"Very well, but meanwhile I don't intend to be stuck for your
bill." The purser was a man of admirable caution.

"All right, then, I shall throw myself upon the mercy of strangers
and take your belongings with me."

By this time the ship was being warped into her berth, and the
dock was crowded. There were little brown customs inspectors in
khaki, little brown policemen in blue, little brown merchants in
white, and huge black Jamaicans in all colors of rags. Here and
there moved a bronzed, businesslike American, and Anthony noticed
that for the most part these were clean-cut, aggressive-looking
young fellows.

He was delayed but an instant by the customs officials, then made
his way out through a barnlike structure to the street, reflecting
that, after all, there are advantages in travelling light. He came
into a blazing-hot, glaring white street jammed with all sorts of
vehicles, the drivers of which seemed perpetually upon the point
of riot. Before him stretched a shadeless brick pavement, with a
railroad track on one side, and on the other a line of naked frame
buildings hideous in their sameness. The sun beat down fiercely.
Kirk mopped his face with the purser's handkerchief and wondered
if this were really December.

Clumsy two-wheeled carts came bumping past, some with prehensile-
footed negroes perched upon them, others driven by turban-crowned
Hindoos. A fleet of dilapidated surreys and coaches, each equipped
with a musical chime and drawn by a flea-bitten, ratlike horse,