I said "Merci." We exchanged a few apparently innocent remarks, and suddenly, before I knew how it had come about, we were in the midst of it, and he was telling me how much they had been "intrigued by that corpse." It turned out he had been one of the boarding officers.
'In the establishment where we sat one could get a variety of foreign drinks which were kept for the visiting naval officers, and he took a sip of the dark medical-looking stuff, which probably was nothing more nasty than cassis a l'eau, and glancing with one eye into the tumbler, shook his head slightly.

"Impossible de comprendre--vous concevez," he said, with a curious mixture of unconcern and thoughtfulness.

I could very easily conceive how impossible it had been for them to understand.
Nobody in the gunboat knew enough English to get hold of the story as told by the serang.

There was a good deal of noise, too, round the two officers.

"They crowded upon us.