Poor little things,’ the captain added compassionately. ‘But extremely clever and nice animals, Mr Bondy.’ The captain squatted on his heels and in this position began to shuffle along with a swaying motion. ‘That’s how they waddle, those lizards.’

The captain struggled to get his massive body into an undulating motion while in the crouch; simultaneously he held out his arms like a dog begging on its hindlegs and fixed his forget-me-not-blue eyes on Mr Bondy, who thought they were begging for sympathy. G. H. Bondy was deeply stirred and, in a way, shamed as a human being. To make matters worse, at just that moment the silent Mr Povondra appeared in the door with a jug of beer, raising scandalised eyebrows as he watched the captain’s unseemly behaviour.

‘Put the beer down here and leave us,’ Mr Bondy hurriedly ejaculated.

The captain raised himself up and snorted. ‘Well, that’s what those creatures are like, Mr Bondy. Your health,’ he said, taking a drink. ‘Got good beer here, old chap. Truth to tell, the house you’ve got here - ‘The captain wiped his moustache.

‘And how did you come across those lizards, captain?’

‘Well, that’s just the story, Mr Bondy. It all started when I was pearl-fishing on Tana Masa - ‘the captain checked himself. ‘Or somewhere in those parts. Ah yes, it was some other island, but that’s still my secret, old chap. People are great crooks, Mr Bondy, and a chap’s got to watch his tongue. And as those two damned Singhalese were cutting off those pearl-oysters under water - ’

‘Pearl-oysters?’

‘Sure. Those are shells which cling to the rocks as fast as the Jewish faith and you’ve got to prise them loose with a knife. Well, those lizards were watching the Singhalese, and the Singhalese thought they were sea devils. Very uneducated people they are, the Singhalese and the Bataks. They believe there are devils there. Yes.’ The captain blew mightily into his handkerchief. ‘Well, you know how it is - a chap wants to find out. I don’t know if it’s only us Czechs who are such an inquisitive nation, but wherever I’ve met one of our fellow countrymen he’s just had to poke his nose into everything to find out what was behind it. I think it’s because we Czechs don’t want to believe in anything. So I got it into my silly old head that I’d have a look at those devils myself. Besides, I was sloshed, to be perfectly honest, but that was because I couldn’t get those damned devils out of my mind. Anything, you know, is possible down there on the equator. So I went out in the evening to have a look at that Devil Bay - ’

Mr Bondy tried to visualise a tropical bay lined with rocks and primeval forest. ‘Well?’

‘So I sat there, going ts-ts-ts, to make the devils come out. And, would you believe it, one such lizard came out of the sea after a little while, stood up on its hindlegs and twisted his whole body.