Chapter 5 Chapter Four

The doctor raised his head and let out a "huh".There was no boat docked, but two white men appeared out of nowhere, walking slowly along the dusty road.They walked lazily, looking east and west for a while, as if they were on the island for the first time.The two men, in torn trousers and sweatshirts and dirty visors, saw the doctor sitting there and walked towards him. One of them asked, "Is this Cheng Jin's shop?" "yes." "Is he there?" "No, he's not feeling well." "That's really bad luck. Come in for a beer, no problem?"

"certainly." The man who spoke turned to his companion beside him and said, "Come in." Then the two of them entered the shop together. "What are you drinking?" asked the doctor. "I want a bottle of beer." "Me too," said another.The doctor ordered two bottles of beer, and the clerk brought them promptly, along with two extra chairs for the new arrival. Among the two men, one was a middle-aged man with a sallow, wrinkled face, white hair, and a small beard on his upper lip. He was of medium height, thin, and showed a mouthful of ugly decayed teeth when he spoke.His eyes are small, light in color, cunning and disdainful, and the distance between the eyes is slightly close, making him look like a fox.However, his manner of speaking is also quite flattering.

"Where do you come from?" asked the doctor. "From Thursday Island, we have a little sailboat." "That's a pretty good route indeed. Nice weather, isn't it?" "It couldn't be better, the wind is gentle, the sea is very calm, and there are no storms worth mentioning. My name is Nichols, and I am called Captain Nichols. Maybe you have heard of me." "I really don't have any impression." "I have been floating in this area for thirty years, and have traveled to every corner of the archipelago. I am very familiar with this area. Cheng Jin knows me, and we have been friends for twenty years."

"I've only been here a while," said the doctor. Captain Nichols glanced at the doctor with a sincere and frank expression, but this glance gave off a hint of suspicion. "Your face is familiar," said the captain. "I must have seen you somewhere." Dr. Sanders smiled slightly, but did not reveal any information about himself.Nichols narrowed his eyes, trying to remember where he met the little man in front of him.The captain studied the doctor's face carefully.Dr. Saunders was short, just over five feet six inches, very thin, but with a big beer belly.His hands were soft, chubby, but small, with fingers that gradually became thinner from bottom to top.If he was conceited, he probably liked his hands more than a little, because they still retain the traces of educated elegance.His appearance was ugly, with a short flat nose and a big mouth; he often grinned, and every time he grinned, he could see his huge yellow and uneven teeth.Beneath bushy gray eyebrows were green eyes with a playful and intelligent gleam.He was not clean-shaven, and his skin was scarred; his face was flushed, and there was a purple flush on his cheekbones, the sign of a long-term infection in the heart.His hair must have been thick and black and coarse when he was young, but now it is almost white and bald with only a few thinning hairs on top.But his ugliness is not annoying at all, on the contrary, it is very attractive.When he smiled, the skin around his eyes shrank and creased into lines that gave his face a look of life, and his expression was filled with a kind of extreme but not bad-hearted malice.Some might take him for a buffoon, not because of his ugliness, but because of the cleverness in his eyes—his intelligence is obvious.Yet even though he was always cheerful, intelligent, joking, and often amused by his own and other people's jokes, it still seemed that he was always on the defensive, even when he laughed out loud. Never really let go of myself.No matter how blunt he is, how earnest his demeanor, you always feel that he is watching you, so you don't let yourself be deceived by his superficial straightforwardness, those eyes full of joy and smile, are watching you at this time. You, measure you, judge you, and draw conclusions.He is not someone who only looks at the surface.

The doctor didn't speak, so Captain Nichols pointed to his companion with a thumbs up and said, "This is Fred Black." The doctor nodded. "Are you going to stay here long?" the captain continued. "I'm waiting for the Dutch mail ship." "North or South?" "north." "What did you say your name was?" "I didn't say my name. My name is Sanders." "Look what I'm asking, it looks like it's been a long time in the Indian Ocean," said the captain, with a pleasing smile on his face. "You can't be fooled if you're not curious. Saunders? I've asked a lot of lads." , They all said their name is Sanders, but no one knows whether it is a real name or another name. What happened to my old friend Cheng Jin, I still want to chat with him. "

"He's got cataracts and he can't see." Captain Nichols stood up and held out his hand. "You're Dr. Sanders! I knew I'd seen you. I went to Fuzhou seven years ago." The doctor shook the captain's outstretched hand. "Dr. Saunders is famous, the best doctor in the Far East, especially good at ophthalmology, that's what he does. I used to have a friend, everyone said he would go blind, and then he went to Saunders Doctor, after a month, he is as well as we are. The Chinaman can trust him." Said Captain Nichols to his friend. "Doctor Sanders, this is really a surprise. I thought you would never leave Fuzhou."

