George A. Birmingham

“ If they've sent him to cover the whole island over with galvanised iron sheds, he'll do it quietly. He'll talk and think of nothing else till it's done. Any lie will do for Higginbotham; he'll believe whatever I tell him."
"If you are going to stuff him up with any cock-and-bull story," said the Major, "you may go and do it by yourself. I'll stay here and tidy up. You take the punt and go ashore to your long-lost friend. But, mind now, if you say a word about learning Irish, I'll go back on you straight away." ”

“ There's a galvanised iron hut on the grass just above the shore of the bay."
"Nonsense! There can't be such a thing on Inishgowlan. Why would the people fetch a galvanised iron house out from the mainland when they can build anything they like out of stones ready to their hands?"
"I don't know. But the thing's there."
"Do you take the tiller for a minute," said the Major, "and give me the glasses."
He gazed at the island.
"You're right enough," he said. "The thing's there. It's exactly like the one the engineers lived in when they were making the railway down to Achill. ”

“ Meldon ran forward and slacked the jib halyards. The Major gathered in the sail.
"If that's Higginbotham," said Meldon a few minutes later, when he and the Major were making up the mainsail, "it's all right. There'll be no difficulty whatever in dealing with Higginbotham. In the first place he's a thoroughly decent sort, and I don't believe he'd want to meddle with the treasure; in the second place he's quite an easy man to deceive. He always took what's called an intelligent interest in his work when he was in college, and never paid the least attention to anything else. ”

“ He's a good-natured man and easy to get on with so long as you don't touch his own particular subject. But he's as snappy as a fox in a trap if any one starts talking geology to him. You know what these experts are. It's the artistic temperament. You wouldn't like it yourself if some outsider began laying down the law to you about galvanised iron sheds. ”

“ At least, if he isn't an engineer, he's mighty like one. He's dressed in grey tweed knickers and brown boots, and I think he has spectacles. There isn't a doctor on the island by any chance?"
"There is not, nor ever was. Cock the likes of those fellows up with a doctor!"
"Well, then he's an engineer. He couldn't be anything else. Pass the glasses aft till I get a good look at him."
"He is wearing spectacles," said Meldon, staring through the glasses. "And I fancy I know him. He's a fellow called Higginbotham ”