aughed a shrill, derisive cackle had he heard that speech. The
third engineer was under the illusion that only the virtuous have
ideals. He was wrong. Archy Bates's profession of faith was sincere and
genuine. He had an instinct for what he called the best, which was the
most expensive. What else could be the best? A love of elegance and
refinement was very widespread in those days of high wages and excessive
profits. Archy's wife (for he had a wife and three children in a suburb
of Liverpool) was rapidly filling her instalment-purchased home with
costly furniture. Only a month ago a grand piano had been put in, and
she had had the dining-room suite reupholstered in real pigskin. Mr.
Spokesly knew all this and it almost unmanned him to think that he was
on the way to this eldorado. One night, soon after their arrival in
Alexandria, Archy had hinted there was no reason why he, Mr. Spokesly,
shouldn't be "in it," too. This was late in the evening, when they were
seated on a balcony high above the glitter and noise of the Boulevard
Ramleh, a balcony belonging to a house of fair but expensive reception,
of which Archy was a munificent patron. Archy, after two bottles of
whiskey, had become confidential. He had hinted that his friend Reggie
should be "put next" the business which produced such amazing returns.
Reggie had waited to hear more but, with amusing inconsequence, Archy
had changed the subject, relapsed indeed into a tantalizing dalliance
with a lady friend.

But to-night, in sober earnest, for Archy had had little besides a
bottle of gin since rising in the morning, he proposed that they should
join a business friend of his, and have a quiet little dinner somewhere.
Mr. Spokesly was all eyes, all ears, all intelligent receptiveness. He
enquired who the business friend might be, and Archy, who had his own
enthusiasms, let himself go. His friend, Jack Miller, had been out there
for years. With Swingles, the ship-chandlers. Occupied, Archy surmised,
a very high position there. Had worked himself up. Plenty of skippers
did business with Swingles simply because Jack was there. If he liked to
leave, Archy hadn't any doubt he'd take a good half of Swingles'
business with him. Knew all the languages, French, Greek, Arabic, and so
on. Kept his own hours, went in and out as he liked. Archy only wished
he had Jack Miller's job!

Mr. Spokesly listened greedily. As they debouched upon the great Place
Mohammed Aly, with its myr