you gin, you no take him."

Now I had heard much the same sort of story in other islands, and
the same white powder always to the front, which made me think the
less of it. For all that, I went over to Randall's place to see
what I could pick up, and found Case on the doorstep, cleaning a
gun.

"Good shooting here?" says I.

"A 1," says he. "The bush is full of all kinds of birds. I wish
copra was as plenty," says he - I thought, slyly - "but there don't
seem anything doing."

I could see Black Jack in the store, serving a customer.

"That looks like business, though," said I.

"That's the first sale we've made in three weeks," said he.

"You don't tell me?" says I. "Three weeks? Well, well."

"If you don't believe me," he cries, a little hot, "you can go and
look at the copra-house. It's half empty to this blessed hour."

"I shouldn't be much the better for that, you see," says I. "For
all I can tell, it might have been whole empty yesterday."

"That's so," says he, with a bit of a laugh.