (vILLAGe). 
 
 * /'DOMING to tennis, Waughope?' inquired 
 ^ Mr Fish, the day after the Singa- 
 pore races. 
 
 'Not to-day, thank you,' replied Mr 
 Waughope, who was buried behind a news- 
 paper on his long chair. 
 
 'Sounds as if I were a baker calling for 
 orders. What are you so slack for ? Oh I 
 forgot; you are resting after your arduous 
 labours yesterday in the taming of the shrew. 
 Well, never mind that ; bury the hatchet and 
 come on, old man ; we can't make a foursome 
 without you — you know that. Don't be 
 selfish,' urged Mr Fish. 
 
 But all his persuasion was wasted upon Mr 
 Waughope, who remained unmoved by it, 
 and seemed to be greatly interested in the 
 Straits newspaper, which he generally accused 
 of only having unimportant local news of no 
 interest to an Englishman just from home, and 
 only said, ' Can't help that ; play single with 
 Ken ; or if she wants to play, get Meredyth 
 to make a fourth.' 
 
 Mr Fish regarded him doubtfully for a 
 moment, and then said, ' She 's the cat's aunt ; 
 you talk about our having jungle manners ; it 
 
A MALAY KAMPONQ (vILLAGe). 223 
 
 strikes me you've caught them. Meredyth 
 won't play, as you very well know; it gives him 
 prickly heat, or he says it does, which comes 
 very much to the same thing. All right, I 
 know what I '11 do. I '11 take Moll to see that 
 pretty little Malay village at the twenty-third 
 mile ; she wants to see real Malays at home, 
 and I shall kill two birds with one stone — three, 
 in fact, for I pass through that rubber nursery 
 I 've got to visit for my report, give Moll a 
 walk, and — win my bet. Get out your five- 
 dollar note, Waughope.' 
 
 ' I have made no bet,' began Mr Waughope, 
 sitting up, preparatory to arguing this matter 
 with Mr Fish. 
 
 ' Oh dry up ; what 's in a name ? I sha'n't 
 let you off", so you can give me the five dollars 
 now if you like,' said the other. 
 
 But as Mr Waughope gave no signs of 
 giving him his present or his bet, Mr Fish, 
 with a laugh, went off. 
 
 Moll was sitting in a hammock swinging her 
 feet disconsolately, for she had been left very 
 much to herself by her mother, and at Mr 
 Fish's proposal she brightened up considerably. 
 ' I thought you had all had enough of me ; 
 Kenneth said you would give me a wide berth,' 
 she observed, as she went to ask her mother 
 if she might go to the Malay kam^ong 
 (village). 
 
224 A MALAY KAMPONG (vILLAGe). 
 
 'Where is this kampong, Mr Fish? Are 
 you sure there is no infectious illness there ? 
 And are you prepared to take charge of Moll ? ' 
 inquired Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 ' I '11 take charge of her with pleasure, Mrs 
 Meredyth ; it is only to the kampong at the 
 twenty-third mile, just through the rubber 
 plantation and a bit of jungle. There are no 
 possible dangers there, and as for illnesses, there 
 are generally some. We 've got most illnesses 
 on the estate in our own lines, if you come 
 to that ; but I '11 make inquiries before we go 
 near the people,' said Mr Fish. 
 
 ' Then I shall be very much obliged to you 
 if you will take Moll for a walk ; I think we 
 ladies stay in too much, and are less well than 
 our menkind in consequence. I would come 
 myself, but I am not strong enough now,' 
 replied Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 Mr Fish did not say what he thought, which 
 was that Mrs Meredyth was very far from 
 well or strong, and wanted a holiday home 
 badly, and he wondered, not for the first time, 
 that her devoted husband and daughter did not 
 see this. However, it was none of his busi- 
 ness, and he and Moll started off in excellent 
 spirits, for he was a very light-hearted, enter- 
 taining young man, and very kind-hearted 
 when it did not cost him too much trouble. 
 
 ' I can't imagine why people out here never 
 
A MALAY KAMPONG (vILLAQe). 225 
 
 walk. In Singapore you never saw a single 
 white person walking; they all go about in 
 rickshaws or carriages, and I do think it looks 
 so silly for great strong men to go about in 
 rickshaws. Kenneth had a weak-looking little 
 woman to pull him, and when I told him it 
 was disgraceful, he Said, " Nonsense ! " and 
 called her " Piggie." It just shows how people 
 get corrupted in the East,' announced Moll, as 
 she walked over the clearing to the rubber 
 plantation with a quick, light step which was 
 not usual in the East, and not Mr Fish's accus- 
 tomed pace, as he promptly told her. 
 
 ' Never mind ; it will do you good to go faster 
 for once. I feel too excited at getting out of 
 that bungalow, where there 's nothing to do,' 
 replied Moll. 
 
 Mr Fish laughed good-humouredly, and 
 kept pace with Moll, as he replied to her last 
 remark. ' It was a man, women never drag 
 rickshaws ; and do you mean to say that you 
 don't know what pegi means in Malay ? It 's 
 simply "drive on," or "go on."' 
 
 ' Then you ought to use another word ; it 
 sounds horrid ! ' put in Moll. 
 
 Mr Fish ignored this suggestion, and con- 
 tinued, 'In fact, you are an example of the 
 traveller who comes out, sees all sorts of wrongs, 
 and goes home and relates them to every one 
 who knows as little as himself about the matter, 
 
 M.M. o 
 
226 A MALAY KAMPONG (viLLAGe). 
 
 or, worse still, writes it, instead of asking for 
 information from people who do know.' 
 
 ' I know a great deal. What have I said 
 that was not true ? ' demanded Moll. ' Oh I 
 don't mean that "piggie" which may be spelt 
 "p-e-g-i," but is pronounced "piggie," which it 
 ought not to be. But isn't it true that no 
 white man ever walks anywhere that there is 
 a road where a carriage or rickshaw can go ? ' 
 
 * That is quite true and quite right. In the 
 first place, if you do walk you would look as 
 if you had been having a Turkish bath, which 
 is not the thing in a town ; and in the second 
 place, you must keep up the prestige of the 
 European. Only natives walk ; white men 
 ride. But they don't let women drive them ; 
 so, pray, don't go home and say that,' protested 
 Mr Fish. 
 
 ' Don't you call Chinese women women ? ' 
 asked Moll. 
 
 ' Not when they are men, which they always 
 are when they are pulling rickshaws,' declared 
 Mr Fish. 
 
 ' But I 'm sure Ken's rickshaw-puller was a 
 woman ; she had a woman's face and a big 
 chignon like a woman, and they all wear 
 trousers, which was the only thing about her 
 that was like a man,' argued Moll. 
 
 ' I can't help that ; she was a man — I mean 
 he was. That man has a womanish face, I 
 
A MALAY KAMPONG (vILLAGe). 227 
 
 admit, but he 's a man for all that,' observed 
 Mr Fish, pointing out a gentle-faced Chinaman 
 who was coming towards them. 
 
 ' I don't believe it ; you ask him,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 ' I fancy I see myself,' laughed Mr Fish, 
 shaking his head. 
 
 ' Yes, do ; I sha'n't believe it unless you do,' 
 and she stopped the man by using one of the 
 few Malay words she knew. 
 
 ' He '11 think I 'm mad ! ' objected Mr Fish ; 
 but being an easy-going man, to get rid of the 
 Chinaman he asked him his name and if he had 
 a wife. ' He says his name is Bo Lui, and he 
 has a wife in China. Will that satisfy you ? ' 
 he asked Moll. 
 
 ' Oh well, it 's very puzzling, and they are a 
 very ugly nation. What is this stick so prettily 
 marked ? ' she inquired, stooping to pick up 
 what looked like a striped piece of wood to 
 Moll's inexperienced eyes. 
 
 ' Don't touch it ! ' cried Mr Fish. 
 
 But Moll did, and to her surprise, and, it 
 must be owned, alarm, the tLIng raised its head 
 to strike at her, when Mr Fish swung his stick 
 down on its head and killed it. 
 
 ' Goodness ! was that a snake ? ' cried Moll. 
 
 ' No, it was a piece of wood, which in the 
 East has a head and glides about and bites 
 you,' said Mr Fish with a twinkle in his eye. 
 
228 A MALAY KAMPONG ( VILLAGE). 
 
 ' Perhaps you had better go first along this 
 narrow path ; I don't want to be bitten by a 
 snake,' suggested Moll, stepping back, and 
 taking no notice of Mr Fish's sarcasm. 
 
 ' That 's the usual way out here, and much 
 safer ; Malays always walk so — Indian file they 
 call it, the man first and the woman behind in 
 proper subjection ; it saves a lot of trouble.' 
 
 It was an unwise remark, as Mr Fish might 
 have known, for Moll sprang through the tall 
 lalang and bushes bordering the path, and took 
 her place in front of her guide. ' As I am not 
 a savage woman, , thank goodness, whatever 
 you may be, I shall walk in front like a free 
 and independent English girl,' she announced. 
 
 ' I hope you are independent enough to kill 
 any snakes you may happen to tread upon 
 before they bite you,' rema:med her companion. 
 
 Moll took no notice ; but Mr Fish observed 
 with secret amusement that she gathered her 
 skirts round her, and kept a sharp lookout for 
 prettily marked sticks, with the result that she 
 never noticed the gathering clouds, and was 
 surprised when Mr Fish, looking up, said, ' I am 
 very much afraid we must turn back ; there is 
 a storm over there, and I fancy it is coming 
 our way.' 
 
 ' Oh bother the storm ! we can take shelter 
 under these trees if it rains,' urged Moll. 
 
 ' Not much ! A man was killed along this 
 
A MALAY KAMPONG (viLLAQb). 229 
 
 road not two miles from this spot — he and his 
 horse. He was driving a gharry, and he left his 
 fare in the gharry and went and stood under a 
 tree, and was struck by lightning,' related Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 'Well, that's the kampong over there, isn't 
 it? We shall be there in less than half-an- 
 hour, and it won't rain before then,' argued 
 Moll. 
 
 ' A wilful woman must have her way ; but if 
 it does rain we shall get wet going home, and 
 your muslin dress won't be much protection,' 
 he replied, going on. 
 
 They were still a few minutes from the 
 kampong when it began to rain, and Moll 
 started to run. 
 
 ' Don't run, child ; you '11 get hot ! ' cried Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 But Moll only laughed, and said, 'I don't 
 mind;' and Mr Fish, following her more slowly, 
 saw her disappear into a cocoa-nut plantation, 
 whereupon he quickened his steps in time to 
 see her running up the steps into a Malay house, 
 where the woman immediately brought a cocoa- 
 nut mat, evidently a new one, for her to sit 
 upon. 
 
 ' I got in just in time,' cried Moll, looking 
 very pleased with herself, in spite of the 
 perspiration which ran down her face in great 
 drops, laughing as she wiped them away. 
 
230 A MALAY KAMPONG (viLLAGe). 
 
 ' Awfully foolish thing to do ; just the way 
 to get a chill and fever,' grumbled Mr Fish. 
 
 ' You are always talking about fever out here, 
 and dosing yourselves with quinine. I believe 
 you frighten yourselves into it half your time,' 
 said Moll, squatting on the mat, and beaming 
 at the Malay family which was squatted at a 
 polite distance from her at the door of the inner 
 room. 
 
 ' I am thirsty ; I think I must have a drink. 
 Aren't you thirsty ? ' he inquired of Moll. 
 
 ' Yes, but mother has forbidden me to drink 
 water except from our filter, and I don't sup- 
 pose these people have soda-water or "tonic"' 
 (the great aerated-water drink in the East, 
 being lemonade with a little quinine in it). 
 
 ' We can have a cocoa-nut, if you like, if you 
 don't mind drinking it out of a hole in the nut,' 
 suggested Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I never thought of that. I don't mind how 
 I drink it, if you don't mind seeing me spill it 
 all down my dress, as I shall be sure to do,' 
 said Moll. 
 
 However, they were evidently rich Malays, 
 for the husband, having run up a tree and 
 brought down a couple of cocoa-nuts in their 
 green covering, fetched a bright, clean brass 
 tray with two glasses on it, so that they drank 
 their cocoa-nut drink ' in style,' as Moll 
 observed. 
 
A MALAY KAMPONG (viLLAGe). 231 
 
 The Malay woman watched her with interest, 
 as she smoked cigarette after cigarette alter- 
 nately with something out of a little oblong 
 brass dish, which for her part interested Moll 
 quite as much. First she took a long green 
 leaf, which she smeared with a white powder, 
 lime as a matter of fact, and then she took a 
 betel-nut, cut off a bit with a sharp pair of 
 pliers, not like anything Moll had ever seen 
 before, and this she wrapped in a leaf and 
 chewed in her mouth, turning her lips and gunds 
 a bright red and her teeth black. 
 
 ' Come, Moll, the shower is over,' said Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 ' Wait a little longer ; I 'm frightfully hot,' 
 said Moll, who was amusing herself with a 
 Malay baby of eight months old, with big black 
 eyes and clear yellow complexion, and dressed 
 in a printed cotton jacket and tiny green 
 trousers. 
 
 It took Mr Fish some minutes to induce 
 Moll to come away, which he was anxious to 
 do, as he was afraid of her catching cold sitting 
 in a draught when she was so hot. 
 
 At last, with a sigh of regret, Moll got up 
 and went, after having given each of the 
 children ten cents (threepenny-bit in English), 
 which Mr Fish assured her would be a fortune 
 for them. 
 
 'I have enjoyed myself; it's so jolly seeing 
 
232 A MALAY KAMPONG (vILLAGE). 
 
 quite new things, and those little Malay children 
 are so pretty and polite,' said Moll. 
 
 'H'm, more than your dress will be when 
 you get home ; I 'm drenched to the skin, and 
 I should think you are too,' remarked Mr Fish 
 as they struggled along the jungle path, which 
 was now mostly under water, to say nothing of 
 the lalang and shrubs that they brushed against. 
 
 Moll's skirt clung round her like a wet sheet, 
 but she stoutly denied being at all uncomfort- 
 able. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked a little anxious at sight 
 of them. ' I was afraid you would be caught 
 in the rain. Never mind ; Moll must have a 
 hot bath, and I won't ask you in, Mr Fish, 
 because you must go home and do the same,' 
 she declared. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 AN EXCITING CHASE. 
 
 ' TJOT water, "boy," and plenty of it!' 
 ^ ^ shouted Mr Fish as he ran up the 
 steps of the veranda two at a time into his 
 bungalow. 
 
 ' I say, you are a drowned rat ! Where on 
 earth have you been ? ' cried Mr Waughope as 
 his colleague walked through the veranda to 
 his room, dripping as he walked, and making a 
 wet footprint and swishing sound from the 
 water which filled his boots. 
 
 ' To the Malay kampong. The jungle was a 
 perfect swamp coming back after the storm. 
 You had rain here, I suppose ? ' observed Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 'Yes, I should have thought it would have 
 been threatening enough to stop your going to 
 that village ; Moll must have got wet through. 
 Why didn't you turn back ? ' inquired Mr 
 Waughope, with some meaning. 
 
