May I count on your assistance ?" "This is a new idee, Sir Goldencalf--" "Sir John Goldencalf, if you please, sir." "A new idee, Sir John Goldencalf, and it needs circumspection.
Circumspection in a bargain is the certain way to steer clear of misunderstandings.

You wish a navigator to take your craft, let her be what she will, into unknown seas, and I wish, naturally, to make a straight course for Stunin'tun.

You see the bargain is in apogee, from the start." "Money is no consideration with me, Captain Poke." "Well, this is an idee that has brought many a more difficult contract at once into perigee, Sir John Goldencalf.

Money is always a considerable consideration with me, and I may say, also, just now it is rather more so than usual.

But when a gentleman clears the way as handsomely as you have now done, any bargain may be counted as a good deal more than half made." A few explicit explanations disposed of this part of the subject, and Captain Poke accepted of my terms in the spirit of frankness with which they were made.