Shafto. "Well, I have nothing
to tempt the white ants."

Shafto was adaptable and soon found his feet. At first his entire time
and energies were concentrated on his new job and learning an
unaccustomed task; he spent hours on the wharves along the Strand, or
across the river at Dallah, standing about in the glare, and dust and
blazing sun, amongst struggling, sweating coolies and swinging cranes.
He had also to supervise his Eurasian subordinates, see paddy shipped,
and keep a sharp look out for their delinquencies, such as receiving
"palm oil," or overlooking damages.

In the midst of his daily work Shafto was not insensible to his
surroundings, but, on the contrary, acutely alive to the strange
bewildering glamour of the East, where life dwells radiantly. He was
interested in the ever-changing shipping, the crowds of strange craft
lying by the wharves or moored to buoys in the great impetuous
Irrawaddy, and the swarms of sampans darting in all directions.
Overhead was the hot blue sky, blazing upon a motley crowd, which
included the smiling faces of the idle, insouciant, gaily-clad
Burmans--most genial and most engaging of nations.

Down by the _godowns_, where Shafto worked, the stir and press of
commercial life was tremendous; on every side roared and dashed trams,
motor-lorries, traction engines and--curious anachronism--long
strings of heavily-laden bullock carts. Here was trade from the ends
and corners of the earth; out of her abundance this rich country was
shipping to the nations wood, oil, rice, metals, cotton, tea, silken
stuffs, ivory, jade, and precious stones; masses of cargo lay piled on
the wharves, amid which a multitude of noisy coolies, busy as ants,
went to and fro incessantly, whilst in the distance the saw-mills
screamed, the steam dredgers clanked, and tall factory chimneys
blackened the heavens.

All this amazing restless activity seemed strangely out of its natural
perspective; the scene should have been laid in Liverpool or Glasgow,
instead of displaying a background of palms, tropical trees, gilded
pagodas, and a circle of gaily-dressed, idle natives.

Although the British and German residents did not assimilate, Shafto
saw a good deal of their mercantile element. At ten o'clock every
morning hundreds of Teuton clerks poured into Rangoon from the
surrounding neighbourhood, and he could not but admire their
indefatigable business activity, tireless industry, and world-wide
radi