did. If they wanted to keep themselves alive, what did it matter to

me?

The boat had been in command of a man named Luke. At Yokohama I had had a few words with the first mate, and sent him packing. At Hong Kong there was a difference of opinion with the second, he went after the first. As the third fancied himself ill, and thought he’d try the hospital ashore for a change, it looked as if we were going to be under officered. There was a handy man aboard who called himself Luke. Just Luke. I didn’t know much about him, what I did know I didn’t altogether like. But, as I say, he was a handy man. One of those chaps who can drive an engine or trim a sail. He knew something about navigation. Said he had a mate’s certificate, but I never saw it, and never had any reason to believe anything he said. Anyhow, being in a bit of a hole I took his word for it, and first mate he was appointed.

Some little time after he’d come aboard I was sitting in my cabin, feeling, as usual, like murder or suicide, when there was a tapping at the door. It was Luke.

“Beggin’ pardon, captin, but can I have a word with you?”

“Have two.”

He had three--and more. He stood, looking at me in the furtive, sneaking way he always had, twiddling his cap with his fingers like a forecastle hand.

“Excuse me, captain, but I don’t fancy as how you’ve been overmuch in luck this trip.”

“My dear Mr. Luke, whatever can have caused you to imagine a thing like that?”

“Well--it’s pretty obvious, ain’t it?”

He grinned. I could have broken his head.

“Is it for the purpose of imparting that information that I am indebted to the pleasure of your presence here?”

“Well no; it ain’t.” He scraped his jaw with his hand, as if to feel if it wanted shaving, which it did. “The fact is, I shouldn’t be surprised if you chanced upon a bit of luck still, if you liked.”

“If I liked! You’re a man of humour.”

“It’s this way.” He hesitated, as if doubtful as to the advisability of telling me which way it was. “It all depends upon whether you’d care to run a trifle of risk.”

“After what I’ve gone through it’d have to be a pretty big trifle of risk which would prevent me snatching a chestnut out of the fire.”

“That’s what I thought.”

He cleared his throat.

“Get on, man, get on!”

“It’s this way.”

“You’ve said it’s this way, but you haven’t said which way.”

“There’s a--we’ll say party, as wants a passage to England, bad.”

“Where is this party?”

“Over there.”

He nodded his head in the direction of the shore.

“Who is this party?”

“That’s where it is; he’s a Joss.”

“A Joss? What do you mean? What are you grinning at? Don’t try to play any of your damfool jokes with me, I’m not taking any.”

“It’s no joke, captain; it’s dead earnest. The party is a Joss, and that’s where it is.”

“What do you mean by a Joss?”

“It seems that a Joss is a sort of a kind of a god of the country, as it were.”

Luke’s grin became more cavernous.

“Are you suggesting that we should raid a temple; is that what you’re after?”

“Well, no, not quite that. This party, although a Joss, is an Englishman.”

“An Englishman!”

“Yes, an Englishman; and having had enough of being a Joss he wants to get back to his native land, ‘England, home and beauty,’ and that kind of thing, and he’s willing to pay high for getting there.”

“Where’s the risk?”

“Well, it seems that the people in these parts think a good deal of him, and they don’t care to have their gods and such-like cut their lucky whenever they think they will. Besides, he wouldn’t want to come empty-handed.”

“How do you mean?”

Luke glanced round, as if searching for unseen listeners. His voice sank.

“I didn’t manage to get more than half-a-dozen words, as it might be, with the party in question----”

“How did you manage to get those?”

The dear man’s face assumed a crafty look.

“Well, it was a kind of accident, as it were; but that is neither here nor there. From what I’m told there’s a slap-up temple on the other side of the hill, what’s crammed with the offerings of the faithful. This here party’s been a good time in the neighbourhood, and through their thinking a lot of him, as I’ve said, they’ve brought him heaps and heaps of presents. It’s them he wants to take away with him.”

“If they’re his who’s to say him no?”

“Well, there’s a lot of other coves about the temple, and they won’t allow they are his. Anyhow, they’d raise hell-and-Tommy if they knew he thought of taking them to England.”

“I see. As I supposed at first, it’s a big steal you’re after.”

“It’s hardly fair to call it that, captain. The things are his. It’s only those other blokes’ cussed greediness.”

“It is that way sometimes. One man says things are his which other people claim; then, poor beggar, he gets locked up because they are so grasping. What is he disposed to pay for taking him and his belongings?”

“Just whatever you choose to ask.”

In Luke’s eyes, as they met mine, there was a peculiar meaning.

“Then he’ll find his passage an expensive one.”

“I don’t think you’ll find there’ll be any trouble about that. You get him and his safe to England, and I shouldn’t be surprised but what you’d find, captain, that you’d made a good voyage after all. The only thing is, there’s no time to be lost. He’s in a hurry. He’s not so young as he was, and he’s about as sick of this neighbourhood as he can be.”

“He can come aboard at once if he likes.”

“Well, that would be sharp work, wouldn’t it? But I don’t know that it can be done quite so quick as that. You see, there’s a good deal of stuff, and it’s got to be got away, and without any fuss. But I tell you what, captain, he would like to have a word with you, if so be as you wouldn’t mind.”

“Where is he? Did you bring him with you in the boat?”

“No, I didn’t do that. He ain’t a party as can go where, when, and how he likes. There’s eyes upon him all the time, and there’s other things. But I do know where he’s to be found, and I did go so far as to say that if so be you was willin’ I’d bring you straight back to him right away, and then you might talk things over; I did make so bold as to go as far as that.”

“Do you wish me to understand that he’s waiting for me now?”

“Well, that’s about the size of it.”

“I’ll come.”

I went.