I no more expected to see him than I did the great Emperor Charlemagne, for it had been many years since we were college mates at Purdue University.

His story is romantic.
He is the nephew of Sir John Murray, who owns immense phosphate deposits in Christmas Island, two hundred miles south of Java Head.

Years ago he went out to help work these great deposits and has climbed up until now he is the virtual head of the island.

His authority is absolute and he has come to be called the King of Christmas Island.

His every-day name is that of his distinguished uncle, Sir John, but his Sunday name is "King." For a day or two we motored around Singapore and it was worth seeing to note how the tourists stared when I casually said, "Well, King, let's have a bamboo." In a day or two he was going to meet his wife, who was just coming from England with a little three-months-old crown prince whom he had not yet seen.