"Sure now, and who wants to be spoiling a lovely day with the talking of business?" Under pressure, Flynn exaggerated the brogue in his voice in the hope that Rosa would find it beguiling. A forlorn hope.
"How much? "demanded Rosa, and he told her.
There was a sickly silence. Sebastian paled under his sunburn and opened his mouth to protest. On the strength of his half share, he had the previous night made to Rosa O'Flynn a serious proposal, which she had accepted.
"Leave this to me, Sebastian," she whispered and laid a restraining hand on- his knee as she turned back to her father. "You'll let us have a look at the accounts, won't you?"
Still syrupy sweet.
"Sure and I will. They're all straight and square."
The document that Flynn O'Flynn produced under the main heading, "Joint Venture Between F. O'Flynn, Esq and S. Oldsmith, Esq and Others. German East Africa. Period May 15, 1913, to August 21, 1913," showed that he belonged to an unorthodox school of accountancy.
The contents of the tax chest had been converted to English sterling at the rates laid down by Pear's Almanac for lyp, 1893. Flynn set great store by this particular publication.
From the gross proceeds of 4,652 pounds Flynn had deducted his own fifty per cent share and the ten per cent of the other partners the Portuguese Chef D'Post and the Governor of Mozambique. From the balance he had then deducted the losses incurred on the Rufiji expedition (for which separate account addressed to German East African Administration). From there he had gone on to charge the expenses of the second expedition, not forgetting such items as:
To L. Parbhoo (Tailor) 15.10 pounds. To One German Dress HelmetE 5.10 pounds To Five Uniforms (Askari)
2.10 pounds each 12.10 pounds. To Five Mauser Rifles 10 pounds each 50 pounds. -.
To Six Hundred and Twenty-Five Rounds 7men Ammunition E22.10 To Advance re travelling expenses, One Hundred Escudos made to S. Oldsmith, Esq. f, 1. 5.
Finally, Sebastian's half share of the net losses amounted to a little under twenty pounds.
"Don't worry," Flynn assured him magnanimously. "I don't expect you to pay it now we'll just deduct it from your share of the profits of the next expedition."
"But, Flynn, I thought you said well, I mean, you told me I had a half share."
"And so you have, Bassie, and so you have."
"You said we were equal partners."
"You must have misunderstood me, boy. I said a half share and that means after expenses. It's just a great pity there was such a large accumulated loss to bring forward."
While they discussed this, Rosa was busy with a stub of a pencil on the reverse side of the account.
A few minutes later she thrust the result across the breakfast table at Flynn. She said, "And that's the way I work it out."
Rosa O'Flynn was a student of the "One-for-you-one-for, me" school, and her reckonings were much simpler than those of her father.
With a cry of anguish, Flynn O'Flynn lodged objection.
"You don't understand business."
"But I recognize crookery when I see it," Rosa flashed back.
"You'd call your old father a crook?"
"Yes."
"I've a damn good mind to take the kiboko to you. You're not too big and Uppity that I can't warm your tail up good."
"You just try id' said Rosa, and Flynn back pedalled
"Anyway, what would Bassie do with all that money? It's no good for a youngster. It would spoil him."
"He'd marry me with it. That's what he'd do with it."
Flynn made a noise as though there were a fish-bone stuck in his throat, his face mottled over with emotion and he swung ominously in Sebastian's direction. "So!"he rasped.
"I thought so!"
"Now steady on, old chap," Sebastian tried to soothe him.
"You come into my home and act like the king of bloody England. You try to fraudulently embezzle my money but that's not enough! Oh no! That's not a bloody "enough.
You've also got to start tampering with my daughter just to round things off."
"Don't be coarse," said Rosa.
"That's rich don't be coarse, she says, and just what exactly have you two been up to behind my back?"
Sebastian stood up from the breakfast table with dignity.
"I will not have you speak so of a lady in my presence, sir.
Especially of the lady who has done me the great honour of consenting to become my Wife." He begun unbuttoning his jacket. "Will you step into the garden with me, and give me satisfaction?"
"Come along, then." As Flynn lumbered out of his chair he made as if to pass Sebastian, but at that moment Sebastian's arms were behind him, still bound by the sleeves of his jacket as he attempted to shrug it off. Flynn sidestepped swiftly, paused a moment as he took his aim, and then drove his left fist into Sebastian's stomach.
"Oaf!" said Sebastian, and leaned forward involuntarily to meet Flynn's other fist as it came up from the level of his knees. It took Sebastian between the eyes, and he changed direction abruptly and ran backwards across the veranda.
The low Wooden railing caught him behind the knees and he toppled slowly into the flower-beds below the stoep.
"You've killed him, , wailed Rosa, and picked up the heavy china tea-pot.
"I hope so," said Flynn, and ducked as the pot flew towards his head, passed over it and burst against the wall of the stoep, spraying tea and steam.
There was an ominous stirring among the flowers.
presently Sebastian's head emerged with blue hydrangea petals festively strewn in his hair and the skin around both eyes fast swelling and chameleoning to a creditable match with the petals. "I say, Flynn. That wasn't fair," he announced.
"He wasn't looking," Rosa accused. "You hit him before he was ready."
"Well, he's looking now," roared Flynn and went down the veranda stairs like a charging hippopotamus. From the hydrangeas, Sebastian rose to meet him and took up the classic stance of the ring fighter. "Marquis of Queensberry rules? he cautioned as Flynn closed in.
Flynn signified his rejection of the Marquis's code by kicking Sebastian on the shin. Sebastian yelped and hopped one-legged out of the flower-bed, while Flynn pursued him with a further series of lusty kicks. Placing his boot twice in succession into Sebastian's posterior, the third kick, however, missed and the force behind it was sufficient to throw Flynn on to his back. He sprawled on the lawn, and the pause while he scrambled to his knees gave Sebastian respite to ready himself for the next round.
Both his eyes had puffed and he was experiencing discomfort from his rear end; nevertheless, he stood once again with his left arm extended and the right crossed over his chest. Glancing beyond Flynn, Sebastian saw his fiancee descending from the veranda. She was armed with a bread knife