Is that straight ?" Sheldon nodded coldly.
"You don't say?
That is a surprise! Well, she hasn't convinced Guvutu or Tulagi of it.

They're pretty used to irregular things over there, but--ha! ha!--" he stopped to have his laugh out and to mop his bald head with a trade handkerchief.

"But that partnership yarn of hers was too big to swallow, though it gave them the excuse for a few more drinks." "There is nothing irregular about it.

It is an ordinary business transaction." Sheldon strove to act as though such transactions were quite the commonplace thing on plantations in the Solomons.

"She invested something like fifteen hundred pounds in Berande--" "So she said." "And she has gone to Sydney on business for the plantation." "Oh, no, she hasn't." "I beg pardon ?" Sheldon queried.
"I said she hasn't, that's all." "But didn't the _Upolu_ sail?
I could have sworn I saw her smoke last Tuesday afternoon, late, as she passed Savo." "The _Upolu_ sailed all right." Captain Auckland sipped his whisky with provoking slowness.