“Nonsense, Jack! it is impossible!” I said warmly.

“I say!”

“Well?”

“New Guinea don’t belong to you, does it?”

“Why, of course not.”

“Oh, I thought p’r’aps you’d bought it.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Jack.”

“Don’t you talk nonsense then, and don’t you be so crusty. If I like to land in New Guinea, and take a walk through the country, it’s as free for me as it is for you, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is.”

“Then just you hold your tongue, Mister Joe Carstairs; and if you don’t like to walk along with me, why you can walk by yourself.”