opinion like an honest man. Captain
Tom went sailing from island to island, appearing unexpectedly
in various localities, beaming, noisy, anecdotal, commendatory or
comminatory, but always welcome.

It was only since his return to Sambir that the old seaman had for the
first time known doubt and unhappiness, The loss of the Flash--planted
firmly and for ever on a ledge of rock at the north end of Gaspar
Straits in the uncertain light of a cloudy morning--shook him
considerably; and the amazing news which he heard on his arrival
in Sambir were not made to soothe his feelings. A good many years
ago--prompted by his love of adventure--he, with infinite trouble, had
found out and surveyed--for his own benefit only--the entrances to that
river, where, he had heard through native report, a new settlement of
Malays was forming. No doubt he thought at the time mostly of personal
gain; but, received with hearty friendliness by Patalolo, he soon came
to like the ruler and the people, offered his counsel and his help,
and--knowing nothing of Arcadia--he dreamed of Arcadian happiness for
that little corner of the world which he loved to think all his own.
His deep-seated and immovable conviction that only he--he, Lingard--knew
what was good for them was characteristic of him and, after all, not so
very far wrong. He would make them happy whether or no, he said, and he
meant it. His trade brought prosperity to the young state, and the fear
of his heavy hand secured its internal peace for many years.

He looked proudly upon his work. With every passing year he loved more
the land, the people, the muddy river that, if he could help it, would
carry no other craft but the Flash on its unclean and friendly surface.
As he slowly warped his vessel up-stream he would scan with knowing
looks the riverside clearings, and pronounce solemn judgment upon the
prospects of the season's rice-crop. He knew every settler on the banks
between the sea and Sambir; he knew their wives, their children; he
knew every individual of the multi-coloured groups that, standing on
the flimsy platforms of tiny reed dwellings built over the water, waved
their hands and shouted shrilly: "O! Kapal layer! Hai!" while the Flash
swept slowly through the populated reach, to enter the lonely stretches
of sparkling brown water bordered by the dense and silent forest,
whose big trees nodded their outspread boughs gently in the faint, warm
breeze--as if in sign of tender bu