1 coaling-station of the company.
And it was not merely a coaling-station.

There was a coal-mine there, with an outcrop in the hillside less than five hundred yards from the rickety wharf and the imposing blackboard.

The company's object had been to get hold of all the outcrops on tropical islands and exploit them locally.

And, Lord knows, there were any amount of outcrops.

It was Heyst who had located most of them in this part of the tropical belt during his rather aimless wanderings, and being a ready letter-writer had written pages and pages about them to his friends in Europe.