pping at distant ports, one after another, on
fruitless quests, looking for a place to disembark. The proper place
to disembark, the place which he should recognise, should know for his
own place, which would answer the longing in him which had sent him
searching round the world, over the Seven Seas of the world. The spot
in which he could find himself again and regain what he had lost.

"There are many islands hereabouts," went on the Captain. "Hundreds.
Desert. He thought one would suit him. So I put him down on one, going
out of my way to find it for him. He leaned over the rail of the
bridge, and said to me 'We are getting nearer.' Then he said that he
saw it. So I stopped the ship and put him down. He was very grateful.
He said he liked to be in the Gulf of Siam. That the name had a
picturesque sound, the Pirate Islands. He would live all by himself on
one of the Pirate Islands, in the Gulf of Siam. Isolated and remote,
but over one way was the coast of Indo-China, and over the other way
was the coast of Malay. Neighbourly, but not too near. He should
always feel that he could get away when he was ready, what with so
much traffic through the Gulf, and the native boats now and then. He
was mistaken about the traffic, but I did not tell him so. I knew
where he was and could watch him. I placed a cross on the chart, on
his island, so that I might know where I had left him. And I promised
myself to call upon him, from time to time--to see when he should be
ready to face the world again."

The Captain spread a chart upon the table.

"Six degrees north latitude," he remarked, "Ten thousand miles
from----"

"Greenwich," supplied the passenger, anxious to show that he knew.

"From Her," corrected the Captain.

"He told me about her a little. I added the rest, from what he
omitted. It all happened quite a long time ago, which was the bother
of it. And because it had taken place so long ago, and had endured for
so long a time, it made it more difficult for him to recover himself
again. Do you think people ever recover themselves again? When the
precious thing in them, the spirit of them has been overlaid and
overlaid, covered deep with artificial layers----?

"The marvel was that he wanted to regain it--wanted to break through.
Most don't. The other thing is so easy. Money--of course. She had it,
and he loved her. He had none, and she loved him. She had had money
always, had lived with it, lived on it, it got into he