Jack Wyckholme, gentleman's son and ne'er-do-well, possessed nine pounds and a fraction, an appetite and excellent spirits, while Taswell Skaggs exhibited a balance of one thousand pounds in a Shanghai bank, a fairly successful trade in Celestial necessities, and an unbounded eagerness to change his luck.
"I have a proposition to make to you, Tazzy," said Mr.Wyckholme, late in the night.
"I think I'll listen to it, Jackie," replied Mr.Skaggs, quite soberly.
As the outcome of this midnight proposition, Taswell Skaggs and John Wyckholme arrived, two months later, at the tiny island of Japat, somewhere south of the Arabian Sea, there to remain until their dying days and there to accumulate the wealth which gave the first named a chance to make an extraordinary will.

For thirty years they lived on the island of Japat.

Wyckholme preceded Skaggs to the grave by two winters and he willed his share of everything to his partner of thirty years' standing.

But there was a proviso in Wyckholme's bequest, just as there was in that of Skaggs.

Each had made his will some fifteen years or more before death and each had bequeathed his fortune to the survivor.