The Narrow Corner — Basil Copper

Three men voyaging together in a small vessel--an exiled doctor, a disreputable sea captain, and a young man fleeing from justice--are driven to take shelter on a small island in the Malay Archipelago. Their lives are soon shattered by a strange, exotic girl of English parentage, but oriental in her mystery.

The story contains humor and wit, exact and incisive observation of character and an ironical philosophy that mark this tale as another Maugham classic.