The characters in this novel are so strange that they come into your head and take root on their own.They have a personality that suits them, and they are in a certain environment, and you always think of them from time to time.Sometimes they even become an obsession because you can't think about anything else but them.Then you pick up a pen and try to write about them, but they are no longer them to you.It is strange that a person who is at times fleeting in your mind and at other times haunting you, someone who you may have thought about day and night for months, should completely disappear from your consciousness and you do not remember. His name, don't remember his appearance, you even forget that he ever existed.Sometimes, though, that's not the case.A character you thought you had written, a character you didn't pay special attention to, but hasn't been abandoned by your memory.You find yourself thinking about him again.It's an exasperating feeling because you're thinking about him and he's no longer useful to you.That being the case, what's the point of him forcing you to remember him?He was an unexpected guest who broke into your party, enjoying the food and wine you prepared for others.There is no room for him in your heart, you must focus on those who are more important to you.But he doesn't care!He just ignored the decent coffin you prepared for him, and continued to live stubbornly in your heart.Indeed, he doesn't play cards according to common sense, and one day you are surprised to find that he has squeezed to the forefront of your thoughts, and you have no way not to pay attention to him.

Readers of this novel will find a brief description of Dr. Saunders in Silhouettes of China.He appeared in the short story, when I left him a few lines.I never thought I would think of him again.There is no reason why it is he who lives on and not the other characters in that book.He took his fate into his own hands. And Captain Nichols first appeared in the movie.A beach picker I met in South Seas mentioned him.But soon after I finished that book, I realized that my relationship with him didn't end there.I couldn't stop thinking about him, and later when I was proofreading the manuscript that was coming back from the typist, a passage of his conversation hit me.I couldn't help thinking that I could write a novel out of this material, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.By the time I got the final proofs, I had already decided I was going to write the novel, so I cut the essay into dialogue.Here is the conversation:

"In other areas of his career, he was much more fortunate. He smuggled guns into South America and opium into China. He also worked in the Solomon Islands with blackbirds. He had a scar on his forehead from someone who didn't understand his good intentions. Left over from the gangster niggers with the original intentions. His main business was cruising the Eastern Seas, and his memories of that trip were his constant talking point. Seems like a guy from Sydney got lucky. , killed a man, and then his friends tried to hide him from the limelight, so he found Captain Nichols. The employer gave him twelve hours to buy a schooner and find a crew, and the next night, the interesting passenger Then we boarded the boat a little away from the beach.

"'I made a thousand quid for the job, pay as you go,' said Captain Nichols. 'It was a good trip, we passed through Celebes and round the islands of Borneo. It was wonderful, Those islands, full of beauty and vegetation and all. You can hunt whenever you want. But of course we don't do bad manners.' "'What was your passenger like?' I asked. "'Good man, one of the rare good men in the world. Played very well, too. We played Ecate every day for a year, and then I lost all my thousand pounds. I'm a very good card myself. hand, and I'm keeping an eye on it.'

"'Did he go back to Australia at last?' "'That's what he meant, he had some friends there, and they've been trying to pay for his little trouble for a few years.' "'I see.' "Captain Nichols paused for a moment, his lively eyes strangely clouded, and his gaze became a little distracted. "'Poor man, he fell overboard one night in Java, and I reckon the sharks got it over with. He's a good card player, and I've hardly ever seen a better man than him.' Nichols The captain nodded thoughtfully. 'I sold the schooner in Singapore. Add the thousand pounds to the sale, and I've done a good job.'"

It was precisely because of this episode that I thought of writing this book, but it was twelve years later that I actually started writing it.