“You got off at Lisbon to see a man about a lot of parrots?” repeated the Superintendent.
“That's right,” nodded Roger. “Amazon parrots. Not those grey ones with pink tails, but green ones. The sort that screech.” The story began to grip him; warming to the theme, he continued: 'Thought I could do a deal. You'd be surprised at the demand there is for parrots in Portugal.”
“I should,” interpolated Hannasyde grimly.
“Anyone would be,” said Roger. “I was myself. But there it is. The idea was to ship a lot over to this man I was telling you about. The only trouble was we couldn't come to terms, so the best thing for me to do was to see him in person.”
“I trust you arrived at an agreement,” said Hannasyde, with heavy sarcasm.
“Well, no,” said Roger, ever fertile. “We didn't, and the whole thing is more or less in abeyance, because he wanted to buy the parrots in bulk, which is ridiculous, of course. However, now I've come into money I shan't bother any more about it.”
“I say, what a shame Kenneth's missing all this!” said Antonia. “Where are the parrots supposed to be?”
“Round about the Amazon,” said Roger. “You have to catch them.”
“Yes, I can just see you penetrating into forests and laying snares for parrots. You are an ass!”
“Well, I shouldn't do that myself. I should employ people,” said Roger. “Of course, if the business grew, and I daresay it would, the idea was to start a farm and breed them the same way that people breed silver foxes and things. Properly managed there might be a lot of money in it, because if the purchaser has to pay ten pounds for a parrot (and very often a good parrot costs more than that), you can see for yourself that the profit per parrot is pretty considerable.” He decided that the parrots had served their turn, and jettisoned them. “But, as I say, I've given up thinking about it now that I've come into money. They're really beside the point.”