feel about them, and the mildew on one's boots when one came to put them
on in the morning, was a triumph in the way of _erysiphaceous fungi_.
Singapore at this season of the year is neither good for man nor beast;
in this sweeping assertion, of course I except the yellow man, upon whom
it seems to exercise no effect whatsoever.

It was towards evening, and, strange to relate, the Hotel of the Three
Desires was for once practically empty. This was the more extraordinary
for the reason that the customers who usually frequented it, _en route_
from one end of the earth to the other, are not affected by seasons.
Midwinter was to them the same as midsummer, provided they did their
business, or got their ships, and by those ships, or that business,
received their wages. That those hard-earned wages should eventually
find themselves in the pocket of the landlord of the Three Desires, was
only in the natural order of things, and, in consequence, such of his
guests as were sailors, as a general rule, eventually boarded their
ships without as much as would purchase them a pipe of tobacco. It did
not, however, prevent them from returning to the Hotel of the Three
Desires when next they happened to be that way. If he had no other gift,
Manuel at least possessed the faculty of making it comparatively
homelike to his customers, and that is a desideratum not to be despised
even by sailor men in the Far East.

As I have said, night was falling on one of the hottest days of the
year, when a man entered the hotel and inquired for the proprietor.
Pleased to find that there was at last to be a turn in the tide of his
affairs, the landlord introduced himself to the stranger, and at the
same time inquired in what way he could have the pleasure of
serving him.