"
"I'm going to stick to the togs I have," said Norris.
"Are you?" cried Hadden. "Well, I must say I admire
you. You're a regular sage. It's what you call
Pythagoreanism, isn't it? if I haven't forgotten my
philosophy."
"Well, I call it economy," returned Carthew. "If we
are going to try this thing on, I shall want every
sixpence.
"You'll see if we're going to try it!" cried Tommy,
rising radiant from table. "Only, mark you, Carthew,
it must be all in your name. I have capital, you see;
but you're all right. You can play VACUUS VIATOR
if the thing goes wrong."
"I thought we had just proved it was quite safe," said
Carthew.
"There's nothing safe in business, my boy," replied the
sage; "not even bookmaking."
The public-house and tea-garden called the Currency
Lass represented a moderate fortune gained by its
proprietor, Captain Bostock, during a long, active, and
occasionally historic career, among the islands.
Anywhere from Tonga to the Admiralty Isles, he knew the
ropes and could lie in the native dialect. He had seen
the end of sandalwood, the end of oil, and the
beginning of copra; and he was himself a commercial
pioneer, the first that ever carried human teeth into
the Gilberts.
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