"Why don't you have a try, then?" said Beecher.
"Oh, I don't know. Seems a pity to get lugging the poor things out of the cool water into this broiling sunshine."
"You'd have to catch them first," said Beecher drily.
"Yes, and I'm such an unlucky beggar with a rod. You look out, and if you see anything like a big trout or a salmon basking, blow him out of the water."
"No fear," said Beecher coolly. "Nothing of the kind here. I don't suppose there's much beside those little gudgeony five-barbed fish they call Ikan Sambilang."
"Ikan Sambilang!" said the head-boatman, nodding, smiling, and pointing downwards.
"You hit the bull's-eye, boy," said Hollins. "Well, I'm not going to wet a line for the sake of catching fish like them. But what rubbish to come."
"Rubbish, man? Look on both sides. Did you ever see anything more beautiful?" cried Beecher enthusiastically.
"H'm! tidy," said Hollins.
"Tidy! It's glorious. Fancy all this lovely line of bank on either side, and no one to live here. What a home for a country gentleman anywhere."