y bluff. We are all reeds shaken by the
winds of desire. In spite of my sagacity the notion of making a fortune
was alluring. When I came to think of it the idea of a few years of
ruthless exploitation of the toiling inhabitants of a region for which I
had no sympathy, followed by a dignified return to England with a sunny
competence--say ten thousand a year, afforded an attractive field for
the development of one's personality. I suppose it comes to all of us at
times--a vision of ourselves with the power to expand to the utmost. And
at the back of it all lay the exasperating and tantalizing thought that
it _might_ be possible. The very preposterousness of the suggestion was
in its favour, in a way. The very fact that nobody else had ever thought
of making a fortune out of Macedonia led one to wonder if it might not
be done. You get an idea like that in your head, and it lies there and
simmers and seethes, and finally boils over and you have taken the
plunge. That's what might have happened, if I had not gone ashore to
look for young Siddons, and accidentally beheld the great Captain
Macedoine himself and his lieutenant. I don't say that the mere view of
these two worthies discussing their plans was sufficient to convince me
of their rascality. I'm not convinced of that even now. What I did
acquire, even before young Siddons drove the whole matter into the
background, was a sudden sense of proportion. To associate a golden
fortune with those two shabby and cadaverous birds of prey was too much.
And when we got aboard again the whole proposition seemed to have
vanished into thin air.

"Of course everyone was excited. Jack had to take hold and give orders.
He shut his wife and youngster up in their cabin, ordered us all out of
the saloon except the steward, and set to work on young Siddons, who was
lying on the table with a towel under his head. Mr. Bloom, who had been
rushing to and fro making friends with the Second, the Third, and even
the donkey man, in a frenzied attempt to get information about the coal
which was to be sold the next day, now favoured me with a heart-to-heart
talk on the subject of professional etiquette. It was a mistake, in his
opinion as an experienced ship's officer, for the Captain to be a
surgeon as well. It was time we took a firm stand. Owners should be
informed that this primitive and obsolete state of affairs could be no
longer tolerated. Now when he was sailing under the Cuban flag, they