one. 'Pon my word I
did. And now he knows more than I do about island trading. Fact. I am
not joking. More than I do," he would repeat, seriously, with innocent
pride in his honest eyes.

From the safe elevation of his commercial successes Willems patronized
Lingard. He had a liking for his benefactor, not unmixed with some
disdain for the crude directness of the old fellow's methods of conduct.
There were, however, certain sides of Lingard's character for which
Willems felt a qualified respect. The talkative seaman knew how to
be silent on certain matters that to Willems were very interesting.
Besides, Lingard was rich, and that in itself was enough to compel
Willems' unwilling admiration. In his confidential chats with Hudig,
Willems generally alluded to the benevolent Englishman as the "lucky
old fool" in a very distinct tone of vexation; Hudig would grunt an
unqualified assent, and then the two would look at each other in a
sudden immobility of pupils fixed by a stare of unexpressed thought.

"You can't find out where he gets all that india-rubber, hey Willems?"
Hudig would ask at last, turning away and bending over the papers on his
desk.

"No, Mr. Hudig. Not yet. But I am trying," was Willems' invariable
reply, delivered with a ring of regretful deprecation.

"Try! Always try! You may try! You think yourself clever perhaps,"
rumbled on Hudig, without looking up. "I have been trading with him
twenty--thirty years now. The old fox. And I have tried. Bah!"

He stretched out a short, podgy leg and contemplated the bare instep and
the grass slipper hanging by the toes. "You can't make him drunk?" he
would add, after a pause of stertorous breathing.

"No, Mr. Hudig, I can't really," protested Willems, earnestly.

"Well, don't try. I know him. Don't try," advised the master, and,
bending again over his desk, his staring bloodshot eyes close to the
paper, he would go on tracing laboriously with his thick fingers the
slim unsteady letters of his correspondence, while Willems waited
respectfully for his further good pleasure before asking, with great
deference--

"Any orders, Mr. Hudig?"

"Hm! yes. Go to Bun-Hin yourself and see the dollars of that payment
counted and packed, and have them put on board the mail-boat for
Ternate. She's due here this afternoon."

"Yes, Mr. Hudig."

"And, look here. If the boat is late, leave the case in Bun-Hin's godown
till to-morrow. Seal it up. Eight seals as usual. Don't tak