George A. Birmingham

“ Meldon began to paddle towards the pier. The Major sat limp in the stern of the punt. A sweat had broken out on his forehead.
"What else did you tell him? Let me have the whole of it."
"Oh, nothing else. I never say a word more than is necessary. There's no commoner mistake than overdoing one's disguise."
"That's all well enough, but why couldn't you have put the disguise, as you call it, on yourself instead of me? Why didn't you say that you were a mining expert?"
"He wouldn't have believed that. I simply couldn't have made him believe that I know anything about pliocene clay." ”

“ He had swallowed, with some little misgiving, the story of Major Kent's mission. It was just possible that a Lord-Lieutenant and a Chief Secretary, in a moment of temporary insanity brought on by overwork and much anxiety, might have sent an expert to make a geological survey of Inishgowlan. It was quite incredible that the National Board of Education could, of its own free will, intend to build a school. Meldon was unpleasantly conscious of having aroused scepticism. He nerved himself to reduce Higginbotham to a condition of passive belief. ”

“ I don't deny that you're a fluent liar, but I'm not going to be made a fool of. I won't stand it. Either you tell Higginbotham to-morrow that you've been pulling his leg, or I leave the island. Do you hear me? Why, man, we might get into serious trouble if these stories of yours ever came out. Are you listening to me?"
"More or less," said Meldon sleepily. "Don't you worry. Leave it to me! I'll manage all right. Good- night, Major. Don't you get dreaming of pliocene clay." ”