My Strangest Case | Page 2

of speech as a rule, and are chary of
forming new acquaintances. When they know each other well, however,
it is surprising how affable they can become. It is not the smallest of
their many peculiarities that they seldom refer to absent friends by their
names. A will ask B when he expects to hear from Him, and C will
inform D that "the old man is now running the show, and that, if he
doesn't jump from Calcutta inside a week, there will be trouble on the
floor." Meanwhile the landlord mixes the drinks with his own dirty
hands, and reflects continually upon the villainy of a certain American
third mate, who having borrowed five dollars from him, was
sufficiently ungrateful as to catch typhoid fever and die without either
repaying the loan, or, what was worse, settling his account for the board
and lodging received. Manuel, for this was the proprietor's name, had
one or two recollections of a similar sort, but not many, for, as a rule,
he is a careful fellow, and experience having taught him the manners
and idiosyncrasies of his customers, he generally managed to emerge
from his transactions with credit to himself, and what was of much
more importance, a balance on the right side of his ledger.
The time of which I am now writing was the middle of March, the
hottest and, in every respect, the worst month of the year in Singapore.
Day and night the land was oppressed by the same stifling heat, a
sweltering calidity possessing the characteristics of a steam-laundry,
coupled with those of the stokehole of an ocean liner in the Red Sea.
Morning, noon, and night, the quarter in which the Hotel of the Three
Desires was situated was fragrant with the smell of garbage and
Chinese tobacco; a peculiar blend of perfume, which once smelt is not

to be soon forgotten. Everything, even the bottles on the shelves in the
bar, had a greasy 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.
"I want to put up with you," said the stranger, who, by the way, was a
tall man, with a hawk's eye and a nose that was not unlike the beak of
the same bird. "You are not full, I suppose?"
Manuel rubbed his greasy hands together and observed that he was not
as full as he had been; thereby insinuating that while he was not
overflowing, he was still not empty. It will be gathered from this that
he was a good business man, who never threw a chance away.

"In that case, I'll stay," said the stranger, and set down the small valise
he carried upon the floor.
From what I have already written, you will doubtless have derived the
impression that the Hotel of the Three Desires, while being a useful
place of abode, was far from being the caravanserai of the luxurious
order. The stranger,