thought it worth while to do, he did in earnest,
and he took an interest in almost everything. He was
on good terms with all kinds of toilers. Engine
drivers on the Underground Railway, gasmen at work
laying new mains, keepers at the Zoo, ’bus-drivers, tricyclists
; he would talk to all of them about their work
or play. “ That boy of yours,” said an American
doctor, “ gets to the bottom of things, he can’t help i t ;
if there is anything to find in Borneo, he will find i t ! ”
Thinking now of the hardships he endured out there,
I try to remember the keen delight with which he
made the arrangements for his journey, the vigour
with which he studied up some special subjects it was
desirable he should know, the happiness it was to him
when he could show me, among his physical accomplishments,
how well he could swim. And I was overjoyed
to think that I had saved him from the drudgery of
newspaper work, from the toil of writing stories when
one would rather n o t; though I believe that had he
been spared, he would have entered the world of letters
with his full mind, his bright intellect and his travelled
experience, and that humanity would have been the
better for his sympathy and his labours.
m.
His engagement by the BritishNorthBorneo Company
was no work of mine. I t was talked of in a general
way for many months before any practical negotiations
took place between Frank and the directors. In the
meantime we read up together the history of the
Eastern seas. We became authorities on the Dutch
and Spanish and English claims to the island of
Borneo. I did not think at that time that the business
would go any further than this. But I recall that his
mother would often look anxiously across the table at
him when Borneo was the subject of our after-dinner
chats. One day Frank came home and said he had
accepted the position of mineral explorer and metallurgical
chemist to the British North Borneo Com-
pany, “ with your consent, of course.” Then both
his mother and myself began to argue against his
choice of work. There had been an opening proposed
for him as assistant chemist at Guy’s Hospital.
We hinted that perhaps he had better begin his
career at home. “ By analyzing poisoned stomachs ? ”
he said quietly; “ that is not a very interesting
occupation, is it ? ” The position of chemist in a
great dye works had been spoken of as likely to be
vacant, and an American friend had offered him
remunerative employment on the ■ other side of the
Atlantic in that same direction. “ No,” he replied,
“ I don’t care for dye works. I would like to see
America; and might I not come home from Borneo
through Japan and by way of San Francisco and New
York ? ”
“ I fear you are too young for so serious and responsible
a position as the Borneo Company offer you,”
I said.
“ They don’t think so,” he answered,' “ and I have
seen some of the directors several times. I am twenty.
Life is so short, one cannot begin it too early. Besides,
I must see the world ; you have said so. You have proposed
that I shall have six months of travel, that I shall
go all through America. Here I am offered more than
we ever dreamed of, a great Eastern journey, and everything
that can make travel interesting, and with the