“I wish I hadn’t broken that gorgeous lump of coral Alfonso gave me,” said Dennis. “But it’s as brittle as egg-shell, though I rather fancy the half of it would astonish most museums. You’re a wonderful boy, Alister! Ah, we’ll all live to see the day when you’re a millionaire, laying the foundation-stone of some of these big things the Aberdeen men build, and speechifying away to the rising generation of how ye began life with nothing but a stuffed Demerary parrot in your pocket. Willie, can’t ye lend me some kind of a gun, that I may get him a few of these highly-painted fowl of the air? If I had but old Barney at my elbow now—God rest his soul!—we’d give a good account of ourselves among the cockatoos. Many’s the lot of sea-birds we’ve brought home in the hooker to stuff the family pillows. But I’m no hand at preparing a bird for stuffing.”
“I’ll cure them,” said I; “the school-master taught me.”
“Then we’re complete entirely, and Alister ‘ll die Provost of Aberdeen. Haven’t I got the whole plan in my head? (And it’s the first of the O’Moores that ever developed a genius for business!) Swap crimson macaws with green breasts in Liverpool for cheap fizzing drinks; trade them in the thirsty tropics for palm-oil; steer for the north pole, and retail that to the oleaginous Esquimaux for furs; sell them in Paris in the autumn for what’s left of the summer fashions, and bring these back to the ladies of Demerary; buy——”
“Dennis! stop that chattering,” cried our host; “there’s some one at the door.”
We listened. There was a disturbance below stairs, and the young officer opened the door and shouted for his servant, on which O’Brien came up three at a time.
“What is it, O’Brien?”
“A Chinese, your honour. I asked him his business, and not a word but gibberish will he let out of him. But he’s brought no papers nor parcels at all, and sorra peep will I let him have of your honour’s room. The haythen thief!”
But even as O’Brien spoke, a Chinaman, in a
China blue dress, passed between him and the door-post, and stood in the room.
“Who are you?” asked the engineer peremptorily.