Heyst did not depart.

I met a man once--the manager of the branch of the Oriental Banking Corporation in Malacca--to whom Heyst exclaimed, in no connection with anything in particular (it was in the billiard-room of the club): "I am enchanted with these islands!" He shot it out suddenly, a propos des bottes, as the French say, and while chalking his cue.

And perhaps it was some sort of enchantment.
There are more spells than your commonplace magicians ever dreamed of.
Roughly speaking, a circle with a radius of eight hundred miles drawn round a point in North Borneo was in Heyst's case a magic circle.

It just touched Manila, and he had been seen there.

It just touched Saigon, and he was likewise seen there once.