Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/285

 sir, that we 'll find out who the parents o' poor Miss Letta is?"

Robin shook his head. "I 'm not very hopeful. We have so little information to go upon—just one word,—Sarawak! Nevertheless, I don't despair, and I 'll certainly not be beat without trying hard. But here comes Sam; he looks pleased. I think—I hope, he has good news for us."

"I 've got something, but not much," replied Sam to the eager inquiries with which he was assailed. "The gentleman whom I saw knew nothing about a little girl having been kidnapped from this region within the last two or three years, but an old clerk or secretary, who heard us talking about it, came up scratching his nose with the feather of his quill, and humbly said that he had heard something about a girl disappearing at a fire somewhere, though he couldn't recollect the name of the place, as he was ill at the time, besides being new to the country, but he thought there was a Malay, a drunken old fellow, living some five miles inland, who used to talk about something of the sort, and who had, he fancied, been in the service of the people whose house had been burned. But, altogether, he was very hazy on the subject.

"Then we must go and ferret out this old man instantly," said Robin, buttoning up his coat, as if about to commence the journey at once.