Carroll F. Michener

“ The effort left him suddenly faint, and with alarm he shuddered back into the bunk, closing fiery-lidded eyes.
"Can't be far from the end," he murmured to himself. "If I could only get away—if I could only get back to the States!"
This was the usual burst of remorse; it was like all the rest, a feeble protest against ill-directed destiny. He knew that, of his own effort, he never would get back to the States, away from the insidious East. He had tried that; he had worked until the money was in his hands, only to dive more steeply for a time toward the poppy fields of oblivion. ”

“ Death or the devil—or dishonor that is worse than either—claims him who escapes payment of a just debt. Therefore it need not be surprising that the magnitude of his fancied obligation to Allister discomfited Ssu Yin, and left him more than melancholy for the remainder of the voyage. On the other hand, his devotion to the serpent, a poisonous six feet of willow-green relieved by the satin-white ribbon of its belly, was greater than before, and the venom of his regard for the second mate, who had dared toss the reptile's basket overboard, was disquieting to observe. ”

“ The servant was speaking:
"How long, Tai-tai, must my Crimson Lotus submit to the vile attentions of this opium hawker? Surely it should not be difficult—"
"It is more difficult than thou thinkest, mother of no sons."
"Will he not take my Peach Blossom—my Lotus—into his stinking hovel? Will he look upon your beauty in no place other than the teahouse?"
"He fears the serpent."
"The serpent?"
"Have I not told thee, daughter of an addled egg! He cherishes a creeping creature that he swears was once his wife in a former life. He fears the fangs of her jealousy." ”

“ His irritation had grown steadily since the third day out from Panama, when the reptile's presence on board had been discovered. The captain was one of those rare humans in whom a snake breeds no particular revulsion; he merely winked at Ssu Yin's vagary, stipulating, as an after-thought, that the serpent should be tied by the neck and at all times safely confined to its bamboo cage.
The mate's displeasure grew into agitation, and then into a saturnine fear. ”