Though very well known and appreciated in the shipping world, he had no regular employment.  He did not want it.  He had his own peculiar position.  He was an expert.  An expert in—­how shall I say it?—­in intricate navigation.  He was supposed to know more about remote and imperfectly charted parts of the Archipelago than any man living.  His brain must have been a perfect warehouse of reefs, positions, bearings, images of headlands, shapes of obscure coasts, aspects of innumerable islands, desert and otherwise.  Any ship, for instance, bound on a trip to Palawan or somewhere that way would have Captain Giles on board, either in temporary command or “to assist the master.”  It was said that he had a retaining fee from a wealthy firm of Chinese steamship owners, in view of such services.  Besides, he was always ready to relieve any man who wished to take a spell ashore for a time.  No owner was ever known to object to an arrangement of that sort.  For it seemed to be the established opinion at the port that Captain Giles was as good as the best, if not a little better.  But in Hamilton’s view he was an “outsider.”  I believe that for Hamilton the generalisation “outsider” covered the whole lot of us; though I suppose that he made some distinctions in his mind.

I didn’t try to make conversation with Captain Giles, whom I had not seen more than twice in my life.  But, of course, he knew who I was.  After a while, inclining his big shiny head my way, he addressed me first in his friendly fashion.  He presumed from seeing me there, he said, that I had come ashore for a couple of days’ leave.

He was a low-voiced man.  I spoke a little louder, saying that:  No—­I had left the ship for good.

“A free man for a bit,” was his comment.

“I suppose I may call myself that—­since eleven o’clock,” I said.

Hamilton had stopped eating at the sound of our voices.  He laid down his knife and fork gently, got up, and muttering something about “this infernal heat cutting one’s appetite,” went out of the room.  Almost immediately we heard him leave the house down the verandah steps.

On this Captain Giles remarked easily that the fellow had no doubt gone off to look after my old job.  The Chief Steward, who had been leaning against the wall, brought his face of an unhappy goat nearer to the table and addressed us dolefully.  His object was to unburden himself of his eternal grievance against Hamilton.  The man kept him in hot water with the Harbour Office as to the state of his accounts.  He wished to goodness he would get my job, though in truth what would it be?  Temporary relief at best.

I said:  “You needn’t worry.  He won’t get my job.  My successor is on board already.”

He was surprised, and I believe his face fell a little at the news.  Captain Giles gave a soft laugh.  We got up and went out on the verandah, leaving the supine stranger to be dealt with by the Chinamen.  The last thing I saw they had put a plate with a slice of pine-apple on it before him and stood back to watch what would happen.  But the experiment seemed a failure.  He sat insensible.