Having said farewell to our kind host and other friends, we pushed off
from the shore, and embarked on board the yacht; the anchor was up,
and by five o'clock a bend in the Straits hid hospitable and pleasant
Johore from our view, and all we could see was the special steamer on
her way back to Singapore with the Maharajah's guests on board. At
Tanjore we dropped our funny little pilot, and proceeded on our course
towards Penang. The Straits are quite lovely, and fully repaid the
trouble and time involved in the detour made to visit them. The sun
set and the young moon arose over as lovely a tropical scene as you
can possibly imagine.
[Illustration: The pet Manis.]
_Tuesday, March 20th_.--At 5.30, when we were called, the Doctor came
and announced that he had something very important to communicate to
us. This proved to be that one of our men was suffering from
small-pox, and not from rheumatic fever, as had been supposed. My
first thought was that Muriel had been with the Doctor to see him
yesterday evening; my next, that many men had been sleeping in the
same part of the vessel with him; my third, that for his greater
comfort he had been each day in our part of the ship; and my fourth,
what was to be done now? After a short consultation, Tom decided to
alter our course for Malacca, where we arrived at half-past nine; the
Doctor at once went on shore in a native prahu to make the best
arrangements he could under the circumstances.
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