 ' Why, oh why ? ' sang Mr Fish from his 
 room — where he could be heard flinging wet 
 boots and clothes about — from whence he 
 emerged later, shivering a little. 
 
 Mr Waughope looked at him, and then said, 
 ' Have some quinine ? ' This is the great stand- 
 by of the European in tropical countries, and 
 
234 AN EXCITING CHASE. 
 
 many a time did a visitor suddenly ask for it 
 when some feeling of physical unfitness seized 
 him, and it used to puzzle Moll very much at 
 first. 
 
 ' Yes, I think I will,' agreed Mr Fish, lying 
 down and looking rather tired. 
 
 'You've got fever again. I suppose you 
 were talking and didn't see those clouds. 
 Another time I should keep my weather-eye 
 open; it's no use giving yourself fever,' said 
 Mr Waughope, as he fetched the quinine and 
 administered it. ' Never mind, you 've got 
 your present. What will you spend it on ? ' 
 he added to cheer him up. 
 
 ' Present — what present ? Oh that bet ? 
 That was only a joke ; I 'm not going to take 
 your five dollars when you don't bet,' protested 
 Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I may object to betting, but that does not 
 prevent my keeping my promise,' said Mr 
 Waughope, with a touch of priggishness which 
 always annoyed Mr Fish. 
 
 'Promise be bothered; a joke is a joke, and 
 I don't take presents of money from any man,' 
 he replied rather testily, for his head was 
 aching and he did not feel at all well. 
 
 Mr Waughope saw that his friend was really 
 not well, so he took no notice of his pettishness, 
 which was very unusual with this light-hearted, 
 easy-going young man. He quietly waited on 
 
AN EXCITING CHASE. 235 
 
 him, and persuaded him to go to bed and have 
 some milk, as he was very thirsty. 
 
 The next morning he was too ill to go to 
 'muster' — that is, to the mustering of his 
 coolies at six o'clock ; and Mr Meredyth sent 
 Ken down after breakfast to see him, and find 
 out if he needed a doctor. 
 
 But by this time the attack — thanks to 
 quinine — was passing off. 'No, thanks; I'm 
 all right. There is plenty to do without fussing 
 over every man who has a touch of fever,' 
 replied Mr Fish, quite his cheery self again. 
 - ' You had a pretty bad touch in the night, 
 for I came in to see you, and you were fright- 
 fully hot,' remarked Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Yes, that 's Moll's fault ; she is dreadfully 
 penitent about insisting upon going on to that 
 kampong in the rain. She asked me to tell you 
 she did not know it would give you fever, and 
 if you ever take her out again she will do what 
 she is told. I give the message for what it is 
 worth, though for «ay part I place no reliance 
 upon Moll or her good resolutions,' laughed 
 Kenneth. 
 
 Mr Waughope looked at Mr Fish ; but the 
 latter avoided his eye as he replied, ' She was 
 all. right. Tell her I 'm game for another walk 
 to-morrow.' 
 
 ' Then you might just go up to the office and 
 get five dollars out of the safe, and send it to 
 
236 AN EXCITING CHASE. 
 
 Singapore for that chair you promised me,' 
 remarked Mr Waughope dryly. 
 
 Mr Fish laughed. ' If you hadn't come here 
 and let the cat out of the bag, Ken, I should 
 have got oft' that five dollars ! ' he protested. 
 
 ' What cat and what five dollars ? I don't 
 know what you two fellows are talking about ! ' 
 exclaimed Kenneth. 
 
 ' The cat was never in any bag — that is to 
 say, I knew quite well you weren't such an idiot 
 as to go for a walk of your own accord with a 
 storm coming up, and I also knew Moll 
 Meredyth rather better than you did, as it 
 appears,' explained Mr Waughope. 
 
 Mr Fish did not argue the matter ; but as 
 soon as he could walk he went up to the 
 manager's bungalow to show Moll that he was 
 none the worse for his wetting. But his visit 
 had the opposite effect upon Moll, who was 
 secretly rather disturbed at the visible eflfect 
 his attack of fever had had upon him (as it so 
 quickly has in the tropics). 
 
 She was sitting under the veranda, amus- 
 ing herself with the orang-outangs and the 
 monkeys, her mother having apparently nothing 
 to say to her, and here Mr Fish joined her. 
 ' B^b^ is the dearest and most afifectionate little 
 creature in the world,' she told him. 
 
 ' She hasn't that character among the coolies,' 
 observed Mr Fish. 
 
AN EXCITING OHASK, 237 
 
 ' Oh they are cowards and don't come near 
 her, and of course she despises people who are 
 afraid of her,' said Moll. 
 
 'She doesn't despise their food, for a few 
 months ago the manager brought her out into 
 the fields, and she found their mahan in a 
 corner and ate it ; and when they went flying 
 to rescue it from her clutches she went for 
 them, biting and scratching in all directions 
 like a tigress, till the coolies fled and left 
 her in possession eating their food and mak- 
 ing faces at them — little demon ! ' related Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 Moll only laughed at this tale. 'It was 
 their own fault. Why didn't they catch her 
 and stop her ? Such a dear little thing ! ' and 
 Moll stroked and patted the monkey, which 
 was quite gentle with her. 
 
 ' Why, indeed ! I 'd take to my heels at this 
 minute if she were loose; she 's a perfect terror, 
 that beast is. Don't do it, I tell you ! ' This 
 last remark was addressed in a different voice 
 to Moll, who was pretending to let B^bd loose 
 from her chain. 
 
 But this unfortunately excited the monkey, 
 who strained and strained at her chain until 
 she did break it, and with a bound leapt on to 
 the veranda, from which coign of vantage she 
 sat and chattered and made faces at Moll. 
 
 ' Oh catch her ! Father will be so angry ; 
 
238 AN EXCITING CHASE. 
 
 he said she was not safe with the natives,' cried 
 Moll. 
 
 Mr Fish valiantly made the attempt ; but 
 B^b^, with a scream of anger, leapt upon the 
 top of the kitchen crockery, and proceeded to 
 throw down all the cups, saucers, &c. within 
 her reach. 
 
 The Chinese servants and some coolies near 
 came running at the sound of falling crockery ; 
 but at the sight of B^b^ they cried, ' Munyet ! ' 
 (monkey), and fled precipitately. This cowardice 
 apparently roused the little creature's wrath, 
 for she leapt down to the ground, and was 
 after them, catching the last, a little Malay 
 boy, by his sarong. The little fellow, with a 
 howl of terror, struggled and fell, and B^b^ set 
 her teeth in his leg, whereupon he yelled and 
 was joined by all the others, who, however, 
 kept at a safe distance, while they shouted 
 entreaties in every tongue to Mr Fish and 
 Moll to rescue the boy. 
 
 Mr Fish, in spite of his threat to take to his 
 heels, came to the rescue ; but Bdb^ turned 
 upon him, and he had a desperate fight to keep 
 her from biting him, till Moll clasped her in her 
 arms, though only long enough to let the boy 
 get away, for B^b^ was too strong for her, 
 and escaped to work further damage, until the 
 servants and coolies decided that matters were 
 becoming too serious, for B^b^ had thrown the 
 
Tliey all fled down tlie drive. 
 
 Pagk 239. 
 
AN EXCITING CHASE. 239 
 
 meat and fish for the day's consumption to 
 the dogs, eaten the fruit and vegetables her- 
 self, broken a fair proportion of the crockery, 
 and generally created havoc around her. So, 
 encouraged by Mr Fish, they tried to surround 
 and overpower her. 
 
 But her taste of freedom, and probably the 
 food she had eaten, had excited her, and she 
 made such violent attacks upon the attacking 
 party that they all fled down the drive, the 
 Chinese servants, in their white suits, leading 
 the way ; and a disorderly procession of Tamil 
 coolies, their long, straight black hair stream- 
 ing out behind them, and their many-coloured 
 sarongs fluttering in the wind, and some 
 Malays, with the monkey in full chase, stopping, 
 luckily for them, to examine any possible food 
 on her way, or she would soon have caught 
 them up, and followed by Moll and Mr Fish, 
 clutching every now and then at her chain, 
 which she immediately pulled out of their 
 reach. 
 
 How long this chase would have lasted it 
 is doubtful to say, for at this moment Mr 
 Meredyth, who was superintending the measur- 
 ing of some rubber-trees in the plantation ad- 
 joining them, suddenly looked up and saw this 
 motley crowd advancing towards him. 
 
 ' Has one of the coolies run amuck ? ' he asked 
 his mandor. 
 
240 AN EXCITING CHASE. 
 
 ' I do not know ; it looks like it. Defend 
 yourself, tuan; he is quite mad,' replied the 
 man, seizing up the first weapon that came to 
 hand, which happened to be a cup to hold the 
 latex (or rubber milk) that comes out of a 
 rubber-tree. 
 
 It was not a very useful weapon, and Mr 
 Meredy th did not avail himself of it, but stood 
 up square to meet the man, whom he saw now 
 was his own cook, and who was gasping, 
 'Munyet! munyet!' 
 
 Mr Meredyth laughed. 'It's that vixen 
 B^bd. All right — pass on. I '11 catch her ; ' 
 and he made for B^b^ who, however, thought 
 she might as well make the best of her day, 
 and climbed a banana-tree on the other side of 
 the drive, where she sat and ate bananas, and 
 threw the skins at any one who came near the 
 tree. 
 
 As the tree was too slender for any one to 
 climb up, there was nothing for it but to wait 
 B^b^'s pleasure, and it was while doing this 
 that Mr Meredyth noticed Mr Fish. 
 
 ' You have no right here, man, in the sun ; 
 and without a hat ! You must be mad. Here, 
 take my topee and go home ; I '11 use a banana- 
 leaf or two till they bring me another hat. 
 You'll have fever or sunstroke after this. 
 Here, sit down,' he wound up gently, for Mr 
 Fish, after trying in vain not to give way, was 
 
AN EXCITING CHASE. 241 
 
 fain to lean up against a tree to cover the faint- 
 ness which was threatening to overcome him. 
 
 ' I 'm all right, Meredyth,' he declared ; but 
 Mr Meredyth signed to a coolie to get him a 
 cocoa-nut, which he put to Mr Fish's lips, and 
 was pleased when it revived him. 
 
 ' How did she break that chain ? ' asked the 
 manager. 
 
 ' She is very strong,' said Mr Fish hastily, 
 for he was afraid Moll would get blamed. 
 
 But Moll Avas too frank a character not to 
 own up when she was in fault. ' I was playing 
 with her and excited her, father,' she said. 
 
 ' Oh well, you must have some playfellow, or 
 you would forget how to play. She 's tired of 
 bananas now and is coming down, which is a 
 blessing, as I want my tiffin. — Gome along, 
 Fish, and let the mem doctor you up a bit,' said 
 Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Thank you very much ; but I think, if you 
 don't mind, I '11 go back to our bungalow and 
 take the day off. I don't feel very fit,' he 
 replied. 
 
 ' Perhaps you 're wise, you certainly don't 
 look fit ; take plenty of quinine. — Come along, 
 'B&oL Yes, you are very loving now, but 
 you Ve given a lot of trouble,' said the manager, 
 as he caught Bdbd, who nestled in his arms 
 quite quietly, and let herself be chained up 
 again. 
 
 MM. p 
 
242 AN EXCITING CHASE. 
 
 ' Perhaps it is just as well that Mr Fish did 
 not come to lunch, as we have only tinned food 
 for lunch, and not too many plates left to eat 
 it off,' said Mrs Meredyth in a voice of quiet 
 resignation, for she was used to these upheavals 
 in the domestic circle. 
 
 The manager only laughed, and Kenneth, 
 who was the quintessence of law and order, 
 only shrugged his shoulders ; he too being used 
 to the ways of his uncle's menagerie. 
 
 Moll felt rather guilty, and stole glances at 
 her mother from time to time, who was so 
 quiet, as a general rule, that it was difficult to 
 tell what she felt or thought ; but her daughter 
 guessed that she was not too pleased with her, 
 and her mother's silence on the subject had 
 more effect than any amount of scolding would 
 have had. 
 
 Cookie managed to send up a tiffin that 
 would not have disgraced a Paris chef, in spite 
 of the disasters of the morning, and the planter's 
 family took the destruction of their crockery 
 more lightly in a country where white ants, 
 moths, hurricanes, and heat and mildew frus- 
 trate all attempts at having a luxurious home, 
 and teach people to lead the simple life from 
 necessity, not from fancy. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE BENGALI PLOT. 
 
 'T^HE next day Kenneth came home, looking 
 ■*■ very worried. 
 
 ' Cheer up, Ken ; you must take things easy 
 in this country, or you will never make old 
 bones,' said Mr Meredyth, as he saw his 
 nephew's serious face. 
 
 ' Our bullocks won't make old bones by the 
 look of them ; I could only get three pairs to 
 plough to-day.' 
 
 'Ah, how was that?' inquired the planter, 
 pricking up his ears, for disease among the 
 cattle was not a small matter. 
 
 ' They were ill or something ; half of them 
 were too weak to stand,' replied Kenneth. 
 
 ' I must go and see about that ; it won't be 
 any joke to have all our bullocks slaughtered 
 for foot-and-mouth disease!' exclaimed the 
 planter, starting up with his usual impetuosity. 
 
 ' I don't think you can do anything. I have 
 told the men to take them out to graze,' 
 objected Kenneth, who disliked being interfered 
 with, especially as he and his uncle, as a rule, 
 looked at things quite differently, and did not 
 agree in their methods of working. 
 
 ' I shall see for myself anyway. I paid a lot 
 for those bullocks while you were in England, 
 
244 THE BENGALI PLOT. 
 
 and they were all right till you came back,' said 
 the planter. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked quickly at Kenneth to 
 see whether he was offended by this remark ; 
 but her nephew was too well used to his uncle's 
 ways to mind, and only said, smiling, ' I haven't 
 done anything to them.' 
 
 'Then you ought to have,' grumbled his 
 uncle. 
 
 ' Father, let me come ; I like those bullocks ! ' 
 cried Moll. 
 
 * Come along, then,' said her father ; and 
 they went together to the bullock-shed, where 
 Mr Meredyth exclaimed at the emaciated con- 
 dition of the beasts. ' They looked all right 
 last week, and it certainly is not foot-and-mouth 
 disease,' he muttered, examining them carefully 
 one by one. 
 
 Moll, who, however fond she was of animals 
 did not care to go into the bullock-shed, stood 
 at the door, patting a thin beast that was 
 tethered to a stump ; and, happening to look 
 up, she caught an expression on the face of the 
 tall Bengali who was just behind her father, 
 which struck her as being very evil. She 
 watched him following her father from one 
 beast to another with a look of deep concern 
 when Mr Meredyth turned to speak to him, 
 and a slight sneer, as it seemed to Moll, when 
 he was unobserved ; and once he exchanged 
 
THE BENGALI PLOT. 245 
 
 glances with his fellow-Bengali, all of which 
 Moll noted, and determined to relate to her 
 father when she should see him alone. Then 
 she suddenly bethought herself that they prob- 
 ably could not understand her, and she asked 
 her father. 
 
