There! There! I didn't mean that, old fellow.

Robert himself will be the last man to blame either of us.

Who could have suspected that two people--one of them, God help me! my wife--would concoct such a hellish plot!" The boat glided gracefully alongside the steps of the quay, and Playdon sprang ashore to help Iris to alight.

What happened immediately afterwards can best be told in his own words, as he retailed the story to an appreciative audience in the ward-room.
"We had just landed," he said, "and some of the crew were pushing the coolies out of the way, when two men jumped down the steps, and a most fiendish row sprang up.

That is, there was no dispute or wrangling, but one chap, who, it turned out, was Colonel Costobell, grabbed Ventnor by the shirt front, and threatened to smash his face in if he didn't listen then and there to what he had to say.