tapioca has gone to your head."
'"No, but I am serious," said Juggins, "I mean to have that baby whether you like
it or no, and that is flat."
'"Yes," said I, "that is flat enough in all conscience, but I wish you would give it
up. People do not like having their dead tampered with."
'"No," said Juggins again, rising as he spoke, and reaching for his shoes, "No, I
am going to dig it up now."
'"Juggins," said I sharply, "sit down! You are a lunatic of course, but I was
another to bring you up here with me, knowing as I did the particular species of
crank you are; and if you really are set on this beastly thing, I suppose I must not
leave you in the lurch; though upon my word I do not like the notion of turning
resurrection man in my old age."
'"You are a brick!" cried Juggins, jumping up again and fumbling at his boot
laces, "Come along!"
'"Sit down, man!" said I in a tone which cooled his enthusiasm for the moment.
"I have said that I will see you through, and that is enough. But mind this, you
have to do what I tell you. I know more about the people and the country than
you do, and I am not going to lose caste with my Malays, and perhaps get
stranded in this god-forsaken jumping-off place, just because you choose to do a
fool's deed in a fool's own way. These Malays of mine here have no particular
love for the exhumed bodies of dead babies, and they would not understand what
any sane man could want fooling about with such a thing. They have not been
educated up to that pitch of interest in the secrets of science which seems to have
made a lunatic of you. If they could understand what we are saying now, they
would think that you wanted the kid's body for some devilry or witchcraft
business, and we should as like as not get left by them. Then who would carry
your precious specimens back to the boats? I would not lift a finger to help you,
and I am not over sure that I could even guide you back, if it came to that. No,
this thing cannot be done until my people are all asleep, so lie still and wait till I
give you the word."
'Juggins groaned, and tried to persuade me to let him go at once, but I replied
that nothing would induce me to go before one o'clock, and, so saying, I turned
over on my side, and lay reading and smoking, while Juggins fumed and fretted,
as he watched the slow hands creeping round the dial of his watch.