Joel that it was taken for granted in his sister's mind.
All his voyages and adventures and painful enterprises
had been informed by the desire of the buccaneer--the
passion to reap where others had sown, or, at the worst,
to get something for nothing.

The discursive story began to narrow and concentrate
itself when at last it reached Mexico. The sister changed
her position in her chair, and crossed her knees when
Tehuantepec was mentioned. It was from that place that Joel
had sent her the amazing remittance over two years ago.
Curiously enough, though, it was at this point in his
narrative that he now became vague as to details.
There were concessions of rubber forests mentioned,
and the barter of these for other concessions with money
to boot, and varying phases of a chronic trouble about
where the true boundary of Guatemala ran--but she failed
clearly to understand much about it all. His other
schemes and mishaps she had followed readily enough.
Somehow when they came to Mexico, however, she saw
everything jumbled and distorted, as through a haze.
Once or twice she interrupted him to ask questions,
but he seemed to attach such slight importance to her
comprehending these details that she forbore. Only one
fact was it necessary to grasp about the Mexican episode,
apparently. When he quitted Tehuantepec, to make his way
straight to London, at the beginning of the year, he left
behind him a rubber plantation which he desired to sell,
and brought with him between six and seven thousand pounds,
with which to pay the expenses of selling it.