." Ford looked at his face--and fled.

The skipper was a tolerably firm man himself--as those who had sailed with him could testify--but Almayer's firmness was altogether too much for his fortitude.
Next time the steamer called in Sambir Ali came on board early with a grievance.

He complained to Ford that Jim-Eng the Chinaman had invaded Almayer's house, and actually had lived there for the last month.
"And they both smoke," added Ali.
"Phew! Opium, you mean ?" Ali nodded, and Ford remained thoughtful; then he muttered to himself, "Poor devil! The sooner the better now." In the afternoon he walked up to the house.
"What are you doing here ?" he asked of Jim-Eng, whom he found strolling about on the verandah.
Jim-Eng explained in bad Malay, and speaking in that monotonous, uninterested voice of an opium smoker pretty far gone, that his house was old, the roof leaked, and the floor was rotten.

So, being an old friend for many, many years, he took his money, his opium, and two pipes, and came to live in this big house.
"There is plenty of room.

He smokes, and I live here.