All waited in respectful silence.

"I shall come if my ship can enter this river," said Abdulla at last, in a solemn tone.
"It can, Tuan," exclaimed Babalatchi.

"There is a white man here who.

.

." "I want to see Omar el Badavi and that white man you wrote about," interrupted Abdulla.
Babalatchi got on his feet quickly, and there was a general move.
The women on the verandah hurried indoors, and from the crowd that had kept discreetly in distant parts of the courtyard a couple of men ran with armfuls of dry fuel, which they cast upon the fire.