His knowledge of the interior was unrivalled, his power over the natives a household word.

Great things were therefore expected, and Durnovo found himself looked up to and respected in Loango with that friendly worship which is only to be acquired by the possession or prospective possession of vast wealth.
It is possible even in Loango to have a fling, but the carouser must be prepared to face, even in the midst of his revelry, the haunting thought that the exercise of the strictest economy in any other part of the world might be a preferable pastime.
During the three days following his arrival Victor Durnovo indulged, according to his lights, in the doubtful pleasure mentioned.

He purchased at the best factory the best clothes obtainable; he lived like a fighting cock in the one so-called hotel--a house chiefly affected and supported by ship-captains.

He spent freely of money that was not his, and imagined himself to be leading the life of a gentleman.

He rode round on a hired horse to call on his friends, and on the afternoon of the sixth day he alighted from this quadruped at the gate of the Gordons' bungalow.
He knew that Maurice Gordon had left that morning on one of his frequent visits to a neighbouring sub-factory.