King and Tsuda stood together under some date palms at the edge of a field—a mass of vivid green—white blossoms tossing in the tropical breeze—petals here and there whirling and floating idly. The field was aswarm with bare-legged Ainu labourers in short, rough tunics. They bent dully to their task, an expression of unbroken hopelessness on their sad, hairy faces. “A little experiment in transplanting—h’m?” the Captain called it. When King passed any of the Ainu they would suspend their work and clumsily prostrate themselves. All the men had long hair and prodigious moustaches drooping despondently down amongst the vegetation with which their hands were busy. There were women of the tribe, too, with faces for the most part hideously tattooed, and wearing on their heads bright coloured handkerchiefs of Russian manufacture, which gave them a picturesque, peasant-like appearance.  
Tsuda was saying: “This year much rain—look damn good—like a bumper crop—yes, sir! Up to Bihar and Bengal, maybe—gn—even Afghanistan. I was all over those places,” he added, in an important, off-hand tone, “learning the business right on the ground—yes, sir!” His eyes darted rapidly about, met the new overseer’s gaze, then flitted off.
 
“What’s the exact acreage?” asked King quietly. Tsuda looked a bit blank. “Any way of estimating what a normal crop ought to be?” And without giving the other opportunity to reply, he added, rather crisply: “We’re going to be a[110] little more scientific, from now on, even if you did have unusual advantages over in India and thereabouts.”
 
Tsuda flashed at him a glance, then looked glum. His eyes were restless. His lips moved, but what he brought out was merely a nonplussed “gn.”
 
“What was last year’s export?” demanded King.
 
“About five hundred chest.” For the moment Tsuda’s usual blitheness appeared damped, and his was the bearing of a man squirming faintly under an incipient sense of infringement.
 
King reached idly down and pulled off one of the blossoms with its nearly ripe capsule, turned it round and round, eyed it curiously, sniffed............