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I made one more discovery just before we cleared the infested area. A patch of fur caught my eye between stems just to the right of the path we had hacked out. I parted the lower leaves of the bushes and looked more closely. It was a sizeable rat - at least, it had been; now it was no more than the husk of a rat. Dried, furred skin, empty, and shrivelled over a skeleton that had been picked quite clean ...

We talked on for an hour or more. The young moon rose higher, silvering the sea, turning the island from a dark mass to a shimmering shape which seemed to float on the water. I forgot the emptiness of it, the neglect, the choking vegetation. In my mind's eye, I saw it in order: planted, cultivated, cut by wide roads, set with fine buildings where unimaginable discoveries were being made. It was a brave sight - (...)

In due course, the representatives of the Crown, knowing nothing at that stage of Lord Foxfield's interest, emerged from them not displeased with their success in conveying to Walter Tirrie, Esq. the title to that unprofitable and troublesome parcel of real estate, the Island of Tanakuatua, in the sum of 30,000.