"Sallie wouldn't whistle to your teachings now any more than she will to mine—not so well, in fact," Captain Dove declared, accepting the friendly hint, and reached for the bottle. "I wish to blazes that this lame flipper of mine was fit for duty again. See if you can find a fresh bottle below you, Slyne. And, for heaven's sake! talk sense. You haven't the money—and that's the end of the matter."
Slyne, searching under the settee, scowled to himself. He was not for a moment prepared to admit that the matter was at an end, but neither was he inclined to contradict his companion again. It irked him to have to hold his tongue. He approached the subject afresh, from another direction.
"You may not find it so easy now as you think to dispose of her," he adventured. "The world's not so wide as it was, for one thing, and—she's developed a very strong will of her own these past few months."
"Tell me something I don't know," begged Captain Dove. "The world's become far too small to suit me—or you either, Slyne—but I know one or two quiet corners yet where the black flag's better known than the British, if that's what you're hinting at.
"Did you ever hear of the Pirate Isles, for instance? They're not what they used to be, of course, but there's still trade to be done in those waters, in spite of the French. I once met a Chinese mandarin there who offered me a hundred thousand taels for the girl—close on eighty-five thousand dollars. I'm going East again now, and I know where to lay my hands on him when I want to.
"A year ago I could have got rid of her to a son-of-a-gun from Shiraz who tried to do me down over a deal in rifles for Afghanistan, but I wouldn't let her go, to a scoundrel like that.
"The Rajah of—But, pshaw! I've had a round dozen of such offers for her, first and last, all good as government bonds—and a lot more than that like yours, Slyne."
Slyne almost choked over his champagne, but Captain Dove did not seem to notice that.
"And now I'll take the next—of the right sort—that comes along," the old man went on, growing gloomy again. "I've been too particular, I'll admit. I've picked and chosen for her, at my own expense, and always meaning to see her as happily settled as might be. I couldn't have considered her more if she had been my own daughter."
Slyne pricked up his ears. "That's just where the trouble will come in for you," said he. "She's somebody's daughter, and some day she'll find out whose; she isn't by any means so simple as you suppose. Then there will be the devil to pay—out of empty pockets."