Even After Everything Was Settled, Miss Shaw
Was Feeling So Ill That She Wanted To Stay In The Police Station
All
night, at least; but Mr. Hayward and I, who consulted assiduously about
her, were of opinion that we must
Move her, even if we had to carry
her, for if she were going to have fever, I could nurse her at Captain
Murray's, but certainly not in the veranda of a police station!
This worthy man, who is very brave, and used to facing danger - who was
the first European to come up here, who acted as guide to the troops
during the war, and afterward disarmed the population - positively
quailed at having charge of these two fragile girls. "Oh," he repeated
several times, "if anything were to happen to the Misses Shaw I should
never get over it, and they don't know what roughing it is; they never
should have been allowed to come." So I thought, too, as I looked at
one of them lying limp and helpless on a Malay bed; but my share of the
responsibility for them was comparatively limited. Doubtless his
thoughts strayed, as mine did, to the days of traveling "without
encumbrance." There was another encumbrance of a literal kind. They had
a trunk! This indispensable impediment had been left at Malacca in the
morning, and arrived in a four-paddled canoe just as we were about to
start!
Mr. Hayward prescribed two tablespoonfuls of whisky for Miss Shaw, for
it is somewhat of a risk to sleep out in the jungle at the rainy
season, for the miasma rises twenty feet, and the day had been
exceptionally hot.
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