"Shouldn't have disturbed you; but your orders were that whenever I had
an interesting story about the life over here, I was to tell it to you
instantly. And this one is just rippin'!"

"Begin," said Elsa. She sat up and threw back her cloak, for it was
now growing warm. "It's about Parrot & Co., I'm sure."

"You've hit it off the first thing," admiringly.

"Well, go on."

"It's better than any story you'll read in a month of Sundays. Our man
has just turned the trick, as you Americans say, for twenty thousand
pounds."

"Why, that is a fortune!"

"For some of us, yes. You see, whatever he was in the past, it was
something worth while, I fancy. Engineering, possibly. Knew his
geology and all that. Been wondering for months what kept him hanging
around this bally old river. Seems he found oil, borrowed the savings
of his servant and bought up some land on the line of the new
discoveries. Then he waited for the syndicate to buy. They ignored
him. They didn't send any one even to investigate his claim. Stupid,
rather. After a while, he went to them, at Prome, at Rangoon. They
thought they knew his kind. Ten thousand rupees was all he asked.
They laughed. The next time he wanted a hundred thousand. They
laughed again. Then he left for the teak forests. He had to live. He
came back in four months. In the meantime they had secretly