fixed his eyes upon
the Buddha.

"Like that, immovable and covered in close, sitting still in a small
space--covered in. Some one turned a wine-glass over on him, long ago,
and now he sits, still and immovable like that. It makes my heart ache."

"Tell me, while we are waiting."

"Three years ago," began the captain, dreamily, still looking at the
tiny gilt Buddha in its inverted wine-glass, "he came aboard, bound for
nowhere in particular. To Bangkok, perhaps, since we were going that
way; or to any other port he fancied along the coast, since we were
stopping all along the coast. He wanted to lose himself, he said. And,
as you have seen, we stop at many remote, lonely villages such as this
one. And we have seen many lonely men, foreigners, isolated in villages
such as this one, unknown, removed, forgotten. But none of them suited
him. He had been looking for the proper spot for many years. Wandering
up and down the coast in cargo-boats, in little coasting vessels, in
sailing-vessels, sometimes in native junks, stopping here and there,
looking for a place where he could go off and live by himself. He wanted
to be quite absolutely to himself. He said he would know the place
immediately if he saw it, recognize it at once. He said he could find
himself if he could get quite absolutely away. Find himself--that is,
recover himself, something, a part of him which he had lost. Just
temporarily lost. He was very wistful and very eager, and said I must
not think him a fool or demented. He said he only wanted to be by
himself, in the right spot, to accomplish his purpose. He would
accomplish his purpose and then return.

"Can you see him, the lonely man, obsessed, going up and down the China
coast, shipping at distant ports, one after another, on fruitless
quests, looking for a place to disembark? The proper place to disembark,
the place which he would recognize, would know for his own place, which
would answer the longing in him that 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 s