 ' These Bengalis understand English ? No, 
 of course not. Why ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' Because I believe they have been starving 
 these bullocks, and keeping the money for their 
 food,' she announced. 
 
 Mr Meredyth looked amused. 'You evi- 
 dently understand Malay, though you declare 
 you can't learn it. That is just what I have 
 been accusing them of.' 
 
 ' I didn't understand a word you were saying. 
 It was only their faces ; they look quite pleased 
 at the bullocks being ill,' said Moll indignantly. 
 
 ' Eh, what ! ' cried Mr Meredyth ; and, after 
 giving the men a keen glance, he continued, 
 ' Upon my word, Moll, I believe you are right. 
 I did hear that these men were discontented, 
 and I should not wonder if this is their way of 
 thwarting me ; it would be just like them, 
 the rascals. I '11 pack them off, and give the 
 bullocks to some Tamils to take care of 
 
 Moll wandered about by herself while her 
 father was scolding and dismissing the Bengalis ; 
 and as she strolled about she saw a little hut, 
 into which she peeped out of curiosity. She 
 
246 THE BENGALI PLOT. 
 
 came out when she saw that it only contained 
 bullock-food, which smelt very funny. 
 
 ' What do they eat, father ? ' she asked. 
 
 'Gi-ass and mealies, which is boiled up for 
 them every evening. I think I '11 have them 
 up in that shed near the bungalow where I 
 can see the food cooked,' replied the planter. 
 
 'Won't it smell rather horrid? Mother 
 does not like disagreeable smells,' suggested 
 Moll. 
 
 ' Why should it smell horrid ? It is all good 
 and wholesome stuff,' protested Mr Meredyth. 
 
 'Then that can't be bullock- food in that 
 shed, for it smelt awful,' said Moll. 
 
 ' What shed ? Where ? ' demanded her father, 
 coming to a sudden stop. 
 
 They had gone some distance from the 
 bullock-shed by this time ; but Moll pointed 
 to the little hut she meant, into which at that 
 moment the Bengalis disappeared. 
 
 ' There 's some rascally work going on here,' 
 said the planter, and he turned and ran across 
 the plantation. Before the men could make 
 their escape, he was upon them, and Moll 
 heard his voice raised in tones of thunder, 
 while one of the Bengalis knelt at his feet 
 with hands uplifted, evidently praying for 
 mercy. Her father gave some orders in very 
 severe tones to some other men near, and then 
 joined Moll. 
 
THE BENGALI PLOT. 247 
 
 'The estate owes you a debt of gratitude, 
 Moll. Those wretches were actually poisoning 
 my bullocks, and I should never havp had 
 proof positive if you had not gone into that 
 hut, for it is a disused well, and I should not 
 have thought of searching it ! ' he exclaimed, 
 evidently very pleased at having found out the 
 mystery of his sick cattle. 
 
 ' But, father, what a stupid way of revenging 
 themselves ; it could do them no good,' ob- 
 jected Moll as she walked beside her father, 
 trying to lengthen her step to keep pace with 
 him. 
 
 ' Revenge generally is stupid, and never did 
 do any one good,' agreed Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Yes, but they might have done something 
 a little cleverer than that; they might have 
 known it would be found out and stopped,' 
 argued his daughter. 
 
 ' I never think criminals are so clever. They 
 may be up to a certain point ; but if you notice, 
 or will notice when you are older and know 
 the world better, they always do something 
 stupid, so that they are found out sooner or 
 later,' said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' I wonder why that is,' pondered Moll. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, like most men, did not care 
 to talk religion, *so he only said a little shyly, 
 ' I do not think it is permitted ; the wicked 
 flourish like a bay-tree, but in the end they 
 
248 THE BENaALI PLOT. 
 
 perish miserably, as those Bengalis will; and, 
 at all events, they will starve a little them- 
 selves now, for, as it happens, this is the end 
 of the month, and I should pay them their 
 month's wages to-morrow, but not a cent will 
 they get from me.' 
 
 Kenneth was rather annoyed that he had 
 not found out the cause of the bullocks' illness 
 himself, and demurred as to the wisdom of 
 cutting all their wages. 
 
 ' They '11 give trouble, uncle,' he declared. 
 
 ' They '11 clear off, and as for giving trouble, 
 they can't do any more harm,' contradicted 
 the planter. 
 
 ' I shall be very much surprised if they don't. 
 I think I had better warn the sinna durai to 
 be on the lookout for rows,' Ken remarked. 
 
 ' There won't be any rows ; I know those 
 fellows well. They may poison your beasts 
 behind your back, but they are abject cowards 
 to your face (the bad ones I mean). You 
 ' always croak ; take it easy, my boy, take it 
 easy,' declared his uncle. 
 
 Kenneth did not argue further, but he took 
 the opportunity that evening of going to play 
 bridge with the other assistants and a friend 
 of theirs, and telling them to look out for 
 squalls at the paying of the coolies next day. 
 
 'I expect there will be some grumbling, 
 because a lot of Chinese have had their names 
 
THE BENGALI PLOT. 249 
 
 cut * this month, and they always make a row 
 about it; but it soon cahns down,' said Mr 
 Fish. 
 
 ' Yes, but those Bengalis are not to have a 
 cent of wages,' objected Kenneth. 
 
 ' Serve them right, the villains, for poisoning 
 the bullocks and stopping all our ploughing at 
 this busy season, to say nothing of such cold- 
 blooded cruelty to dumb brutes,' protested Mr 
 Waughope hotly, 
 
 ' Of course it serves them right, but they 
 can't starve ; and, though they won't do any- 
 thing themselves, they '11 incite the Chinese to 
 fight very likely,' said Kenneth. 
 
 'AU right, I'll go down with a revolver,' 
 declared Mr Fish, joking. 
 
 ' For heaven's sake don't. You know what 
 happened to Jolly from Kansas? They ran 
 him in for manslaughter for defending his 
 manager, and probably saving his life, when 
 his coolies had him down on the ground,' said 
 Kenneth, alluding to a recent case which had 
 caused great wrath among the planters, who 
 said if an assistant might not get a revolver 
 from the house and use it when his manager 
 was on the ground and unconscious, and sur- 
 rounded by a gang of furious coolies, when 
 might a man use a revolver in self-defence ? 
 
 ' Ah, I forgot JoUy ; that was hard luck on 
 
 * Pay stopped. 
 
250 THE BENGALI PLOT. 
 
 him. He got off with a fine, but it'll stand 
 against him to have been charged for man- 
 slaughter,' said Mr Fish gravely. 
 
 'We ought to have petitioned against such 
 treatment from English magistrates who come 
 out here and don't understand the country or 
 anything,' declared Kenneth, and the conversa- 
 tion turned upon this case, which was naturally 
 of great interest to planters and their assistants; 
 and it was only at pay-time when the bad 
 gang of coolies, who had half-pay for bad work, 
 began to be threatening that the young men 
 thought of Ken's warning, and discovered that 
 neither of them chanced to have a stick, and 
 that Mr Meredyth, having driven down, was 
 without one too. Kenneth had a cane, but 
 it did not look a very deadly weapon, and there 
 were only their fists to trust to. 
 
 Kenneth was right, as the others felt, for 
 this was no mere murmuring ; and though the 
 Bengalis kept in the background, Ken noticed 
 that they were very excited, and evidently 
 inflaming the anger of the others and urging 
 them to take to violence. 
 
 Mr Meredyth stood and faced the men, and 
 the young men forced their way to him, and 
 set their faces for a fight, as they saw creeses 
 (Malay knives) being brandished. 
 
 ' Drop those knives, or I '11 knock you down !' 
 thundered the planter. 
 
THE BENGALI PLOT. 251 
 
 But the men, secure in their overwhelming 
 numbers, only pressed nearer. 
 
 ' Now for it, boys, give them one from the 
 shoulder, and keep clear of those creeses ! ' 
 cried the manager. 
 
 The four determined Englishmen made a 
 step forward, fists clenched and shoulders 
 squared, and bore down upon the excited, 
 howling mob of Chinese, with the Bengalis on 
 the outskirts of the crowd. 
 
 Unfortunately, the gangs which were being 
 paid now were new to the estate, and had come 
 off a very badly managed one, and they had 
 not had time to like the manager here, as most 
 of his own coolies did. A creese flashed in the 
 air and came down — three of the Englishmen 
 did not know where ; but the fourth, maddened 
 by the pain in his left shoulder, struck out 
 with his right hand and felled the man, and 
 wrenched his creese from him, which he in his 
 turn held aloft, all dripping with blood. 
 
 ' Back with you to your lines ! ' shouted Mr 
 Meredyth, and he and the other three made 
 a rush at the men. 
 
 There was a moment of doubt — a wavering. 
 They looked at the creese, which bore ominous 
 witness against them, and suddenly they 
 turned and fled, yelling, shouting, and panting, 
 to their lines, and left the four Englishmen 
 looking after th6m. 
 
252 THE BENGALI PLOT. 
 
 ' Pish, you are wounded ! What is it ? ' cried 
 Mr Meredyth anxiously. 
 
 ' That 's all right ; just a scratch from this 
 weapon, which, by the way, is a very fine 
 creese ; I shall keep it as a curiosity. I don't 
 fancy the owner will care to claim it,' observed 
 Mr Fish with a laugh. 
 
 * It 's more than a scratch ; come up and let 
 my wife bandage it. Come at once, all of you ; 
 the car is here,' insisted Mr Meredyth. 
 
 The assistants, feeling that they wanted 
 some sort of change, got in, and the four drove 
 up to the house, where Mrs Meredyth was 
 awaiting them anxiously, having had news of 
 the disturbance. 
 
 ' It 's all right, really,' declared Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I wonder what you call all wrong, then ? ' 
 asked Moll, looking at his coat ; whereupon 
 Mr Fish noticed for the first time that his 
 white coat, which by ill chance he had put on 
 instead of his khaki, was red. 
 
 ' Oh bother ; how nasty it looks ! I '11 go 
 home and change/ he declared cheerily, in 
 spite of a white face, due to loss of blood. 
 
 But this, of course, he was not allowed to 
 do, and Mrs Meredyth, not for the first time, 
 doctored and nursed her husband's assistant 
 till the doctor came and declared the wound to 
 be painful, but not serious. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A TRIP TO JOHORB. 
 
 • T SHALL run them in — the whole lot of 
 -■■ them ! ' declared the justly irate planter, 
 as he sat with the doctor and his family at 
 tiffin after the occurrences related in the last 
 chapter. 
 
 ' I should hope so. I only wish I could say 
 the wound was serious, but fortunately it is 
 not,' replied the doctor. 
 
 'Thank goodness for that,' Mrs Meredyth 
 said. 
 
 'Yes, I shall charge them with poisoning 
 my bullocks and then trying to murder us,' 
 continued Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' I think it would have been better if you 
 had done that at first,' said Mrs Meredyth 
 gently. It was very seldom she gave an 
 opinion upon anything connected with her 
 husband's work ; but she felt that it would be 
 a good opportunity to express her strong feel- 
 ing upon this subject, which was a vexed one, 
 and she considered that life would be much 
 safer in the jungle if recourse were had to the 
 law in these cases, instead of any dispute 
 between master and coolie being settled by the 
 former, which was Mr Meredyth's method, as 
 it was that of most planters, chiefly because 
 
254 A TRIP TO JOHORE. 
 
 they found it a quicker way of settling things 
 than taking them many miles to the nearest 
 law-court and charging them there. 
 
 ' Well, perhaps you are right ; I wish I had 
 now, for Fish would not have that nasty cut 
 on his shoulder if I had. — I only hope it won't 
 give you fever, my boy ! ' said the manager 
 kindly. * 
 
 ' Oh dear me, no ; I don't feel anything to 
 speak of, and, pray, don't bother to go to the 
 courts on my account,' he begged. 
 
 ' I '11 most certainly go, on all our accounts. 
 Do you suppose I 'm going to let my coolies 
 knock about my assistants whenever they 
 happen to be annoyed ? No, indeed ; down 
 we go to Johore the very first opportunity 
 and have them punished, as soon as you are 
 fit to give evidence against them,' said Mr 
 Meredyth. 
 
 ' Oh father, do let me come too ; I do want 
 to see Johore again, and all those funny Chinese 
 streets ! ' cried Moll. 
 
 * You ! What do you think we should do 
 with you in a hot, stuffy court full of Malays ? 
 No, no ; you are not mixed up in this row, for 
 a wonder, so you will keep out of it, please,' 
 replied her father. 
 
 ' I could give evidence if I liked, for I saw 
 it all from the office window,' observed Moll, to 
 their universal surprise. 
 
A TRIP TO JOHORE. 255 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked very vexed. ' Surely 
 that will not be necessary ; there will be 
 enough to bear witness without Moll ? ' she 
 asked. 
 
 ' Yes, of course ; I should not think of let- 
 ting the child appear in a Malay court of 
 justice. Besides, she could not have seen much 
 from the office. What surprises me is that 
 she stayed there ; it would have been just like 
 her to run out to the rescue,' declared Mr 
 Meredyth. ' Moll must be learning sense at 
 last.' 
 
 Moll looked rather crushed, and said, ' I 
 couldn't help myself Some interfering person 
 locked the door of the office, and I couldn't get 
 out of those windows ; they were shut for the 
 night.' 
 
 ' Locked the door ! I don't think that is 
 likely with you in it ! Only the jagas * have 
 the key, and they would never take the liberty. 
 All the same, it's a very good thing you 
 thought it was locked,' observed her father. 
 
 ' It was, or we should certainly have had 
 you to defend as well as ourselves,' agreed 
 Kenneth. 
 
 Mr Waughope cleared his throat. 'I am 
 afraid you will think it a liberty, Mr Meredyth, 
 but I locked the door.' Mr Waughope, as 
 has been said, stammered when he was shy or 
 
 * Watchmen. 
 
256 A TRIP TO JOHORE. 
 
 nervous, and he was some time getting this 
 confession out. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth smiled reassuringly at the 
 embarrassed young man, and the others, though 
 they did not dare to smile for fear of Moll's 
 wrath, were much amused ; but Mr Meredyth 
 had no such fear, and throwing back his head 
 he laughed heartily. 
 
 ' Well done, Waughope ; you evidently know 
 how to manage turbulent children. It was no 
 liberty on your part, but a wise act. — Don't look 
 so angry, Moll ; Mr Waughope only did it for 
 your safety. You ought to thank him, instead 
 of glaring at him like that,' he added. 
 
 But Moll was not in the least grateful, and 
 seeing that her father was in a good humour, 
 she urged her request to go to Johore with 
 him. ' It 's such a lovely motor-drive, and I 
 never saw it the other night when Charles 
 drove us home. And I needn't go into the law- 
 court at all ; I can just motor about Johore 
 with Charles while you are there, or sit at the 
 Johore hotel window, looking out on to the 
 street, with all those people passing and the 
 boats going up and down the Straits.' 
 
