t you may call a ready
accelerator, and so do the fever and the sun and the quality of the
drink and other amusements prevailing in those parts. And often, if his
steps stray a bit off the beaten track, he is likely to meet some kindly
guide, black or brown or even white, perhaps, who bobs up in a quiet
corner to point out a short cut. But though Merry took no heed of his
steps in the least, and though he went quartering very far wide on that
great thoroughfare which reaches from Singapore to Torres Strait along
the midrib of the world, yet he kept on going for quite a while: and the
reasons therefor were curious and well worthy of note.

To begin with, he had brought along a fair constitution and a stomach
that was not so much a stomach as a chemical retort--an advantage to be
envied by kings. He carried a loose, limp, and rubbery frame well suited
to the uses of a long-distance drunkard. He was by nature as mild and
harmless a creature as ever tangled himself in a fool's quest. And
finally he owned a gift, a certain special personal gift of the kind
that tends universally to maintain a fixed percentage for the man alive
over what he is worth when dead.

Such a provision is not so easily come by. Very able citizens have
lacked it. Many an eminent explorer, many a devoted pioneer, has found
his eminence and his devotion outbalanced in the primitive scale by the
value of his trouser buttons. It is singular to reflect what potential
marvels, what captains and leaders among men, have been knifed for the
beers; or elsewhere even broiled and eaten and complained of at
dessert--some being tough and some lacking flavor.

Merry was none of these sorts, but he had an odd juggling knack of his
fingers.

It was a sketchy enough knack at best. Heaven knew where he had acquired
it, just as Heaven was left the responsibility of knowing most facts
about Merry, anyhow. And certainly that was never discovered--no more
nearly than his proper name, nor the meaning of the upright wrinkle
between his brows like the dent of an ax, nor what conceivable things he
had done or been or wanted that had landed him among the islands.

Only there you were. Give the fellow a wisp of silk and some brass
bracelets or mango seeds, or such, and he would squat by the wayside or
in the shade of a hut or the cabin flares of a native prau and proceed
to work miracles.

He could make an egg to vanish and pluck it again from your left ear,
and he could m