56	Gem Trader
	coral remains an untrodden world of the Never-Never to me, though I have seen it, as it were, from afar. I remain and have remained for thirty-five years a debtor on account of coral. It is a debt I shall never repay, for I owe it to the dead. When I was young I dealt in coral, and one of my supplying firms had its offices and works at Torre del Grecco, by the foot of Vesuvius. At the last great eruption of that volcano a good sum of money stood to the credit of my friends of Torre del Grecco. I was never called on to pay it, though I did my best to get in touch with some surviving member of the family. All had gone in an instant. I like to think that only a Vesuvius could stop me from paying my just debts.