 ' Yes, and when you got tired of watching 
 the people passing and the boats, you would 
 look round for some more mischief to do. No, 
 I think we must leave you at home this time. 
 Another day I '11 take you down myself, when 
 
A TRIP TO JOHORE. 257 
 
 your mother is stronger, and show you the 
 Istana ; that 's worth seeing, especially the 
 Sultan's jewels.' 
 
 ' Istana ! What 's the Istana ? ' demanded 
 Moll. 
 
 ' The palace of the Sultan of Johore,' ex- 
 plained Kenneth. 
 
 Then Mr Fish eame to the rescue. * There 's 
 a football match on to-morrow, which Moll 
 could watch from the hotel windows ; it is the 
 final cup match, and it would interest her to 
 see football played by natives,' he suggested 
 with his usual good-natured desire to give 
 pleasure. 
 
 * Why, so it is ; it 's a good thing Fish re- 
 minded me, uncle,' said Kenneth. ' I promised 
 to play in this match, and they would have 
 been frightfully annoyed with me if I had for- 
 gotten all about it, which, to tell the truth, is 
 just what I had done ! ' he exclaimed. 
 
 ' Why are you playing. Ken ? You are not 
 native surely ? ' cried Moll. 
 
 They all laughed at Moll's way of expressing 
 herself, as if there were a doubt about Ken's 
 nationality. 
 
 ' No, I am not a native, but I am going to 
 play with them and for them,' he responded 
 dryly. 
 
 ' Then I simply must go and see you play, 
 my own cousin,' affirmed Moll. 
 
 U.K. Q 
 
258 A TRIP TO JOHORE. 
 
 *What do you say, mem? Shall we take 
 her 1 ' inquired the planter of his wife. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth looked doubtful ; but Ken- 
 neth — who was pleased that Moll should wish 
 to see him play, though as a matter of fact 
 she would have been just as pleased to see 
 the Malays provided she had her expedition — 
 promised to take care of her, and so her mother 
 gave her consent. The next morning very 
 early the party set out on their long motor- 
 drive. 
 
 ' And I wonder what mischief she '11 manage 
 to get into to-day,' was Mr Waughope's parting 
 comment to Mr Fish as the party, consisting 
 of the manager, his daughter. Ken, and Mr 
 Fish, started in the motor, with Charles as 
 driver. 
 
 Mr Fish laughed light-heartedly ; he was as 
 pleased as a boy to have a day's holiday off the 
 estate, and he considered it cheaply bought at 
 the cost of a knock on the shoulder. 'We'll 
 keep an eye on her among the three of us, and 
 I bet she doesn't go off to Singapore this time,' 
 he retorted, this taunt being a standing joke 
 against Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Mind she doesn't take you into a swamp 
 and get you fever again,' Mr Waughope warned 
 him. 
 
 But Moll sat in front with her father all the 
 way to Johore, and on her arrival there she 
 
A TRIP TO JOHORK. 259 
 
 was sent motoring round with Charles till Mr 
 Meredyth should be free to look after her. 
 ' Now mind, Charles, you are not to let Miss 
 Moll out of your sight,' his master warned 
 him. 
 
 'Right, sir,' said Charles, touching his cap. 
 
 'Then you'll have to let your car out of 
 your sight, that's all about it, for I'm tired 
 of sitting here, and I 'm going to have a walk.' 
 
 'You can't do that, miss, not even if I put 
 up the car ; it would look bad,' declared 
 Charles. ^ 
 
 ' What nonsense ! Why would it look bad ? 
 Look at all those people walking about ; they 
 don't look at all bad,' protested Moll. 
 
 ' Those are natives or Chinese or Klings. A 
 European can't possibly walk out here ; it would 
 never do,' persisted Charles, as Moll looked 
 dissatisfied at the prospect of a drive. 
 
 ' Why wouldn't it do ? One would think we 
 wanted to pretend we were cripples and were 
 not able to walk ; you are a European, and yet 
 you walk when you are not driving the car,' 
 argued Moll. 
 
 'No, miss, that I do not. I've been out 
 here two years now, and I 've never walked a 
 hundred yards yet on a road ; shouldn't think 
 of doing such a thing,' Charles said earnestly. 
 
 ' How do you get about then ? ' asked Moll. 
 
 ' In a rickshaw, miss, or a gharry.' 
 
260 A TRIP TO JOHORE. 
 
 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself, 
 giving yourself such airs ! ' retorted Moll. 
 
 Charles only smiled. ' No airs, miss ; only 
 keeping up the prestige of the white man.' 
 
 ' If you can't keep yourselves up without 
 
 that ' began Moll ; and then broke off, ' Oh 
 
 Charles, what a pretty house with all those 
 minarets ! Do you think that 's marble ? ' 
 
 'That's some kind of temple, I believe,' 
 replied the man. 
 
 ' Let 's go and look at it,' cried Moll. 
 
 ' I don't think that they allow ladies, Miss 
 Moll, but I '11 ask,' said Charles, who saw no 
 objection to this, and he turned the car up the 
 road leading to the Johore mosque, and made 
 inquiries in Malay. ' It 's all right, you can 
 come in, as there 's no service going on ; it 's 
 a Mohammedan mosque,' he informed her. 
 
 So Moll, accompanied by the chauffeur, 
 went up the garden through the large court, 
 with its large, square tank full of cool, green 
 water, and up the steps till she came to the 
 porch with its marble steps, where the Malay 
 in charge stopped and said something, at which 
 Charles demurred. 
 
 Moll was always impatient at not under- 
 standing what they said. ' I suppose he wants 
 some money. Give him a dollar, Charles,' she 
 commanded. 
 
 ' He won't take money, miss ; he says it 'a 
 
A TRIP TO JOHORE. 261 
 
 free to go in, but we must take off our shoes. 
 I 've offered him a dollar to keep them on, but 
 they 're very particular about the forms of their 
 religion,' bbserved Charles. 
 
 ' I suppose they think they are dirty. Tell 
 him we have come in a car, and have not 
 walked at all,' suggested Moll. 
 
 But Charles's arguments were all in vain. 
 ' I 'm sorry, miss, but we must give it up ; he 
 won't hear reason,' said Charles at last. 
 
 ' Then we must,' responded Moll, as, squatting 
 down on, the steps, she proceeded to take off 
 hei* shoes. 
 
 This shocked Charles's idea of propriety, but 
 as Moll would not ' hear reason ' from him, and 
 was just disappearing into the temple, Charles 
 tugged at his boots, and, getting himself very 
 heated, got them off, muttering the while over 
 the stupid ways of these blacks (who are not 
 black at all), and hurried after Moll, to find 
 her much interested in the marble floor and 
 the beautiful candelabra, and finally determined 
 to climb up a small spiral iron staircase, which 
 she guessed led to the tower. 
 
 After her toiled Charles, perspiring freely. 
 'Miss Moll, don't go any farther; you'll get 
 your feet blistered on this scorching roof and 
 a sunstroke into the bargain,' protested Charles, 
 as Moll started to cross the flat roof of Jbhe 
 mosque to get to the prayer-turret. 
 
262 A TRIP TO JOHORE. 
 
 ' There 's no fear of sunstroke ; I Ve got my 
 topee on, and so have you, and I must see the 
 view from that tower ; let 's run and we sha'n't 
 feel the heat so much,' said Moll, for the cor- 
 rugated iron was scorching hot under their 
 feet. But, naturally, running in the blazing 
 sun made them hotter still, and Moll was fain 
 to sit down when they reached the tower and 
 hold her feet, the soles of which were burning. 
 
 ' If you 'd been ruled by me. Miss Moll ' 
 
 began Charles, with satisfaction in his voice. 
 
 ' I should not have seen this view,' Moll 
 interrupted, climbing the steep stairs. 
 
 There was certainly a very fine view of the 
 Straits and the island of Singapore opposite, 
 and the hills of Johore ; but Charles declined 
 to agree that it was worth the trouble of 
 getting up there, and declared when they got 
 back to the motor that he didn't hold with 
 such religions. 
 
 ' Is it worth seeing ? ' shouted the voice of 
 an American behind them ; and Moll, turning 
 round, saw a procession of three rickshaws with 
 three Americans arriving. 
 
 'Yes, rather, only you've got to take off 
 your shoes and stockings,' said Moll. 
 
 ' Oh thanks ! Well, you go and see the 
 Istana ; that 's a sight worth seeing too ; the 
 je\rals are magnificent,' they shouted, as a 
 return piece of information. 
 
A TRIP TO JOHOEE. 263 
 
 ' We can't see that without permission from 
 the Sultan,' said Charles with decision. 
 
 ' Bother ! let 's go and look at the outside 
 at any rate,' said Moll. 
 
 Charles was looking so grave that Moll 
 suddenly demanded the meaning. 'Are you 
 sulking because you had to go across that hot 
 roof; I don't call that keeping up the prestige 
 of the European.' 
 
 ' No, miss ; I 'm thinking about what you 
 said to those American ladies ; it wasn't kind,' 
 he remarked. Charles spoke his mind very 
 freely to Moll, as may be seen. 
 
 ' Kind ! to tell them the mosque was worth 
 seeing ? It was very kind of me.' 
 
 'That's all right; but you told them they 
 had to take off their stockings, and a nice state 
 their feet will be in, poor things,' said Charles 
 feelingly. 
 
 Moll gave a peal of laughter. 'It was a 
 mistake, really, Charles, and they'll never go 
 across that roof in bare feet, you may be sure.' 
 
 ' Being Americans, you may be sure that 
 they will ; I 've driven them, so I know. They 
 stick at nothing, and they'd rather have the 
 soles of their feet flayed than miss a sight 
 when they are touring. There 's the palace — 
 Istana, they call it, miss.' 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A day's pleasuring. 
 
 /^HARLES brought the motor to a stand- 
 ^-^ still at the bottom of the drive leading 
 to the Istana, the palace of the Sultan of Johore. 
 
 Moll looked at the palace grounds, which are 
 very pretty, and then at the palace itself, which 
 is a mean and somewhat dilapidated building 
 of stucco, which is discoloured and even broken 
 away in parts. 
 
 ' The outside isn't worth looking at ; it 's the 
 inside that matters. Look, there 's an English- 
 man going in ; do let 's follow him ! ' cried Moll, 
 pointing out a fair-haired young man, who had 
 just whizzed round the corner and up the drive 
 to the Sultan's palace in a reckless style, much 
 disapproved of by Charles, who looked after 
 him doubtfully. He did not like to refuse 
 Moll ; in fact, her enthusiasm was catching, 
 and he enjoyed taking her about, so he turned 
 up the drive and met the young Englishman 
 just coming out of the palace. 
 
 ' Won't they let you in ? ' demanded Moll. 
 
 The young man looked up, a little surprised 
 at the address by an utter stranger ; but seeing 
 that it was only a schoolgirl he forgot to be 
 shy, as he usually was, and answered, ' Oh I 
 only went to shoot a card.' 
 
A day's PLEASITBINO. 265 
 
 ' Shoot a card ? Oh I see what you mean — 
 to call. I thought at first that it was some 
 kind of game,' laughed Moll. 
 
 The young m^n had young sisters at home, of 
 whom Moll reminded him, and he laughed back. 
 ' Do you want to see the Istana ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' Yes, but we haven't a permit. How do you 
 get one ? ' she demanded. 
 
 ' From the Sultan ; but he doesn't live here. 
 He lives at Singapore, although I dare say I 
 could get you in; they know me well here,' 
 he replied, turning and speaking to a young 
 Malay at the door. 
 
 ' It 's the Sultan's orders, tvxm^ protested the 
 man. 
 
 ' Yes, we know all about that ; but this is a 
 young friend of mine, and you know me. I 
 dined here only the other day off the gold 
 plate, and H.H.* only made that rule because 
 some strangers stole something. Let's go 
 through.' 
 
 The man demurred, but at last gave way, 
 and, to Moll's delight, they entered the palace, 
 and were just admiring a stuffed tiger when 
 they heard an argument, and found that 
 Charles was hotly demanding to be let in to 
 look after his young mistress. 
 
 ' I '11 take care of this young lady,' the young 
 man assured him. 
 
 * His Highness, as the Sultan is familiarly called in Johore. 
 
266 A day's pleasuring, 
 
 'I dare say, sir, but the master's orders 
 were not to let her out of my sight, and out 
 of it she sha'n't go,' said the man sturdily. 
 
 Moll laughed, and said impatiently, 'He'll 
 have to come ; Charles is as obstinate as a 
 mule.' 
 
 'Well, come on, Charles. — It's all right, 
 Hajzi ; her servant has to come too. I '11 
 answer for him.' 
 
 Somehow the young man was so quiet and 
 shy that they trusted him ; and the two, fol- 
 lowed by Charles, who walked respectfully 
 behind Moll, mounted the stairs to the long 
 ballroom and banqueting-hall. 
 
 ' I feel like the walrus in Alice in Wonder- 
 land with a porpoise close behind me,' said Moll 
 confidentially to the young man, whose name 
 she did not even know. 
 
 ' He has a purpose, and that is to look after 
 you, and quite right too, for, after all, I am 
 only a stranger to you, though I know who 
 you are,' he replied. 
 
 ' Oh but you have such an honest face 
 Charles need not have worried ! But how do 
 you know who I am ? ' asked Moll. 
 
 The young man coloured at Moll's candid 
 remark, and replied, ' I have heard of you. 
 Besides, your father has come down to-day 
 about a case of assault by some rascally coolies ; 
 I hope they'll get it hot.' 
 
A day's pleasuring. 267 
 
 ' I wish people wouldn't " hear abSut me ; " 
 every one I meet says that, with a horrid 
 smile,' retorted Moll. 
 
 *I haven't heard anything bad, only that 
 you are a sport. Here is the gold plate we 
 dine oiF on the Sultan's birthday.' 
 
 * Does the food taste better off gold ? ' asked 
 Moll, while Charles gazed with awe and delight 
 at the massive gold dinner-service. 
 
 ' I don't know that it does, though the food 
 is very good,' laUghed their escort. 
 
 Moll's admiration of the jewels was loud and 
 sincere, and Charles's joy when the polite Malay 
 attendants handed him the jewel- topped swords 
 and priceless orders to hold was amusing to see. 
 
 ' I 'm holding thousands of pounds' worth in 
 my hands,' he said with pride. 
 
 Their young escort laughed. ' Yes, you 'd 
 be a rich man for life if you pocketed one of 
 those jewels,' he said. 
 
 Charles's face was a study. ' Sir, I 'd sooner 
 sweep a crossing all my life ! ' he exclaimed, 
 much affronted. 
 
 ' Charles is horribly serious ; he depresses 
 me. I 'm very glad I met you going through 
 the palace ; it has been much better fun with 
 you than it would have been alone,' 
 
 The young man coloured again with pleasure. 
 'Perhaps we shall meet again; and here's my 
 card, in case you forget me,' he said shyly. 
 
268 A day's pleasuring. 
 
 ' Edmund Courteney ; all right, I '11 re- 
 member. Thank you very much for taking 
 me over the palace. Good-bye,' said Moll as 
 they drove off in the motor straight to the 
 hotel, for it was near the time appointed for 
 lunch. 
 
