"but we have not yet got enough
to make sure of bringing them. Higgs will perhaps be able to help me to-
morrow."

* * * * *

"Now what," said Panky as they went upstairs, "does that woman mean--for
she means something? Black and white horses indeed!"

"I do not know what she means to do," said the other, "but I know that
she thinks she can best us."

"I wish we had not eaten those quails."

"Nonsense, Panky; no one saw us but Higgs, and the evidence of a foreign
devil, in such straits as his, could not stand for a moment. We did not
eat them. No, no; she has something that she thinks better than that.
Besides, it is absolutely impossible that she should have heard what
happened. What I do not understand is, why she should have told us about
the Sunchild's being here at all. Why not have left us to find it out or
to know nothing about it? I do not understand it."

So true is it, as Euclid long since observed, that the less cannot
comprehend that which is the greater. True, however, as this is, it is
also sometimes true that the greater cannot comprehend the less. Hanky
went musing to his own room and threw himself into an easy chair to think
the position over. After a few minutes he went to a table on which he
saw pen, ink, and paper, and wrote a short letter; then he rang the bell.

When the servant came he said, "I want to send this note to the manager
of the new temple, and it is important that he should have it to-night.
Be pleased, therefore, to take it to him and deliver it into his own
hands; but I had rather you said nothing about it to the Mayor or
Mayoress, nor to any of your fellow-servants. Slip out unperceived if
you can. When you have delivered the note, ask for an answer at once,
and bring it to me."

So saying, he slipped a sum equal to about five shillings into the man's
hand.

The servant returned in about twenty minutes, for the temple was quite
near, and gave a note to Hanky, which ran, "Your wishes shall be attended
to without fail."

"Good!" said Hanky to the man. "No one in the house knows of your having
run this errand for me?"

"No one, sir."

"Thank you! I wish you a very good night."

CHAPTER XIII: A VISIT TO THE PROVINCIAL DEFORMATORY AT FAIRMEAD

Having finished his early dinner, and not fearing that he should be
either recognised at Fairmead or again enquired after from Sunch'ston, my
father went out for a stroll round the town, to see what else he c