Miss Purvis held out her hand. I took it.
“If you suppose because I have borne with you so far I will bear with you much further, you’re mistaken. If you take my advice, you’ll be careful.”
“That’s right, sir; that’s quite right. Careful’s the lay for me.”
“If you have anything to say, be quick about it.”
“Well, I do happen to have something which I wish to say, and that’s a fact; but as for quickness I’m afraid that I’m not naturally so quick as perhaps you might desire.” He stopped, to regard me with his bold, yet shifty eyes, as if he were endeavouring to ascertain what sort of person I might be. When he spoke again it was to put a question for which I was unprepared. “Where’s Batters?”
“Mr. Batters—if you are referring to the late Mr. Benjamin Batters—is dead.”
“Dead? Oh! Late, is he? Ah! He was the sort to die early, was Batters. Where might he happen to have died?”
“On Great Ka Island.”
“Great Ka Island? Ah! And where might that be?”
“On the other side of the world.”