'Martin', Martin said. 'Marty', she said, smiling at him. He didn't correct her mistake. No one had ever called him Marty before. He liked the way 'Marty' seemed a more entertaining man than he knew himself to be.

You are quite correct, sir, […] in what you say about the quantity of oil in the heads of these fish [gurnets or gurnards]. […] [T]he heads [of the fish are] placed with their mouths upward, and a small quantity of tow placed in each mouth. When they [the poachers] reach the stream where they are to leister the salmon, the tow is lighted, the fire immediately communicates with the lips of the fish, and a beautiful clear light is emitted, which continues to burn for a considerable time. Sometimes also a single head, thus prepared and dried, is fixed at the end of a stick, and is used as a torch, when a poacher goes leistering single-handed.

But he had never seen the Bola before, had never heard of her, and therefore was not aware that her skipper, Captain Rackwell, was known from Conakry to Old Calabar as the Nigger Killer.

Conventional success metrics are not always the best indicator of success.