"Isn't this leaving?" "It's really lucky, it's great to see you." The captain leaned forward, his cunning eyes fixed on the doctor, his eyes were too fierce, and there seemed to be a threat in his eyes, "My indigestion has been tormenting me for a long time La." "Oh! God!" muttered Fred Blake. It was the first thing Blake said since they sat down, and Dr. Saunders turned to look at him.Blake sat listlessly, biting his fingers, looking languid and ill-tempered.He was young, not more than twenty years old, tall and thin, but strong, with dark brown curly hair and large blue eyes.He looked rude in his dirty undershirt and rough work clothes.His expression was not friendly, revealing a sense of disgust.But his nose is very straight, and his lips are well-shaped.What a scruffy and unruly young man, the doctor thought.

"Stop biting your nails, Fred," said the captain. "It's disgusting." "Take care of your indigestion first." The young man retorted with a snicker. When Blake smiled, he showed his beautiful, porcelain-white, small, perfectly shaped teeth.The teeth were unexpectedly respectable in such a sullen face—they were too dazzlingly beautiful to be astounding.His sulky smile also looks very sweet because of it. "Just laugh! You don't know how much it hurts me!" said Captain Nichols. "I'm a complete victim. Don't tell me I made it up by accident, I But I've tried everything, but it doesn't get better at all. Just take this bottle of beer and say, you think I don't feel bad when I drink it? You know very well that I am."

"Here's the doctor, you tell him what's wrong with you," Blake said. The captain couldn't ask for more, so he began to explain his medical history to Dr. Saunders.He described his symptoms scientifically and precisely, without missing any disgusting details.The captain told Dr. Saunders which doctors he had visited and which treatments he had tried. The doctor listened quietly with interest, sympathized with his brows, and nodded from time to time. "If there is anyone else who can help me, it is only you, doctor." The captain said seriously, "I don't need anyone to tell me how smart you are, I can tell at a glance."

"I can't create a miracle. For a chronic disease like yours, don't expect anyone to cure it all at once." "Oh, of course, but you can prescribe me medicine, can't you, I dare to try anything. And actually, I just want you to give me a comprehensive examination, is that okay?" "How long are you staying here?" "We can stay as long as you want us to." "But we'll go as soon as we get what we want," Blake said. Dr. Saunders noticed a quick exchange of glances between the captain and Blake.For some reason, he always felt that the eyes of the two of them just now were very strange.

"What?" he asked. Fred glanced at the doctor, and sullenness appeared on his originally gloomy face.And in that glance, Dr. Saunders saw doubt, and perhaps fear, he thought. At this time the captain spoke: "We have been friends with that stubborn Cheng Jin for many years. This time we want to order something from his warehouse. Anyway, even if the ship is full, there is no harm." "You do trade?" "Let's put it this way, if you can pick up some goods along the way, who would not do it, don't you think?" "What are you carrying?" "It has everything." Captain Nichols gave a friendly smile, showing his big yellow decayed teeth, and his expression was weirdly cunning, as if he was hiding something.Dr. Saunders guessed that they might be doing opium smuggling. "Are you going to Makassar?" "It's possible." "What newspaper is that?" Fred Blake interrupted suddenly, pointing to a newspaper on the corner of the table. "It's an old newspaper from three weeks ago. I brought it down from the ship I was in." "Are there any Australian papers here?" "No." Black's question amused the doctor. "Is there news about Australia in this newspaper?" "It's a Dutch newspaper. I don't know Dutch. Anyway, the news here is slower than on Thursday Island." Black frowned, while the captain beside him grinned softly, with a deceitful expression on his face. "Aren't there any English newspapers?" Blake asked. "Occasionally there will be a Hong Kong newspaper that I don't know who got it from where, or the "Straits Times", but it is also a month ago." "Then there are no newspapers here?" "It's all from the Dutch ships." "Is there a telegraph or radio?" "nor." "It's a good place to go if someone does something wrong and wants to avoid the police," said Captain Nichols. "Hiding for a while should be fine." The doctor agreed. "Another beer, doctor?" Blake asked. "Stop drinking, I'm going back to the guest house. If you two are willing, you can come to my place in the evening, and I can prepare a dinner for you." The doctor said to Black.He did this because he thought that Black would impulsively decline his invitation, but it was Captain Nichols who answered him. "That's great, always eating on a sailboat, and a change of scenery." "But it's too much trouble for you," Blake said. "No trouble, I'll meet you here around six o'clock. We'll have a drink before we go to dinner." The doctor stood up, nodded to the captain and Black, and then left.