 But at the hotel they found a note from 
 Mr Meredyth, saying they were detained at 
 court, and Moll must have lunch by herself, 
 and Charles was to look after her. 
 
 ' There 's Mr Courteney having his lunch all 
 alone ; I '11 go and have it with him,' exclaimed 
 Moll. 
 
 'You hadn't better do that. Miss Moll. 
 The gentleman has been kind enough, and he 's 
 quite the gentleman, but we don't know him ; 
 besides, he'll have a lot of bachelor friends 
 there directly, and he won't want you,' pro- 
 tested Charles. 
 
 ' I '11 ask him,' announced Moll ; and to 
 Charles's horror she did. 
 
 Mr Courteney laughed. ' Indeed I am not 
 expecting any one, and we '11 sit at that little 
 table over there, and Charles shall stand be- 
 hind your chair to add to your dignity,' he 
 replied. 
 
 ' It 's all right, isn't it, as you 've shot a card 
 on me, as you call it ? ' said Moll, seating herself 
 and preparing to enjoy her Malay curry, which 
 always amused her, being a queer mixture of 
 
A day's pleasuring. 269 
 
 fruit, fish, vegetables, and condiments handed 
 round in little dishes, to be added to the curry 
 and rice at will. 
 
 Charles took up his station behind Moll's 
 chair, and certainly did add dignity to the 
 proceedings ; and Moll, looking at a mirror 
 opposite to her, had much ado to abstain from 
 laughing as she saw the air with which he 
 waved his orders for Moll to the Chinese 
 waiters. 
 
 Before lunch was over the two were the 
 best of friends, and Moll had heard all about 
 Mr Courteney's two little sisters at home and 
 all about his butterfly collection, and she was 
 relating to him some of her school escapades 
 when the party from the law-courts came in 
 and stood for a momeut in the porch, upon 
 which the dining-room opened, looking in sur- 
 prise at the scene. 
 
 Mr Fish gave a little click of his tongue, 
 and Mr Meredyth muttered, 'Who has she 
 got hold of now ? ' 
 
 But Kenneth, catching sight of Moll's com- 
 panion, exclaimed, 'Hallo, Courteney, I see 
 you 've made friends with my young cousin ! 
 Are you playing this afternoon ? ' 
 
 ' Yes. I say, introduce me, will you ? ' replied 
 Mr Courteney. 
 
 'Who to? Moll? Bather late in the day, 
 isn't it? I thought you knew her,' began 
 
270 A day's pleasuring. 
 
 Kenneth, rather annoyed to find that this was 
 another of Moll's lawless proceedings. 
 
 ' He does know me ; he 's called quite pro- 
 perly with a card. Here it is — Mr Edmund 
 Courteney. — Father, let me introduce you to 
 Mr Courteney. He has taken me over the 
 palace, and I 've had a lovely morning ! ' cried 
 Moll eagerly. 
 
 The case had gone well, and Mr Meredyth 
 had met some old friends, and he was in a very 
 good temper, so he only laughed. ' This young 
 madcap sets etiquette at defiance ; so let us all 
 finish lunch together. You know my nephew, 
 it appears. Are you friends or foes to-day ? ' 
 
 'Friends, I believe — that is, if you are 
 playing for Passy Plangy,' he replied. 
 
 'Then I shall have two friends to clap,' 
 announced Moll. 
 
 Mr Courteney looked shyly at Mr Meredyth, 
 and said, ' I hope I haven't done wrong, sir ? 
 But she reminded me of my own little sisters, 
 and it's such a treat to see a youngster out 
 here.' 
 
 ' Quite right, my boy ; we all feel that, and 
 I am very much obliged to you ; she would 
 have been dull this morning. You must run 
 over to our estate, if you get time off, remember 
 — Bukit Ayer,' said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Fancy if you had left me at home to-day, 
 and made me miss a palace and a mosque and 
 
A day's pleasuring. 271 
 
 a Malay football match, wouldn't you have 
 been sorry, father ? ' said Moll. 
 
 ' H'm, I should have borne up ; the palace 
 and the mosque would have been there another 
 day, and I don't know that this match will 
 be much to see ; these Malays are too new at 
 football to be much good, I should think ; 
 they '11 only kick about the ball a little.' 
 
 Fortunately the two were alone, or Kenneth 
 might have been offended. As it was, Mr 
 Meredyth' was wondering what to do with 
 his daughter till the football match began, 
 which was not till five o'clock, and it was now 
 only two. 
 
 'Wouldn't you like a "lie off," Moll?' he 
 asked, after yawning two or three times. 
 
 'No, but you would, so don't bother about 
 me ; I promise not to go out alone. Charles 
 is worse than a jailer ; won't go more than a 
 yard away from me,' said Moll. 
 
 Mr Meredyth laughed as he yawned again. 
 ' Charles is a true Britisher, and as I know 
 you '11 keep your word, I '11 just have a snooze, 
 while you go up to the club-room and look at 
 the ladies' papers — ^there will be no one there — 
 and wait till I waken, or Charles comes back 
 from his tiffin,' said her father, his eyes closing 
 as he spoke. 
 
 Moll went up to the club-room ; but as her 
 mother had two or three illustrated papers out 
 
272 A day's pleasuring. 
 
 weekly she soon got tired of looking at them, 
 and began to be bored even by looking out of 
 the window, till she saw Mr Courteney sitting 
 smoking in the gardens opposite. 
 
 'Why aren't you having a "lie off"?' she 
 demanded from her window. 
 
 Mr Courteney looked up and smiled. 
 ' Because I am an exception to that rule. 
 Come and sit here ; it 's much cooler under 
 these trees than in that club-room.' 
 
 Moll needed no second bidding, and joined 
 her young planter -friend of the morning. 
 After a short time they got up and strolled 
 away ; while Charles, alas ! had a five minutes' 
 snooze in the car after tiffin, unaware that 
 Mr Meredyth had left him in charge of Moll 
 as well as his car. 
 
 When the manager awoke with a start he 
 found it was four o'clock, and, incredible though 
 it was, he had slept two hours. 'Bless me, 
 that 's because of that long drive and all this 
 worry. — Here, Charles, just go up to the club 
 reading-room and tell Miss Moll I am awake,' 
 he called out to the chauffeur. 
 
 Charles got out of his car, and did as he was 
 bid, only to return with a long face and no 
 Moll. 
 
 ' Not there ! She promised me not to go 
 out alone ; she must have strolled into some 
 other room. — Here, " boy," go find little mem 
 
A day's PLEASURINa 273 
 
 in the hotel,' he told the Chinese ' boy ; ' and 
 added, when the 'boy' came back alone, 'Oh 
 well, I sha'n't worry ; the girl always keeps her 
 word, so she's all right. Mr Kenneth must 
 have come back and fetched her.' 
 
 ' Mem went out alone that way,' said another 
 ' boy,' pointing directly on to the Straits across 
 the road and gardens. 
 
 Mr Meredyth had made up his mind not to 
 worry, but this was too serious news. 'She 
 can't have gone for a saU, eh, Charles ? ' he 
 said, turning for sympathy to the nearest 
 person. 
 
 Charles thought she very likely had if she 
 took it into her head ; but only said, ' It 's a 
 nice calm day if she has, sir.' 
 ~"' Tut ! calm day ; she '11 be drowned ! Why 
 on earth did I go to sleep ? Why on earth 
 did you let her out of your sight, man ? ' 
 
 Mr Meredyth was working himself up into 
 one of his * states,' as Charles saw, so he only 
 made his car safe and went off to make 
 inquiries, ' No one here knows anything, sir ; 
 
 but I expect she 's with Mr Kenneth No, 
 
 she's not.' For at that moment Kenneth 
 appeared with Mr Fish, having been to see a 
 friend who was planting (rubber, of course) 
 near Johore. 
 
 ' M'Pherson has more diseases this time, 
 I never saw such a chap in my life ; you never 
 
274 A day's pleasuring. 
 
 see him that he does not greet you with the 
 information that he is very ill indeed — fever or 
 sunstroke, or some other deadly complaint ! ' 
 cried Kenneth. 
 
 ' He '11 be a hypochondriac in a year or so 
 if he doesn't mind,' chimed in Mr Fish. 
 
 ' M'Pherson 's a fool ; but where 's Moll ? ' 
 
 ' Eight eyes aren't enough for her,' murmured 
 Mr Fish. 
 
 Kenneth looked vexed, and said, 'Moll dis- 
 appeared as usual ? Well, well, uncle, I 'm 
 very sorry to be unsympathetic, but I must 
 go and get ready for this " footer " match ; the 
 Malays would be awfully offended if I did 
 not play.' 
 
 ' Oh go by all means ; Moll will turn up all 
 right — she always does,' said Mr Meredyth ; 
 but he did not look by any means as confident 
 as his words. 
 
 ' If you think I could be of any use ' 
 
 began Mr Fish. 
 
 ' No, no, the girl will get a name for being a 
 regular madcap if we make a fuss ; she can't be 
 far off. She doesn't come out with me again 
 without her mother ; no man can cope with 
 Moll' 
 
 ' She '11 be back for this " footer " match,' said 
 Mr Fish, to console the worried father. 
 
 ' Yes, to be sure,' he agreed, brightening up. 
 
 But five o'clock came, and the match began ; 
 
A day's pleasuring. 275 
 
 six o'clock, and the sun set, and the match 
 ended. And Mr Meredyth-in a panic decided 
 that he must make inquiries. 
 
 ' She went out with young Courteney directly 
 after tiffin,' said an Englishman who lived at 
 the Johore hotel. 
 
 ' Courteney ! impossible ; he 's been playing 
 in the match with me,' said Kenneth. 
 
 Mr Courteney looked very vexed when asked 
 where Moll was. ' She came into the gardens 
 and talked to me for about half-an-hour. I 
 took her to the water's edge to look at some 
 monkeys playing about there, and said good- 
 bye to her, as I had some business to do.' 
 
 Charles came back presently. ' Excuse me, 
 sir, but Miss Moll has gone off in a rickshaw 
 with some big Malay woman, as far as I can 
 understand.' 
 
 ' Dear, dear, what can she mean by it ? ' 
 said Mr Meredyth ; adding, ' It 's all right, of 
 course.' 
 
 Mr Fish chuckled. ' Last time it was an 
 old Chinaman and a car ; this time it 's a 
 woman and a rickshaw. Moll is nothing if 
 not original in her surprises. I expect it's 
 another false alarm, and that it is that Mrs 
 Wilkins who has asked her to her bungalow.' 
 
 All the same, it was very worrying. It was 
 now dark, and they had only waited for the 
 football match to please Moll, for Kenneth 
 
276 A day's pleasuring. 
 
 could have motored home on a bicycle, and 
 Mr Meredyth would allow no more inquiries 
 to be made ; quite unaware that his discretion 
 was wasted, as every European there knew of 
 Moll's disappearance, and was talking of it. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAK. 
 
 ' T SAY, Ken, what's the next move to 
 -■- be ? ' demanded Mr Fish, his usual jaunti- 
 ness a little subdued, for he had more patience 
 with, and to all appearances more liking for, 
 Moll than either her cousin or Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' Goodness knows ! I 'm sure I don't. We 
 ought to be half-way home by now ; but, of 
 course, we can't stir till it suits Moll to turn 
 up,' replied Ken irritably. 
 
 ' Of course we can't ; and if it weren't for the 
 anxiety about her I 'd be content to stop here 
 till midnight. There 's a jolly billiard-room in 
 there, and I want a game of snooker, only that 
 it seems heartless,' observed Mr Fish. 
 
 But Kenneth laughed. 'It's no good 
 wasting heart upon Moll's imaginary troubles ; 
 she will turn up smiling in a little time, having 
 seen some interesting thing. I dare say she 
 has taken a boat and gone for a row.' 
 
 ' In that case I '11 have my game of snooker ; 
 just give me a call when you are ready to 
 start,' said Mr Fish, going off to the billiard- 
 room, whence issued peals of laughter over the 
 innocent game of snooker. 
 
 Ken himself felt that, heart or no heart, it 
 behoved him to stop with his uncle, who, true 
 
278 MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAE. 
 
 to his determination not to draw attention to 
 Moll's escapades, was sitting and chatting with 
 acquaintances as if he had not a care in the 
 world, little knowing that these same acquaint- 
 ances were well aware of his daughter's disap- 
 pearance, and only kept silence out of sympathy 
 for him and his father's pride. Every now and 
 then he pulled out his watch and looked at it 
 impatiently. 
 
 ' Are you staying the night, Meredyth ? ' 
 inquired Mr Wilkins at last. 
 
 ' I ! No — at least I don't think so,' said the 
 planter. 'It's not late.' 
 
 ' Oh dear no — quite early. Come and dine 
 with us ; my wife will be delighted to see you, 
 and your nephew too. I only wish you had 
 brought that jolly little girl of yours with you ; 
 we should have liked to see her again,' said Mr 
 Wilkins, with true Eastern hospitality. 
 
 Mr Meredyth looked a little embarrassed. 
 ' To tell the truth she did come with us, but 
 she has — er — gone out for a stroll with a — er — 
 friend,' he said. 
 
 The Englishmen round exchanged glances ; 
 but Mr Wilkins, who had only just come up, 
 guessed nothing, and only said, 'Oh gone out 
 with a friend to look at the Chinese shops, no 
 doubt ; they are very pretty when they are 
 lit up, especially to new-comers from home. 
 Then we '11 wait for her ; she won't be long 
 
MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 279 
 
 now, and we will all go up to our bungalow 
 for makan. I '11 'phone to the wife to say so. 
 No, don't say no — there 's no hurry ; we seldom 
 dine before nine o'clock,' and hospitable Mr 
 Wilkins hurried off to telephone to his wife 
 that he was bringing four extra guests to dinner. 
 
 But seven o'clock came, and then eight, and 
 finally nine, and no Moll, for a very good 
 reason, as will be seen. 
 
 Moll had said good-bye to Mr Courteney, 
 and promised to watch him playing football ; 
 then was dutifully returning to the hotel 
 when she lost her way, and found herself in a 
 back street, where she stood and wondered how 
 she should get back to the hotel. 
 
 There were no white people in sight ; but 
 presently she saw a pleasant-looking old lady 
 in a rickshaw smiling at her, who, telling the 
 rickshaw coolie to stop, called out to her in 
 excellent English, ' Have you lost your way, 
 Kttle girl ? ' 
 
 For a moment Moll was so surprised to 
 hear such good English from a Malay woman 
 — at least from a person who was dressed as 
 a Malay, in a sarong and b(y'u, with Malay 
 brooches and ornaments — that she did not 
 answer. 
 
 ' You need not be afraid of me ; I am the 
 Inchi Besar, the Sultan's mother.' 
 
 That accounted for her speaking to Moll as an 
 
280 MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR, 
 
 equal ; and, child as she was, Moll felt that it 
 was to a lady, and one used to hold a high posi- 
 tion, to whom she spoke, and she answered, 
 ' I am not afraid of you ; and, please, will you 
 tell me how I am to get back to the hotel.' 
 
