A pair of seventeen-year-old boys leaves the house to make their way to fate in the Far Eastern seas. It must be my hands that are at fault, then, replied Clive. Ive been trying everywhere for the past three weeks, and cant get taken on. I came down here to look up Captain Brereton, an old friend of my fathers. Hes skipper and part owner of a tramp steamer, the Sphinx. I hoped to cadge a passage to Australia, where I thought I might find a job.