"You may have noticed," said Captain Restronguet, "that I hinted that I had had a quarrel with the Admiralty. First let me tell you my real name is not Restronguet. What it is is outside the question."
"The name is French, I believe?"
"No, Cornish. Had you been well acquainted with the district around Falmouth you would have recognized the names of Restronguet, Kenwyn, Devoran and the rest of my crew as those of places in what I consider the foremost county in England. Of course that is a matter of opinion, but that opinion is shared by every Cornishman.
"Some years back my father owned several copper mines, or wheals as we call them, in the neighbourhood of Redruth, and as, in time, I would have control of them, had articled me to an electrical engineer in order that I might get an insight into that branch before I took over the mining supervision. Hardly was my apprenticeship complete when the wheals failed and my father was a ruined man. He died shortly afterwards and I was thrown utterly on my own resources, and although I was very sore about it at the time I have since realized that misfortune is often the purifying fire of a man's strength of mind.
"Just about that time the South African War broke out. I volunteered for the front, and was accepted. There I saw enough of war--although supposed to be conducted under the most humane principles--to make me hate it. You may look astonished, Mr. Hythe, but I mean what I say. War might be a necessary evil, but all the same it must be avoided if possible. You do not know how thankful I am that the present crisis between Great Britain and Germany is over. It may sound paradoxical, but with this powerful instrument of destruction under my control I hope to be a deterrent to any Power that attempts to dispute the supremacy of the sea with the country that is mine by birth.
"But to proceed. On my return to England I was down on my luck, and as a final resource I joined the electrical department of Devonport Dockyard as a fitter. It was not long before I saw that there was little chance of bettering myself. I had ability and energy, but no influence. Profiting by the experience gained in my apprenticeship I devised an improved method of electrical welding. It saved hundreds, possibly thousands of pounds, and I was rewarded with a paltry bonus of forty shillings.
"Needless to say I was very sick about it. Then an opportunity came. The copper boom revived the Cornish mining industry. The 'wheals' that my father had left me became prosperous, and I was able to throw up my employment with an unsympathetic State Employer. Arguing that a wave of failure might once more return over the mining industry I sold those under my control to a Company; took all my best workmen and one or two of my special friends--Devoran and Kenwyn amongst them--and bought a concession in the Island of Sumatra.
"Sumatra is a Dutch colony, as you doubtless know. The Dutch officials lack the energy of their fellow-countrymen at home and the consequence is that the whole of the Dutch East Indies stagnates. For years past the Germans have had an eye on those islands, but my belief is that Japan will be the future master of them. Possibly that accounts for numbers of Germans who settle in Sumatra and Java.
"Personally I rather like the German, when free from the excessive officialdom that pervades in the German Empire. They are good colonists, hard-working and law-abiding, in every foreign possession save their own, for in the latter the blighting effect of the be-uniformed official is fatal to individual success. We got on very well with our neighbours on the adjoining concessions, with one exception. That exception was a German named Karl von Harburg."
Captain Restronguet paused as if he feared that the growing excitability would overmaster him. He was evidently labouring under a strong recollection of bygone insults. Hythe had the sense to keep silence, he realized that the listener is the one who hears most.