“I’ve got my luck in my pocket”
Homunculus“I’ve got my luck in my pocket” is Captain Powers’s playful introduction to a collection of small objects he carries as supposed good-luck charms. The phrase joins his practical bearing to his delight in eccentric things, and the objects serve him not only as curiosities but as a way to learn something about the people he meets.
The Saying and Its Objects
Captain Powers displays the collection in the palm of his hand when speaking to a stranger. Among its contents are a red-and-black bean from Peru, a red agate marble, a tiny ivory ape, and an Oriental coin drilled through with a hole. The assortment is particular rather than grand: luck, in his telling, fits among pocket-sized oddities.
The collection belongs to a broader pattern of playful eccentricity. Captain Powers has a ridiculous smoking leg, wears a monkey-tooth necklace received from a jungle explorer in exchange for two bottles of Scotch, and owns a pipe that burns tobacco while emitting soap bubbles. His phrase gives these curiosities a small ritual: he brings them out, makes a light claim for their luck, and watches what follows.
A Test of Character
Captain Powers says that a man’s reaction to the objects can tell him a good deal about that man. The charms therefore work less as proof that luck can be carried than as an invitation to respond. A stranger’s response becomes revealing; the Captain turns an apparently frivolous display into a quiet test of character.
William Keeble and Langdon St. Ives recognized the value of this habit straight away. The objects’ importance lies not only in their oddity but in the social exchange they enable: the Captain’s playful manner gives him a way to observe people without making the encounter feel like an interrogation.
Meaning in the Narrative
The phrase condenses a contrast in Captain Powers himself. His stony practicality sits alongside an evident regard for the curious and frivolous, and the pocketful of charms makes that combination visible. He does not discard practical judgment; instead, he finds room for play within it.
That blend also helps explain why Nell regards him as a safe refuge. She is drawn to his obvious affection for oddities amid his otherwise steady practicality, and thinks of him as an island in a life marked by wandering and fear. The saying thus names more than a superstition: it belongs to a manner that makes room for small wonders and offers others a reason to feel at ease.
