At any rate with that noble impartiality which distinguishes the utterances of _The Planet_." "Steady, man.

He _never_ told ye _that_!" said Mackinnon.
"I didn't say he _told_ me, I said he informed me." "And whar's the differ'nce?
I don't see it at all." "Trepan him, trepan him." Stables took out his penknife and indicated by dumb show a surgical operation on Mackinnon's dome-like head.
"I gathered it," continued Maddox suavely, "from his manner.

I culled his young thought like a flower." "Perhaps," Rankin suggested, "he was afraid of compromising Poppy." "He might have left that subtle consideration to Pilkington." "That was it.

He scented Dicky's hand in it, and wasn't particularly anxious to oblige him.

The point of the joke is that he happens to owe Dicky a great deal more than he can conveniently pay.