It was about British people then resident in the East, or home on leave, or voyaging between England and ultimate Asia. It was about nothing else. The names of these people were in many eases the names of people that I knew, but I could never discover that Derry and Thoms were acquainted with any of these friends of mine.
There were, for instance, two men called Hay about whom they talked for nearly the whole of one course. When they began, I had a fleeting hope that one of them might be Hay the stockbroker, a man I would gladly have criticised adversely. But it was only Hay of Penang. And their other Hay was Hay of Perak, cousin of the first Hay, and quite unconnected with the Stock Exchange. It was either Corbould or "Bruggy" Cotton that Thoms had passed at Singapore or Suez on his way back from England to Johore or the Chagos Archipelago. In either case the dear old chap was looking as fit as a flea after his leave. Barnes had gone to Christmas Island. Anson had married money. There had been the devil to pay at Labuan, but probably Derry had heard about that. No, Derry had heard nothing. Here Thoms became aware of my presence, which he had forgotten, and his discretion caused him to speak about the appointment of old Billy K. to Selangore. No doubt at some
