Chapter 2 Summary

Two years later, his training now complete, Jim at last goes to sea where he takes part in a number of voyages, but remains unsatisfied, his dreams of adventure and excitement having gone, thus far, largely unfulfilled. In all this time he had only once encountered a modicum of danger – a falling spar rendered him unable to work and when the ship docked in an Eastern port, he was taken to hospital. A gunboat's purser and a railway contractor were the only two men in the white men's ward other than Jim and they spent their days languidly, talking of their lives, playing cards and lounging about in their pyjamas. When at last he was sufficiently healed to walk unaided by a stick, Jim spent his time searching for a way to go home.

During his time at the port, he encounters men...