{"product_id":"2940013770676","title":"Five-Skull Island And Other Tales of the Malay Archipelago","description":"IT was in Batavia I met him--at the Hôtel des Indes--the leather--\u003cbr\u003evisaged, stormy-voiced ruin of a very powerful man. I shall call him\u003cbr\u003eThurston. He laughed when I spoke of Five-Skull Island.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Where they found the five skeletons?\" he said. \"I see you've made\u003cbr\u003ethe Aru voyage. Or was it the Ké? Lived in Ké once myself!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes! Would he take anything?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe would, and did--then did again, and expanded.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You're a young chap to have gone poking down into that out-of-the-\u003cbr\u003eway corner. Not trade, I can see! Money to throw away, eh? Or was it\u003cbr\u003eScience? Never mind! About this Five-Skull business! People here will\u003cbr\u003etell you I'm the man that sailed a prahu single-handed from Ké to\u003cbr\u003eCelebes. Well--I didn't! Six of us left Ké--the others stopped half-\u003cbr\u003eway--at Five-Skull Island. Don't care if I tell you!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd here--a little dramatized--is what he did tell me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e       *   *   *   *   *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The wind at last!\" said Thurston, and sat up. \"Také!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaké wasn't beside him. The edge of dawn made that clear enough, and\u003cbr\u003ethe white man got sleepily to his feet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gone for water, perhaps!\" The bamboo-joint jars had been left beside\u003cbr\u003ethe hole, and there Thurston found them. But he found no Také. With\u003cbr\u003ethe men, amongst the pandanus, was she? No men were there! Thurston\u003cbr\u003erushed out into the clear again and looked to where the prahu should\u003cbr\u003ehave been moored. Well-away nor'-westward, a shadow upon the dimness\u003cbr\u003eshowed him where she was now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe deserted laughed--a fearful sound in that portentous loneliness--\u003cbr\u003eand walked back to look for his rifle, not expecting to find it. He\u003cbr\u003edidn't!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMechanically he lit his pipe. \"Tight place this time, Jim Thurston!--\u003cbr\u003eunless you can hang it out on water! Water? Why, they've got none!\"\u003cbr\u003eand off he rushed to count the tubes at the hole. All there!--\u003cbr\u003eforgotten in the sneaking hurry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThurston's teeth snapped together with the significance of this. He\u003cbr\u003eglanced at the fierce-faced sun, already peering into a remorselessly\u003cbr\u003ecloudless ether. \"No rain! They must come back! But, curse it! they've\u003cbr\u003egot my Winchester!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e       *   *   *   *   *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThurston had come to the Archipelago with theories about the Child of\u003cbr\u003eNature. Most of these he dropped in Borneo, and the few he carried\u003cbr\u003ewith him to the Moluccas were fewer still when he started again south-\u003cbr\u003eeast. Down in Ké, amongst the Papuans, he parted with them all but\u003cbr\u003eone--but that one he took away with him. He also took Také. Také was\u003cbr\u003ethe theory--Savage Fidelity, bound in dingy brown.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079723663600,"sku":"2940013770676","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013770676_p0.jpg?v=1763590029","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013770676","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}