By swimming, drunk, late at night and alone, he was being a fool to himself.

He did not say that his wife's brother back on Earth was a phocomelus; he had been born without arms and made use of superb artificial ones designed for him by a Canadian firm which specialized in such equipment.

He used to blow his stack properly when he had his three-horse team hitched up to a koneke load of fertiliser.

'Fancy running the risk of getting a kipper [a torpedo] to go with his grub.'