Thus it was not the appearance of Hatch which had startled Ralston, but rather the silence of it.
"Why didn't you speak ?" he asked.

"Why did you stand waiting there for me to look your way ?" Hatch laughed as he sat down in a chair.
"I have got into the habit of waiting, I suppose," he said.

"For the last five months I have been a servant in the train of the Sultan of the Maldive Islands." Ralston was not as a rule to be surprised by any strange thing which Hatch might have chosen to do.

He merely glanced at his companion and asked: "What in the world were you doing in the Maldive Islands ?" "Nothing at all," replied Hatch.

"I did not go to them.