IT was in Batavia I met him--at the H tel des Indes--the leather--visaged, stormy-voiced ruin of a very powerful man. I shall call him Thurston. He laughed when I spoke of Five-Skull Island. "Where they found the five skeletons?" he said. "I see you've made the Aru voyage. Or was it the K ? Lived in K once myself " "Yes Would he take anything?" He would, and did--then did again, and expanded. "You're a young chap to have gone poking down into that...