Page:Henry rideout--The siamese cat.djvu/231

 smoked and drank in a clutter of pistachio shells, he hailed more than one familiar white-clad figure that passed, lonely and bored, with rolling gait, through the feathery shade of the acacias. More than one of these old friends—skippers of China ships, bound outward or homeward—sat late with him, rejoicing to exchange the latest gossip from the little, far-scattered community of the East. At tiffins aboard ship, noisy and grimed with coaling, or at bad dinners in cramped rooms ashore, they talked of men, women, and ships, of things past, of wars, bargains, jokes, and tragedies half a world away. And then, with a laugh and a "Chin-chin!" these transient friends were gone, never, by all chance, to be seen again.

Such encounters carried his thoughts back to many a scene beyond the Straits; but on the night before Laura should arrive, something else was to carry them, and with a start of