 ' That is quite near ; but what are you doing 
 by yourself? You ought not to walk about 
 Johore alone, you know,' said the Inchi 
 Besar (which means chief princess). 
 
 Moll told her about her father and her 
 day's doings, and her listener was very much 
 interested. 
 
 'So you liked my son's palace, and the 
 gold plate, and the jewels ? They were my 
 husband's, you know, and I used to live in 
 that palace. Did you see the pictures of the 
 great queen — Queen Victoria? My husband 
 visited her. Yes, he stayed at Windsor 
 Castle, and took her down to dinner. They 
 all liked him very much,' said the old lady. 
 
 If Moll interested the old lady, she on her 
 side interested Moll, who could have listened 
 for hours to her tales of the late Sultan and 
 his tiger-hunts and his travels, and stories of 
 English royalties and other great folk he had 
 met. 
 
 But Inchi Besar could talk of other things 
 as well, and quoted Buskin and many an author 
 whom Moll knew only by name, a fact of which 
 she was ashamed for the first time. 
 
MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 281 
 
 ' Now, if you like, as you have no one to take 
 care of you for the present, I will take you to 
 a window in my house which overlooks the 
 football ground, and you can see it all from 
 there, which will be more seemly than stop- 
 ping in the hotel alone, a young girl like you,' 
 observed Inchi Besar kindly, after they had 
 talked for some time. 
 
 Moll was only too pleased, and, as usual, in 
 the moment's pleasure forgot every one and 
 everything. 
 
 'They play well the Malays. No, I am 
 not a Malay. I am half Chinese, but my 
 husband was a Malay, and my son is a Malay, 
 only he is too big for a real Malay ; that is 
 from the Danish blood in me.' So the old 
 lady talked on, and Moll divided her attention 
 between her and the football field, where a 
 large crowd of Malays, with some Chinese 
 and Klings and a dozen or so Europeans, were 
 gathered to see the last football match of the 
 season. 
 
 It was a very different game from what her 
 father had prophesied, for two men were 
 knocked insensible, which stopped the play ; 
 and finally, quitie near their end of the field, 
 a man trying to kick the ball gave a kick, 
 and they heard distinctly the crack of a bone 
 as the victim fell to the ground, and he was 
 carried off unconscious. 
 
282 MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 
 
 When Inchi Besar turned round to make 
 some remark upon this to her young companion, 
 she found that she had her face covered with 
 her two hands. 
 
 ' What ! an English girl, and afraid to see 
 sport ! He has only broken his leg ! ' cried 
 Inchi Besar, and laughed gaily. 
 
 Moll took her hands away, and looked 
 rather ashamed of herself ' I thought he was 
 killed,' she said. 
 
 'You would have done him no good by 
 covering your face ; you would not do for a 
 nurse in war-time like your great Miss Night- 
 ingale. But the match is just over, and we 
 have won ; we have never lost a match on our 
 own ground yet,' said the old lady proudly. 
 
 * It was a very good game,' said Moll. 
 
 'And now I must go home, and you had 
 better return to your family, I suppose. I am 
 so glad I met you ! You must come and see 
 me some day ; I live in a house near Johore. 
 Here is my card, and your people will know 
 that you have been well taken care of by Inchi 
 Besar. There is only one Inchi Besar,' said 
 the old lady, shaking hands with Moll. 
 
 Moll did not understand what orders the 
 Inchi Besar was giving to the servant, but 
 she followed him as desired, and all the mis- 
 takes which followed arose from the natural 
 politeness of the Malay, which makes him do 
 
MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 283 
 
 whatever you wish. At the door Moll saw a 
 rickshaw, and though the hotel was quite near, 
 she got in as desired, and the coolie started off 
 at his usual run, an unnatural kind of swinging 
 jump, with the heels of his feet scarcely touch- 
 ing the ground. 
 
 The Malay gave an order, as he followed in 
 another rickshaw ; but the average rickshaw 
 coolie only understands his own particular 
 Chinese dialect, and goes wherever the finger 
 of his passenger points, which is quite satis- 
 factory if the passenger knows what direction 
 he wants to go. As Moll did not know that 
 she ought to have turned to the right to get 
 to the front-door of the hotel, this was fatal, 
 especially as the Malay politely kept behind, 
 and only signed to his runner to follow Moll's 
 rickshaw. 
 
 Moll's rickshaw coolie, according to custom, 
 kept straight on until told by a shout and 
 warning finger to turn to right or left, and this 
 warning Moll naturally never gave ; so on he 
 went till he could go no farther, Moll mean- 
 while enjoying, as Mr Wilkins had suggested, 
 the streets and houses lit up with their brilliant 
 Chinese lanterns. 
 
 To the right stood a large corner house, very 
 brilliantly lighted, which Moll took to be the 
 hotel, and pointing to it, she said, ' Piggie.' 
 
 At last the Malay grasped, as he thought, 
 
284 MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 
 
 what the English young lady wished to do, 
 and when the coolie had driven them up to 
 the front of this building, he got out of his 
 rickshaw, and politely salaaming, mustered up 
 his few words of English, and asked, 'Mem, 
 want to go in this house ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Moll, and he, with a smile, led 
 the way up some stairs through a crowd of 
 noisy Chinese. Moll did not recognise the 
 stairs nor this part of the hotel, and said so 
 to her guide ; but his stock of English was 
 exhausted, so, true to his character for polite- 
 ness, he smiled and did what he imagined she 
 wanted, and showed her into a room with a 
 table in the middle and a lot of better-class 
 Chinese sitting playing some game with little 
 square brass boxes and brass counters. 
 
 ' Are they gambling ? ' asked Moll. 
 
 The Malay understood the word gambling. 
 'Yes, they gambling.' 
 
 'And is this the hotel, and will my father 
 come here for me ? ' asked Moll. 
 
 ' Yes, mem,' said the man, not understanding 
 a word, but thinking it courteous to pretend 
 he did. 
 
 Moll's conscience was at rest, though if she 
 had used her common-sense she might have 
 known it was no place for her. But the game 
 interested her as much as the football, and she 
 stood and watched, unaware of the curious 
 
MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 285 
 
 glances cast at her, till the face of a young 
 Englishman appeared at the door and as swiftly 
 disappeared, unseen by Moll. 
 
 It was nine o'clock, as has been said, and no 
 Moll had appeared, when a young man ap- 
 peared at the porch of the hotel. He hesitated 
 for a minute at sight of Mr Meredyth sitting 
 peacefully chatting, and then went up to 
 Kenneth, who was a little apart from the 
 others. 
 
 * I say, Meredyth, do you know that your 
 young cousin is in a gambling farm ? ' he asked 
 in low tones. 
 
 'The mischief!' ejaculated Kenneth, and, 
 with a hasty glance at his uncle, he replied, 
 ' Take me to her, please, Westcroft ; ' for these 
 planters all knew each other. 
 
 * All right,' he said, and took him to Moll. 
 Moll looked up, delighted to see Kenneth. 
 
 ' Here you are at last ; I thought you were 
 never coming ! I am frightfully hungry ! ' she 
 cried. 
 
 ' Don't pretend ; it 's bad enough coming to 
 this disreputable place without making a joke 
 of it ! ' said Kenneth, pushing the Chinese aside 
 to make way for Moll. 
 
 But Moll was not going to he taken to 
 task by Kenneth. ' Don't make a fuss about 
 nothing. This Malay brought me here to 
 wait for you.' 
 
286 MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 
 
 Kenneth turned on the Malay indignantly ; 
 but he, seeing that Moll was at her destination, 
 had thought it wiser to disappear, and so could 
 give no explanation of her presence there. 
 
 ' You ought to have stayed in the hotel,' 
 said Kenneth severely. 
 
 ' I wra in the hotel,' protested Moll. 
 
 ' You must be mad ! ' ejaculated Kenneth, as 
 he handed her into a rickshaw and got in 
 himself. 
 
 Moll spoke not one word to him; but at 
 sight of her father she cried, ' Oh father, why 
 have you been so long ? I 've been waiting 
 for you for hours in another part of the hotel.' 
 
 ' In the hotel ? Then how did you arrive in 
 the rickshaw ? ' cried Mr Meredyth. 
 
 'Oh I was in the part with "Gambling 
 Farm" written outside,' explained Moll inno- 
 cently. 
 
 Several men buried their faces in their 
 tumblers, while Mr Meredyth stared helplessly 
 at Moll. 
 
 ' The poor child got mixed up. Never mind, 
 Meredyth; she can't have lost a fortune, for 
 Europeans are not allowed to gamble. So come 
 along to my place and have dinner ; it 's only 
 a little after nine o'clock.' 
 
 * And how are we to get home to-night ? ' 
 demanded Mr Meredyth, avoiding comment on 
 Moll's visit to a gambling farm. 
 
MOLL ENTERTAINED BY THE INCHI BESAR. 287 
 
 * You can telephone home to Mrs Meredyth 
 that you are staying with us. You have to 
 come down again to-morrow for your case at 
 any rate, so it will save you the double journey,' 
 said Mr Wilkins. 
 
 ' That 's true,' agreed Mr Meredyth ; and as 
 it was more convenient, he did telephone, and 
 they all dined and slept at Mr Wilkins's 
 bungalow, where four extra, guests for the 
 night did not seem to inconvenience them in 
 the least. ^ 
 
 ' Good-night, Moll ; I suppose you did it all 
 in innocence, and I have nothing against your 
 visit to her Highness the Inchi Besar, who is 
 a charming old lady ; but a gambling farm ' — 
 here Mr Meredyth shook his head — 'that's a 
 little too strong ; you ought to have known it 
 was no place for a young lady.' 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 
 
 ' IV/r OTHER, do say something about it,' 
 -^'A urged Moll, the day after her 'latest 
 madcap trick,' as her father called it, when they 
 returned home next day. 
 
 ' You want me to speak a,bout your mistake 
 of yesterday ; but I do not know that I have 
 anything to say that you will like to hear,' 
 replied her mother, in the quiet tones which 
 always influenced Moll, however wild her mood. 
 
 ' I didn't say that I should like what you 
 said, but I want you to say it all the same,' 
 explained Moll. 
 
 ' Why ? ' inquired her mother. 
 
 * Because it has been sticking up like a wall 
 between us ever since those horrid races,' said 
 Moll. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth smiled at Moll's quaint way 
 of putting it; but she answered gravely enough, 
 'I suppose you mean that I have not been 
 quite so friendly with you since you went to 
 the Singapore races without leave. That is 
 true ; I have not felt that I could trust you 
 since then. Yes, I know what you are going 
 to say that yesterday was quite a mistake, and 
 I believe you ; but if you were in the habit of 
 thinking of other people and their wishes before 
 
MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 289 
 
 your own pleasure you would not have made 
 the mistake. As for the Singapore races, I 
 know you told the hotel porter to ask leave, 
 but that was not the proper way to do it, and 
 it was not quite honest or straightforward.' 
 
 ' Mother ! ' cried Moll indignantly ; ' mother, 
 whatever else I am, I am not dishonest. I only 
 like a little fun.' 
 
 If there was one thing Moll Meredyth prided 
 herself upon it was just that — that although 
 she liked fun, and was full of madcap pranks, 
 they were all above-board and quite innocent, 
 even if they did cause other people incon- 
 venience ; so this accusation of her mother's 
 hurt her pride very much. 
 
 'I said you would not like what I had to 
 say, Moll,' Mrs Meredyth reminded her in the 
 quiet voice that always influenced Moll. 
 
 Moll struggled for a minute between her 
 better and worse self, which wanted to go away 
 and end this unpleasant conversation. 'How 
 was it dishonest ? ' 
 
 'Were you honest with yourself when you 
 sent that message ? Did you really think that 
 man would send it as you said it? Or were 
 you certain when you got to Singapore Station 
 that it had arrived, and that we had not 
 answered because we wished you to go, and did 
 not even take the trouble to telephone to you 
 to say so ? ' 
 
 M.U. 8 
 
290 MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 
 
 Moll did not make any reply, but sat leaning 
 back on a rattan chair, her hands clasped behind 
 her head, a favourite attitude of hers, and her 
 chin tilted up in a would-be indifferent attitude. 
 
 So Mrs Meredyth continued, 'If so, Moll, 
 you are not the intelligent girl I thought 
 you were ; moreover, I do not think you asked 
 at Singapore if we had sent an answer, so that 
 it was rather useless to have sent that telephone 
 message at all.' 
 
 Moll's chin sank on to her chest ; then she 
 said in rather a subdued tone, 'I had got so 
 excited by then that I did not think about it 
 or anything but the races.' 
 
 ' Supposing it had been anything very im- 
 portant or interesting, a letter you were longing 
 to receive, for instance, do you think you would 
 have forgotten it ? ' inquired her mother. 
 
 ' No,' said MoU, and did not say another word 
 of excuse for herself 
 
 ' I would rather that you had openly defied 
 me than that you had tried to blind yourself 
 by pretending to ask our permission, which you 
 knew we should not have given. You are a 
 clever girl, Moll ; take care not to use your 
 cleverness in getting your own way by doubtful 
 means. I dare say you think I am hard upon 
 you, but I have seen so much of that out here. 
 Perhaps it is not worse than other places. It 
 seems to me that so many clever young men 
 
MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 291 
 
 have come out here, no doubt with the intention 
 of making money honestly; but the opportunity 
 has arisen to make their fortune by some not 
 quite straight deal, and they give way to the 
 temptation. Sometimes it succeeds, and they 
 make their "pile," as they call it, in a few 
 months, and it is hard for those who work 
 steadily on for years to see their less scrupulous 
 contemporaries able to return with a large 
 fortune, while they are obliged to labour on in 
 this hot climate.' 
 
 ' But, mother, I know it was wrong of me to 
 go to the races, and I will never do such a thing 
 again, I promise you ; but I would not do a 
 dishonest thing ! ' protested Moll. 
 
 ' But it was just such a story as yours that 
 landed in prison a man I knew,' remarked Mrs 
 Meredyth. 
 
 Moll looked up startled. ' Oh mother ! ' she 
 cried. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth was not generally so severe ; 
 but Mr Meredyth, who was almost as thought- 
 less as his daughter, had made so light of her 
 escapade that Moll was inclined to think herself 
 a heroine instead of a naughty girl, that her 
 mother was the more determined to make Moll 
 look at it seriously. 'Yes,' she continued, ' the 
 story you tell of that telephone message is very 
 like his, I will tell you the tale. It was at 
 the time of the rubber boom, when people lost 
 
292 MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 
 
 their heads in the lust for gold, and this young 
 man had some shares to sell, and he received a 
 telephone message to say that they were going 
 up and that he had better hold on. So he 
 disconnected the telephone, as was his habit 
 when he went out, and forgot that he was" 
 to receive a message at a certain hour to say 
 the number of shares taken from him by an 
 acquaintance, and as he got no message, he 
 considered the transaction cancelled, and he 
 sold the shares the next day at double the 
 amount to some one else.' 
 
