ouble, eh?"

"Trouble? Trouble be damned! By to-night, or to-morrow at latest, it
shall be all over the district. Even if we did render ourselves liable
to any action by passing it on--which we don't--there's a better way of
doing it."

"What is it?"

"Why, filter it through Chandler. It won't take long to run through
him."

"By Jove, the very thing!" cried Lambert.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

A SWORD--LONG RUSTED.

Every small community, permanent or temporary, comprises at least one
old woman of the male sex, frequently more than one.

It is difficult to particularise whence this product springs. The
average club perhaps is pre-eminently its forcing house, for there you
shall find the growth both multifold and luxuriant. Likewise on board
passenger ships it thrives and flourishes; indeed, so well known is the
type as not to need defining here. In up-country townships, too, its
roots strike most congenial soil, and in such surroundings its ramblings
not unfrequently tend to bestir the monotony of life, even if they
should occasionally meet with rough and violent usage.

Now Doppersdorp was no exception to the universal rule, for that
historic place owned a really prize specimen of the male "old woman."
This was a brisk, elderly, dapper individual, the primary article of
whose creed was that what he didn't know was not worth knowing. In
aspect he was somewhat Hebraic, with the predatory eye and prominent
"beak" of a certain phase of "the tribes." He was shortish of stature,
and wore his curly grey hair brushed up aggressively over his ears and
neck, eke a beard of the same hue and texture. By profession he
described himself as an "agent," a nondescript term which might mean
anything or nothing, and how he procured the requisite equivalent for
the necessaries of life was ever a dark mystery. But that the highest
heaven and a fairly sordid section of the lower depths of earth might
meet in his individuality, he rejoiced in the name of Michael Chandler.

In saying he knew everything we are short of his merit, for he knew a
great deal more than everything. He knew very much more than really
existed or had ever happened. You could not mention a name or a place
but forthwith would stream copious anecdote either relating to
individual or locality, delivered in a darkly mysterious tone. Certain
it was that no event concerning anybody could be mentioned in his
hearing, but that event became common proper