My Strangest Case

My Strangest Case

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Title: My Strangest Case
Author: Guy Boothby
Release Date: January 4, 2004 [EBook #10585]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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My Strangest Case
By Guy Boothby
Author of "Dr. Nikola," "The Beautiful White Devil," "Pharos, the
Egyptian," etc.

Illustrated by L.J. Bridgman and P. Hard
Originally Published 1901

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"A DARK, NARROW HOLE, THE BOTTOM OF WHICH IT WAS
IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE."
"'LOOK HERE,' HE CRIED, 'IT'S THE BANK OF ENGLAND IN
EACH HAND.'"
"'POOR DEVIL,' SAID GREGORY. 'HE SEEMS TO BE ON HIS
LAST LEGS.'"
"HE FELL WITH A CRASH AT MY FEET."
"'LET'S OUT HIM, BILL,' SAID THE TALLER OF THE TWO
MEN."
"'HOW DO YOU DO, MR. FAIRFAX?' SAID MISS KITWATER."
"IN HIS HAND HE HELD A REVOLVER."
"THE WOODWORK SNAPPED, AND THE TWO MEN FELL
OVER THE EDGE."

MY STRANGEST CASE

INTRODUCTION

PART I

I am of course prepared to admit that there are prettier places on the
face of this earth of ours than Singapore; there are, however, I venture
to assert, few that are more interesting, and certainly none that can
afford a better study of human life and character. There, if you are so
disposed, you may consider the subject of British Rule on the one hand,
and the various aspects of the Chinese question on the other. If you are
a student of languages you will be able to hear half the tongues of the
world spoken in less than an hour's walk, ranging say from Parisian
French to Pigeon English; you shall make the acquaintance of every
sort of smell the human nose can manipulate, from the sweet perfume
of the lotus blossom to the diabolical odour of the Durien; and every
sort of cooking from a dainty vol-au-vent to a stuffed rat. In the harbour
the shipping is such as, I feel justified in saying, you would encounter
in no other port of its size in the world. It comprises the stately
man-of-war and the Chinese Junk; the P. and O., the Messagerie
Maritime, the British India and the Dutch mail-boat; the homely
sampan, the yacht of the globe-trotting millionaire, the collier, the
timber-ship, and in point of fact every description of craft that plies
between the Barbarian East and the Civilized West. The first glimpse of
the harbour is one that will never be forgotten; the last is usually
associated with a desire that one may never set eyes on it again. He
who would, of his own free will, settle down for life in Singapore, must
have acquired the tastes of a salamander, and the sensibility of a frog.
Among its other advantages, Singapore numbers the possession of a
multiplicity of hotels. There is stately Raffles, where the globe-trotters
do mostly take up their abode, also the Hôtel de l'Europe, whose virtues
I can vouch for; but packed away in another and very different portion
of the town, unknown to the wealthy G.T., and indeed known to only a
few of the white inhabitants of Singapore itself, there exists a small
hostelry owned by a lynx-eyed Portuguese, which rejoices in the name
of the Hotel of the Three Desires. Now, every man, who by mischance
or deliberate intent, has entered its doors, has his own notions of the
meaning of its name; the fact, however, remains that it is there, and that
it is regularly patronized by individuals of a certain or uncertain class,
as they pass to and fro through the Gateway of the Further East. This in

itself is strange, inasmuch as it is said that the proprietor rakes in the
dollars by selling liquor that is as bad as it can possibly be, in order that
he may get back to Lisbon before he receives that threatened
knife-thrust between the ribs which has been promised him so long.
There are times, as I am unfortunately able to testify, when the latter
possibility is not so remote as might be expected. Taken altogether,
however, the Hotel of the Three Desires is an excellent place to take up
one's abode, provided one is not desirous of attracting too much
attention in the city. As a matter of fact its patrons, for some reason of
their own, are more en evidence after nightfall than during the hours of
daylight. They are also frugal