 ' How mean ! ' cried Moll, quite forgetting 
 that the moral of the tale was pointed at 
 herself. 
 
 ' Yes, it was not straightforward ; and though 
 of course your case is not parallel, it reminded 
 me of that young man, who said that he 
 had forgotten the telephone, and that he was 
 in such a state of excitement over this buying 
 and selling that he did not think of anything,' 
 observed her mother. 
 
 These were almost MoU's own words, and she 
 was much impressed by it ; but this was not 
 the end of her troubles ;(vhen they heard Mr 
 Meredyth's voice raised in angry tones. 
 
 ' Forgot ? Then you had no right to forget 
 such a thing ; a very convenient memory that 
 is which remembers only what is pleasant. 
 Perhaps another time that you spend a couple 
 
MOLL HAS A BAD TIMB. 293 
 
 of hundred dollars for me without my permission 
 or knowledge you will be kind enough to tell 
 me,' he stormed. 
 
 'I never meant you to pay,' replied Mr 
 Waughope. 
 
 * Pray, do you imagine I am going to let you 
 give my daughter presents of that kind ? No, 
 of course I shall stand by your bargain, and a 
 bad one it is too, and get rid of the brute at 
 anything it will bring, if it is only ten dollars. 
 I '11 give it away if I can't find a purchaser 
 directly ! ' cried the irate manager. 
 
 ' Then, sir, I shall be very glad to buy it of 
 you at a moderate figure,' began Mr Waughope 
 eagerly. 
 
 Mr Waughope had not been out long in the 
 Straits, as was evidenced by his respectful mode 
 of addressing his manager, for it was the 
 Malayan custom to call every one by their 
 surname, and very odd Moll used to think it 
 to hear those boys talk to her father as 
 Meredyth. But in spite of its civility, this 
 speech did not please Mr Meredyth, as the 
 young assistant would have known if he had 
 been better acquainted with his manager, who 
 was the most generous of men, and to whom 
 two hundred dollars (twenty-four pounds) was 
 not a matter of great importance, but who 
 resented the transaction not having been men- 
 tioned to him. 
 
294 MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 
 
 ' Oh dear ! oh dear ! ' cried Moll, half-laugh- 
 ing and half-ashamed of herself. 
 
 ' What is this, Moll ? I hope you have not 
 got into another scrape,' asked Mrs Meredyth. 
 
 'It's the same one. I quite forgot, I did 
 really, that I bought a racehorse by mistake,' 
 she exclaimed. 
 
 Mr Meredyth came on to the veranda, which, 
 it will be remembered, was the drawing-room 
 or sitting-room of the bungalow, at this 
 moment ; and overhearing the last few words, 
 answered them, as well as Mr Waughope's. 
 ' Thank you ; I do not care for my assistants to 
 have horses. They are not useful on estate 
 work, and there is not time to exercise them 
 out of hours ; nor is it much good having a 
 horse out here — they do not answer for riding ; 
 so that I am afraid your mistake will not 
 benefit you much.' 
 
 The planter had just received a bill for the 
 keep and treatment of a horse which had been 
 ill, and a request to know when it was to be 
 removed, or what was to be done with it ; and 
 he happened to mention the letter to Mr 
 Waughope, whom he met near the house, 
 observing that it must be addressed to him by 
 mistake, only to be told, to his astonishment 
 and wrath, that it was no mistake, and that he 
 was the possessor of a sick racehorse. 
 
 * Oh father, I 'm very sorry ! I really did 
 
MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 295 
 
 mean to tell you I bought that horse ! ' cried 
 Moll. 
 
 ' You ? Nonsense ! they would not sell a 
 horse to a child like you. I suppose this 
 obliging young man bid for you ; and if so, he 
 ought to have known better,' said her father. 
 
 'No, he didn't. I asked Mr Clark to bid, 
 and I do wish you 'd keep it ; you always said 
 I should have a horse when I was grown-up,' 
 said Moll. 
 
 ' You are very far from being grown-up, and 
 still farther from having a horse. I only meant 
 that if we had been in England. — But I am 
 sorry I spoke so to you, Waughope. It appears 
 it is another of my daughter's lawless pranks, 
 which she doesn't even think fit to tell me 
 about. — Don't say again that you forgot ; that 
 is no excuse — I have heard too many of these 
 excuses. First you forget to ask leave, and 
 forget that I object to my assistants going to 
 the races. You forget that I have forbidden 
 you to leave the hotel without leave, and go to 
 a gambling saloon and Singapore by yourself; 
 and then you crown all by throwing away two 
 hundred dollars on a good-for-nothing race- 
 horse, which any one with a grain of sense 
 would know is fit for nothing but to run in a 
 race. You are not to be trusted ; go to your 
 room, and do not come out again to-day ! ' cried 
 Mr Meredyth. 
 
296 MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 
 
 Moll crimsoned with shame at being punished 
 like this and before Mr Waughope. Moreover, 
 it was a real punishment, for it was a hot, sultry- 
 day, and the only breeze to be got was on the 
 veranda, and Moll found her room very hot and 
 stuffy with only two windows. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth never questioned her hus- 
 band's commands, but she regretted this one 
 very much. Mr Meredyth, as will have been 
 seen, was not always judicious or just in his 
 treatment of those around him, as his coolies 
 sometimes found ; but his wife knew that when 
 his anger cooled he would probably relent and 
 have Moll out. She determined, if she got an 
 opportunity, to beg him not to go to the other 
 extreme and pet her, and to ask him to leave 
 her to speak to Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope went away when he found he 
 could do no good to Moll by staying ; but he 
 felt as if he could not go home, so sat in the 
 tennis-ground, and waited within sight of the 
 manager's bungalow, in case he got a chance of 
 speaking to Mr Meredyth and putting in a 
 word for Moll. It was after tiffin, and he had 
 no afternoon supervision, as it happened, so 
 he was free ; and as he and Moll had not been 
 on terms since the races, he had not come up 
 to tennis. But all his ill-feeling towards her 
 died away when he saw her in trouble, and he 
 would have given a good deal to get her out of 
 
MOLL HAS A BAD TIME. 297 
 
 it if he had known how. The heat grew more 
 and more oppressive. Mr Waughope, looking 
 up, saw the sky overcasting and a big storm 
 literally rushing up towards him with a noise 
 like a strong wind. He saw that he would 
 have no time to get to his own bungalow before 
 it burst, and it was not safe to stand under a 
 cocoa-nut tree, so he ran to the manager's 
 bungalow, and not liking to intrude while the 
 family were at variance, he stood under it at a 
 safe distance from the monkeys. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 
 
 IWrOLL threw herself on her bed, which, it 
 -^"-^ seemed to her, was a furnace, and worse 
 when the mosquito curtains were down, so she 
 got up and leant out of the window ; but it 
 seemed hotter still there, the fact being that 
 Moll herself was hot ; and finally, driven prob- 
 ably before the storm, came a flight of flying 
 ants, whose arrival Moll at first viewed with idle 
 curiosity as they alighted, and dropping their 
 white wings they proceeded to crawl about. 
 
 ' That 's the most extraordinary thing I have 
 seen in this odd country, insects that fly about 
 and then drop off their wings and turn into 
 common ants that crawl along the ground. I 
 wonder if you can fix them on again ? ' she 
 demanded of an ant, whom she tried to make 
 fly again ; but these scientific observations came 
 to an abrupt end as Moll suddenly grasped the 
 fact that the room was full of these unpleasant 
 visitors. There was nothing for it but a hasty 
 retreat to the bed and the shelter of the 
 mosquito curtains, and Moll, not for the first 
 time, had a feeling that she would rather be at 
 her school in England than out here, where she 
 had not seen a single white girl during the 
 three months that she had been out ; and then 
 
MOLL LEilRNS WISDOM. 299 
 
 in spite of, or rather in consequence of, the 
 heavy, drowsy atmosphere, she fell into a deep 
 sleep, while the storm grew worse and worse. 
 
 Mrs Meredyth always got a bad headache in 
 a thunderstorm, and lay down in the veranda, 
 with eau-de-Cologne on her head, upon which 
 the thunderclaps seemed to be beating. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, who was very gentle in illness, 
 came to her and fanned her, and said something 
 to her, which, however, she could not hear, so 
 she just shook her head. As a matter of fact, 
 he had asked her if Moll were still in her room, 
 and if so had he not better fetch her out, and 
 he understood her to say no ; so poor Moll was 
 left to her flying ants and her hot room, where 
 she slept through the worst storm that had 
 been known at Bukit Ayer for many a year. 
 
 Mr Waughope, standing under the bungalow, 
 started involuntarily at the deafening claps of 
 thunder, and he thought once or twice that the 
 house must have been struck by the lightning 
 that flashed and nearly blinded him. At last 
 one clap of thunder, which made a singing in 
 his ears, was accompanied by such a vivid flash 
 of lightning that he ran back under the aia'p- 
 covered passage that connected the bungalow 
 with the kitchen and servants' quarters, and 
 there saw what he had feared — that the ata'p 
 roof had caught fire, and at the same moment 
 he heard a crash and a shout of horror from 
 
300 MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, who was standing just above 
 him, and now ran forward into the bungalow. 
 
 Mr Waughope dashed up the back steps 
 after him just in time to see the planter bend- 
 ing over Mrs Meredyth and lifting oif a plank 
 which had fallen on her from the ceiling. 
 
 He saw that more was going to fall, and as 
 there was no possibility of making any one hear 
 in this storm, he caught the planter's arm and 
 pointed to the falling rafters. 
 
 Mr Meredyth nodded, and, gently lifting his 
 wife in his arms, carried her down the steps 
 and under the bungalow, where Mr Waughope 
 followed him with a mattress and pillow, which 
 he put down; and, seeing that he could do 
 nothing further to help her for the moment, 
 shouted to Mr Meredyth to know where Moll 
 was. 
 
 But Mr Meredyth did not understand, and 
 was too concerned about his unconscious wife 
 to remember even his beloved daughter, so Mr 
 Waughope dashed up the steps again and 
 banged at Moll's bedroom door, which, it will 
 be remembered, led on to the veranda. It was 
 useless to try and make himself heard, and it 
 was not the moment for standing on ceremony, 
 so he burst into her room ; and, finding her 
 asleep on her bed, shook her. 
 
 Moll woke with a start, and, seeing Mr 
 Waughope trying to drag her from the bed, 
 
MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 301 
 
 began to struggle, telling him to go away, as she 
 was not afraid of the storm, which, she guessed, 
 was the cause of his intrusion. The rafters in 
 Moll's room were quite safe so far, but he knew 
 that an atap roof, being dried leaves, burns 
 rapidly, and expected any moment to see them 
 ablaze ; so, taking her by main force by the 
 wrists, he dragged her out of her room and 
 through the veranda, down the steps to where 
 her mother and father were, with the Chinese 
 servants in the background huddled in a corner 
 in desperate fear of the storm, which they feared 
 had killed their mistress. 
 
 As for Moll, her indignation with Mr 
 Waughope turned into distress at sight of her 
 mother lying there, looking so white and still 
 that at first she thought she was dead, and threw 
 herself down beside her in a paroxysm of grief. 
 
 Mr Meredyth guessed what was Moll's fear, 
 and laying her hand on her mother's wrist 
 made her understand that she was only stunned, 
 and at that moment Mrs Meredyth opened her 
 eyes, though only for a moment. 
 
 The rain was now abated, but it seemed as 
 if every rubber-tree on the estate would be 
 blown down ; and, communication being hope- 
 less by speech, Mr Waughope- went to the 
 telephone, only to find that useless, except to 
 give electric shocks ; so he went off to the 
 garage, and set oif for the doctor. 
 
302 MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 
 
 Mr Meredyth saw the car flash past, and 
 made a movement as if to stop it, which 
 was quite impossible. The manager looked 
 anxiously after the young man, who was, as he 
 guessed, going to fetch the doctor. It was 
 only a distance of ten miles, which would have 
 been nothing on a fine day ; but with trees 
 crashing down and strewing the ground in all 
 directions it was a very different matter, and 
 Mr Meredyth could only console himself with 
 the thought that Mr Waughope was a very 
 cautious and skilful driver, and would keep a 
 sharp lookout for fallen trees across the road. 
 Still, even then there was the danger of his 
 being struck by lightning, for the road was cut 
 through jungle which grew so luxuriously that 
 it met overhead and made some parts of the 
 highway quite dark, especially on a stormy day 
 like this. Mr Meredyth hoped the young man 
 had taken matches, and seen that the lamps of 
 the car were in order ; then he turned to his 
 wife, and as she was still unconscious he felt 
 thankful that there was a chance of the doctor 
 coming. 
 
 In about half-an-hour the storm decreased in 
 violence, and Moll, who was still kneeling 
 beside her mother, said, ' Father, oughtn't we to 
 telephone for the doctor ? ' 
 
 ' I believe Mr Waughope has gone to fetch 
 him,' replied her father. 
 
MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 303 
 
 'Why didn't he telephone? It would have 
 been quicker ! ' exclaimed Moll. 
 
 ' I expect the wires are broken, and that he 
 found he could not ; he is sure to have tried. 
 Anyway, he has gone in the car, and if he 
 keeps up the speed he started at he ought to 
 be here in a few minutes,' said the planter. 
 
 Moll was silent, and she then said, ' Isn't it 
 rather dangerous in such a dreadful storm to 
 go through the jungle ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, if he had asked my leave I should 
 not have dared to let him go ; but he went 
 without asking me. In fact, I only guess he 
 has gone, because I saw him pass, and it would 
 be just like him,' replied Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Some people are born thoughtful,' said Moll 
 in a musing tone, as she looked down sadly 
 upon her mother, wishing with all her heart 
 that she had been more thoughtful, and praying 
 that her mother might be spared that she might 
 show how thoughtful she could be. 
 
 They did not speak again until some ten 
 minutes later they heard the sound of the car, 
 and they presently saw their own car driving 
 up the cocoa-nut palm avenue with the doctor 
 sitting beside Mr Waughope. 
 
 Dr Hewlett sprang out of the car, and came 
 to Mrs Meredyth without a word. After a few 
 moments, lie said, ' I believe your bungalow 
 has been struck, Meredyth. Is it inhabitable ? ' 
 
304 MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 
 
 ' I have no idea ; the veranda has suffered, 
 for it was there that she was lying when a 
 rafter from the ceiUng fell on her,' replied the 
 planter. He did not ask what the doctor 
 thought about his wife, for he had absolute 
 faith in his old friend, and knew that when he 
 could give him any news he would do so ; but 
 a terrible fear clutched him at this ominous 
 silence. 
 
 Mr Waughope, who had taken the car to 
 the garage, now returned, and stood at a little 
 distance, not liking to intrude, but just showing 
 that he was there in case he could be of any 
 use. 
 
 Mr Meredyth turned to him. 'Is Mrs 
 Meredyth's room safe to take her to?' he 
 inquired. 
 
 The assistant turned and went to examine it, 
 and Moll went with him, and they found that 
 the ceiling was not touched ; so they brought 
 the still unconscious lady, gently and carefully, 
 up on the mattress, and laid her on her bed. 
 
 Moll and Mr Waughope waited for the 
 doctor's verdict in the veranda, which was a 
 scene of devastation — tables overturned, orna- 
 ments broken and strewing the floor, and a 
 great lake in the middle, where the rain had 
 streamed in through the hole in the ceiling. 
 
 ' It is a blessing it did not come through on 
 to us below,' said Moll, breaking the silence. 
 
MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 305 
 
 ' Yes, there are only these planks between ; 
 it did drip through, for there is another small 
 lake under this, but it is in another *^art. 
 However, there is this to be said about these 
 bungalows, that though they are easily de- 
 stroyed they are just as easily mended ; a 
 couple of coolies will make this watertig^jt in 
 a few hours,' replied Mr Waughope. 
 
 Just then the doctor came out, and he paused 
 for a moment on his way to the telephone to say, 
 ' Your mother is seriously injured, but I hope 
 that with care she will recover. I am going 
 to 'phone for a nurse.' 
 
 'The 'phone is broken, or rather the wires 
 must be, as I could not get on to you,' said Mr 
 Waughope. 
 
 The doctor uttered an exclamation of 
 impatience. ' Of course, you said so. I wonder 
 where we can get a connection ? ' he observed. 
 
 ' I could try Klang,' suggested Mr Waughope. 
 
 ' I think that you had better. It is awkward 
 Ken being away, but you can arrange this all 
 right.' He proceeded to give him directions ; 
 and, having made clear to him exactly what he 
 wanted, he returned to the invalid. 
 
 'Doctor,' Moll called after him, as he was 
 disappearing, 'mayn't I come? Can't I do 
 anything ? ' 
 
 Dr Hewlett turned back and smiled to her. 
 • Not yet, Moll, but I promise to let you come 
 
 M.1I. X 
 
306 MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 
 
 to your mother as soon as you can do any good ; 
 in the meantime you will have to be housekeeper 
 and look after your father's comfort,' he ex- 
 plained, and with this Moll had to be content. 
 
 Mr Waughope meanwhile had gone off, and 
 was back again in a very short time with 
 Mr ^ish and a gang of coolies, whom he left to 
 repair the atap roof, which, thanks to the rain, 
 had not all burnt, and before night came on 
 the bungalow was watertight again ; new 
 planks, which were fortunately at hand, having 
 replaced the old ones, and the ata/ps having 
 been renewed. 
 
 Moll, by the aid of a Malay dictionary, told 
 the Chinese ' boys ' to chuchee (clean up) ; and 
 though the breakages were beyond repair, 
 and the cushions and matting soaking wet, the 
 veranda was in order enough to sit in by the 
 evening. 
 
 Mr Fish stopped there with Moll to wait 
 for news and for Mr Waughope's return, which, 
 howeveV, was not that day. » 
 
 ' He has had to go to Singapore for the 
 nurse, I suppose ; those wires have gone wrong 
 again. That's one of the drawbacks of new 
 countries, things never run as smoothly as at 
 home,' observed the doctor when he came out ; 
 and, hearing of Mr Waughope's non-arrival, he 
 announced his intention of staying that night. 
 
 Kenneth, who of course knew nothing of all 
 
MOLL LEARNS WISDOM. 307 
 
 these troubles, had been caught by this same 
 thunderstorm, and stayed the night with 
 friends ; and as Mr Waughope did not return 
 either, Mr Fish begged to be allowed to sleep 
 on a long cane chair in the veranda, so as to be 
 handy in case he was wanted, and Mr Meredyth 
 accepted his oiFer. 
 
 ' We colonists learn to be nurses and all sorts 
 of things, Moll,' he explained to his daughter, 
 who was hurt at not being allowed to go into 
 the sick-room. 
 
 ' If I were as thoughtful as Mr Waughope 
 they would let me nurse mother,' she observed 
 to the sympathetic Mr Fish. 
 
 ' You are not as old as he is by six and a half 
 years ; you '11 be thoughtful enough by-and- 
 by,' he replied to console her. 
 
 ' I don't believe Mr Waughope was ever like 
 me ; lots of girls of fourteen are quite grown- 
 up,' said Moll, who certainly was a baby in 
 some ways. 
 
 Mr Fish could not contradict this, but he 
 talked quietly to her about all sorts of things ; 
 and though he had been up since five, never 
 showed any signs of fatigue or suggested bed. 
 At eleven o'clock Mr Meredyth came out of 
 the sick-room and told Moll the doctor was 
 less anxious, and that she was to go to bed, 
 which she did without a word, as her first effort 
 at being thoughtful. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 A TRYING day followed the storm. The 
 -*^ nurse arrived with Mr Waughope by the 
 first train, and in the evening Mr Meredyth 
 came out of the sick-room, where a punkah had 
 been put up, and said in joyful tones, ' We shall 
 pull her through now, thank heaven, and then 
 off you both go to England. In the meantime 
 your mother wishes you to housekeep for her, 
 Moll.' 
 
 Moll's face grew crimson with pride at this 
 token of her mother's faith in her ; but she did 
 not choose to show her real feelings, so she 
 only said with pretended dignity, ' Then I shall 
 stop your curries and all those awful dishes 
 that you are so fond of, and have plain English 
 food.' 
 
 Mr Meredyth only laughed as he went off 
 to the oflSce to look through the reports of the 
 last two days ; but Mr Fish, who, as well as 
 Mr Waughope, had come up for news, observed, 
 ' Our home is open to you. Ken, when you are 
 at the last state of emaciation.' 
 
 * I 'm not going to wait for that ; I am coming 
 to your place to live for a week or two ; they 
 want my room, anyway, for the nurse,' said 
 Kenneth. 
 
DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 309 
 
 ' Never mind, Moll ; we '11 come up as soon 
 as the mem is better, and have a wholesome 
 mdkan for once,' said Mr Fish, as the three 
 young men departed for the night. 
 
 Moll tiptoed into her mother's room, and was 
 cheered by hearing Mrs Meredyth speaking 
 to her rationally, although in a faint voice, 
 as she told her to try and keep the house 
 comfortable for father. 
 
 Mr Meredyth came back from the office, 
 much disturbed at finding that something had 
 gone wrong on the estate, and this time he had 
 not his wife to turn to for her ready sympathy. 
 So when Moll came to him for help in her 
 housekeeping next morning he only waved her 
 away hastily, saying, 'Do as you like, child; 
 anything will do for me ; give out the stores to 
 cookie, and order what you please.' 
 
 ' But, father, I may make mistakes,' protested 
 Moll. 
 
 ' Never mind ; we '11 put up with the mis- 
 takes, and your mother can only take soda and 
 milk, so you need not worry about her ; ' and 
 the planter went oif to his office, whence he did 
 not return till tiffin-time to find a very heated 
 and harassed-looking daughter and an indifferent 
 meal. However, he gulped it down, and beyond 
 some sharp rebukes to the Chinese cookie he 
 made no complaint. 
 
 At tea-time Mr Waughope said to Mr Fish, 
 
310 DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 ' I say, Fish, what do you say to asking the 
 manager and Moll down to dinner to-night ? ' 
 
 'They won't come while the mem is ill,' 
 objected Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I fancy they will ; anyway, let 's have mahan 
 for them. I 'm *going up to ask how they all 
 are, and have a cup of tea with Moll.' 
 
 ' Oh you are friends again ? All right, go 
 on,' agreed Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I am glad you 've come, Mr Waughope ; I 
 can't find the servants anywhere ; I suppose 
 they have gone for a walk,' said Moll at sight 
 of him. '' 
 
 ' What ! all three of them ? ' exclaimed Mr 
 Waughope in astonishment. 
 
 'Yes, I went across to the kitchen to see 
 why they did not answer me when I called 
 them (there are no bells in this country, as 
 far as I can see), and I found it empty, and 
 a few sticks smouldering on that stone which 
 I suppose is a Malay fireplace,' explained 
 Moll. 
 
 Mr Waughope stood on the top of the 
 steps, shading his eyes, and looked all round. 
 'There's no sign of them anywhere, so I 
 suppose if you want tea we had better make 
 it ourselves,' he observed. 
 
 ' I would have made it, but I don't know 
 how to make that fire burn,' said Moll. 
 
 ' I '11 fix that up for you, if you '11 cut some 
 
DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 311 
 
 bread for toast. To tell you the truth, I 'm 
 afraid those beggars have bolted,' 
 
 ' Run away? Impossible ! ' cried Moll aghast. 
 
 ' It 's very possible ; it 's a way they have 
 here if anything does not please them. Perhaps 
 you said something/ he suggested. 
 
 ' I said a lot ; but fancy their going without 
 their wages ! What tiresome things native 
 servants — oh well, Chinese, or any coloured 
 servants— are. And oh, Mr Waughope, I do 
 hope they have not. What shall we do for 
 dinner to-night — father had such a bad lunch ? ' 
 
 ' You are coming' down to us, so that 's all 
 right, and we '11 send up mahan for the nurse ; 
 so don't worry. The water 's boiling ; let 's 
 make tea,' he returned. 
 
 'You are very good, and I am a dreadful 
 nuisance. Even when I try to do my best 
 I make a muddle of it,' said Moll quite humbly. 
 
 'Every one makes a muddle of things at 
 first out here, because of not knowing the 
 language or the ways or anything. Let me 
 carry that tray,' and he led the way, Moll 
 following with the toast. 
 
 Mr Meredyth, coming in from the estate, 
 saw the procession with surprise. 'Servants 
 bolted ? The villains ! I have half a mind to 
 prosecute them, but it is too much trouble. 
 Well, they are due three days' wages, that's 
 one comfort. Never mind, Moll ; don't look so 
 
312 DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 worried ; we '11 send down to the coolie lines and 
 get some fellows up for a day or two,' said her 
 father, cheery as ever, now that his wife was 
 better and he had put things right on the estate. 
 
 Moll was much ashamed that her first day 
 of housekeeping had ended so disastrously, and 
 two days of Javanese tappers as servants sent 
 Mr Meredyth off to the Kuala registry office 
 to look for servants, three of whom he brought 
 back in the car with him. 
 
 To Moll's amazement, they turned out to 
 be the old ones, who descended smiling like old 
 friends. 'Father, what did you have them 
 back for ? They don't deserve it ! ' cried she. 
 
 'Oh as far as that goes it's six of one and 
 half-a-dozen of the other ; they all run off if 
 they are not satisfied. The fact is, my dear, 
 they did not quite understand you ; it appears 
 you told them you were not going to have 
 their messes, and it — er — upset them. You 
 must let them have their way for the present, 
 because — well, really, tappers are best in their 
 own place, and upon my word we have not had 
 anything decent to eat for two days, and not 
 a thing has been done in the bungalow.' 
 
 ' It 's a horrid country this ! ' declared Moll. 
 
 'Well, it's not as comfortable as the old 
 country ; but it 's got its points, and I couldn't 
 live at home after this free-and-easy life and 
 this glorious climate,' said Mr Fish. 
 
DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 313 
 
 ' Do you really call this a glorious climate ? ' 
 demanded Moll. 
 
 ' Yes, I do — lovely sunshine, a cool breeze 
 in the middle of the day, and cool nights ; 
 everlasting summer, I call it.' 
 
 ' I 'm tired of summer,' said Moll, whom the 
 heat was trying very much. 
 
 Mr Meredyth looked keenly at his daughter. 
 ' Yes, six months of this country has just been 
 about enough for you. After all, it only 
 means my going home a few months earlier,' 
 said Mr Meredyth. 
 
 ' Oh father, are we really going home ? ' 
 cried Moll eagerly. 
 
 'As soon as your mother is able to travel,' 
 replied her father. 
 
 ' Are you so anxious to leave Bukit Ayer ? ' 
 asked Mr Fish. 
 
 ' I am anxious to be back in England, thqpgh 
 I like Bukit Ayer for some things.' 
 
 ' But you will have no more holidays when 
 we get back to England, remember that. How 
 will you like going back to school ? ' asked her 
 father. 
 
 'That's just the very thing I am looking 
 forward to,' said Moll. 'I mean, being with 
 girls again ; I am so tired of nothing but men.' 
 
 'Well, good-afternoon, Meredyth. — Good- 
 bye, Moll ; I '11 avoid the bungalow during the 
 remainder of your stay,' said Mr Fish, getting 
 
314 DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 * 
 
 up to go, with a great show of being much 
 oifended at Moll's candid speech. 
 
 Moll only laughed merrily as she said, ' I 
 didn't mean to be rude, and please don't go, 
 for you are better than nobody ; but I can't 
 take back what I said. If you only knew how 
 I long for a girl to speak to, and before I used 
 to like being with Tommy ' — her brother — 
 ' better than any of my schoolfellows.' 
 
 'I can understand that ; I 've rather wished 
 I had a girl to talk to myself — sometimes,' 
 retorted Mr Fish. 
 
 But if this was meant as a sly hit at Moll, 
 it missed its mark, for she replied, ' Yes, I 
 should think you must get tired of each other 
 sometimes.' 
 
 Another fortnight went by, and Mrs Mere- 
 dyth slowly but steadily improved in health, 
 and at length the doctor declared her fit to 
 travel, and passages were taken for them on the 
 identical boat upon which Moll came out. 
 
 Mr Waughope and Mr Fish made a joint 
 expedition into Kuala, and came back laden 
 with presents for Moll, and finally the three 
 young assistanta»went to Singapore to see their 
 manager and his family off for home, amid 
 much waving of handkerchiefs. 
 
 'We shall miss her dreadfully,' said Mr 
 Waughope solemnly. 
 
 ' Yes, but I 'm glad she 's gone ; it 's too hot 
 
DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 315 
 
 for the excitements she causes,' said Mr Fish, 
 who, with all his good-nature and liking for 
 Moll, liked best of all an easy-going life. 
 
 ' I think I shall sleep more peacefully now 
 that I know she is on the briny ocean,' observed 
 Kenneth. 
 
 Then Mr Waughope burst forth, stammering 
 in his heat, ' It only just shows how selfish 
 life out here makes one. Fancy being glad 
 that such a splendid girl as that has gone ! 
 Why, it did us no end of good having her 
 here.' 
 
 The other two looked at him in surprise. 
 
 ' I say, Moll has begun early to make con- 
 quests,' said Mr Fish lightly. 
 
 ' She 's not a bad child, but I did not think 
 you cared much for my madcap cousin,' said 
 Kenneth. 
 
 ' She may be a madcap, but she has a noble 
 character,' declared Mr Waughope stoutly. 
 
 ' H'm, you go home in four years. If you 
 are of the same mind I shall expect great news 
 of you ! 'chaffed Mr Fish. 
 
 But Mr Waughope treated his joke with 
 disdain. 
 
 Funnily enough, on board ship a conversation 
 of somewhat the same sort was taking place. 
 
 'I shall miss those* light-hearted, honest 
 boys,' said the planter. 
 
 * Yes, and glad as I am of a holiday, I shall