"This is not likely. I will now go to my office, but I will come back very shortly. My grandfather shall bring you something to eat at once. I will tell him to send enough for two"--which he accordingly did.
On reaching the office, he told his next brother (whom he had made an under-ranger) to go to the tree he described, and bring back the bundle he should find concealed therein. "You can go there and back," he said, "in an hour and a half, and I shall want the bundle by that time."
The brother, whose name I never rightly caught, set out at once. As soon as he was gone, George took from a drawer the feathers and bones of quails, that he had shown my father on the morning when he met him. He divided them in half, and made them into two bundles, one of which he docketed, "Bones of quails eaten, XIX. xii. 29, by Professor Hanky, P.O.W.W., &c." And he labelled Panky"s quail bones in like fashion.
Having done this, he returned to the gaol, but on his way he looked in at the Mayor"s, and left a note saying that he should be at the gaol, where any message would reach him, but that he did not wish to meet Professors Hanky and Panky for another couple of hours. It was now about half-past twelve, and he caught sight of a crowd coming quietly out of the temple, whereby he knew that Hanky would soon be at the Mayor"s house.
Dinner was brought in almost at the moment when George returned to the gaol. As soon as it was over George said:-
"Are you quite sure you have made no mistake about the way in which you got the permit out of the Professors?"
"Quite sure. I told them they would not want it, and said I could save them trouble if they gave it me. They never suspected why I wanted it.
Where do you think I may be mistaken?"
"You sold your nuggets for rather less than a twentieth part of their value, and you threw in some curiosities, that would have fetched about half as much as you got for the nuggets. You say you did this because you wanted money to keep you going till you could sell some of your nuggets. This sounds well at first, but the sacrifice is too great to be plausible when considered. It looks more like a case of good honest manly straightforward corruption."
"But surely you believe me?"
"Of course I do. I believe every syllable that comes from your mouth, but I shall not be able to make out that the story was as it was not, unless I am quite certain what it really was."
"It was exactly as I have told you."
"That is enough. And now, may I tell my mother that you will put yourself in her, and the Mayor"s, and my, hands, and will do whatever we tell you?"
"I will be obedience itself--but you will not ask me to do anything that will make your mother or you think less well of me?"
"If we tell you what you are to do, we shall not think any the worse of you for doing it. Then I may say to my mother that you will be good and give no trouble--not even though we bid you shake hands with Hanky and Panky?"
"I will embrace them and kiss them on both cheeks, if you and she tell me to do so. But what about the Mayor?"
"He has known everything, and condoned everything, these last twenty years. He will leave everything to my mother and me."
"Shall I have to see him?"
"Certainly. You must be brought up before him to-morrow morning."
"How can I look him in the face?"
"As you would me, or any one else. It is understood among us that nothing happened. Things may have looked as though they had happened, but they did not happen."
"And you are not yet quite twenty?"
"No, but I am son to my mother--and," he added, "to one who can stretch a point or two in the way of honesty as well as other people."
Having said this with a laugh, he again took my father"s hand between both his, and went back to his office--where he set himself to think out the course he intended to take when dealing with the Professors.
CHAPTER XVIII: YRAM INVITES DR. DOWNIE AND MRS. HUMDRUM TO LUNCHEON--A Pa.s.sAGE AT ARMS BETWEEN HER AND HANKY IS AMICABLY ARRANGED
The disturbance caused by my father"s outbreak was quickly suppressed, for George got him out of the temple almost immediately; it was bruited about, however, that the Sunchild had come down from the palace of the sun, but had disappeared as soon as any one had tried to touch him. In vain did Hanky try to put fresh life into his sermon; its back had been broken, and large numbers left the church to see what they could hear outside, or failing information, to discourse more freely with one another.
Hanky did his best to quiet his hearers when he found that he could not infuriate them,--
"This poor man," he said, "is already known to me, as one of those who have deluded themselves into believing that they are the Sunchild. I have known of his so declaring himself, more than once, in the neighbourhood of Bridgeford, and others have not infrequently done the same; I did not at first recognize him, and regret that the shock of horror his words occasioned me should have prompted me to suggest violence against him. Let this unfortunate affair pa.s.s from your minds, and let me again urge upon you the claims of the Sunchild Evidence Society."
The audience on hearing that they were to be told more about the Sunchild Evidence Society melted away even more rapidly than before, and the sermon fizzled out to an ignominious end quite unworthy of its occasion.
About half-past twelve, the service ended, and Hanky went to the robing- room to take off his vestments. Yram, the Mayor, and Panky, waited for him at the door opposite to that through which my father had been taken; while waiting, Yram scribbled off two notes in pencil, one to Dr. Downie, and another to Mrs. Humdrum, begging them to come to lunch at once--for it would be one o"clock before they could reach the Mayor"s. She gave these notes to the Mayor, and bade him bring both the invited guests along with him.
The Mayor left just as Hanky was coming towards her. "This, Mayoress,"
he said with some asperity, "is a very serious business. It has ruined my collection. Half the people left the temple without giving anything at all. You seem," he added in a tone the significance of which could not be mistaken, "to be very fond, Mayoress, of this Mr. Higgs."
"Yes," said Yram, "I am; I always liked him, and I am sorry for him; but he is not the person I am most sorry for at this moment--he, poor man, is not going to be horsewhipped within the next twenty minutes." And she spoke the "he" in italics.
"I do not understand you, Mayoress."
"My husband will explain, as soon as I have seen him."
"Hanky," said Panky, "you must withdraw, and apologise at once."
Hanky was not slow to do this, and when he had disavowed everything, withdrawn everything, apologised for everything, and eaten humble pie to Yram"s satisfaction, she smiled graciously, and held out her hand, which Hanky was obliged to take.
"And now, Professor," she said, "let me return to your remark that this is a very serious business, and let me also claim a woman"s privilege of being listened to whenever she chooses to speak. I propose, then, that we say nothing further about this matter till after luncheon. I have asked Dr. Downie and Mrs. Humdrum to join us--"
"Why Mrs. Humdrum?" interrupted Hanky none too pleasantly, for he was still furious about the duel that had just taken place between himself and his hostess.
"My dear Professor," said Yram good-humouredly, "pray say all you have to say and I will continue."
Hanky was silent.
"I have asked," resumed Yram, "Dr. Downie and Mrs. Humdrum to join, us, and after luncheon we can discuss the situation or no as you may think proper. Till then let us say no more. Luncheon will be over by two o"clock or soon after, and the banquet will not begin till seven, so we shall have plenty of time."
Hanky looked black and said nothing. As for Panky he was morally in a state of collapse, and did not count.
Hardly had they reached the Mayor"s house when the Mayor also arrived with Dr. Downie and Mrs. Humdrum, both of whom had seen and recognised my father in spite of his having dyed his hair. Dr. Downie had met him at supper in Mr. Thims"s rooms when he had visited Bridgeford, and naturally enough had observed him closely. Mrs. Humdrum, as I have already said, had seen him more than once when he was in prison. She and Dr. Downie were talking earnestly over the strange reappearance of one whom they had believed long since dead, but Yram imposed on them the same silence that she had already imposed on the Professors.
"Professor Hanky," said she to Mrs. Humdrum, in Hanky"s hearing, "is a little alarmed at my having asked you to join our secret conclave. He is not married, and does not know how well a woman can hold her tongue when she chooses. I should have told you all that pa.s.sed, for I mean to follow your advice, so I thought you had better hear everything yourself."
Hanky still looked black, but he said nothing. Luncheon was promptly served, and done justice to in spite of much preoccupation; for if there is one thing that gives a better appet.i.te than another, it is a Sunday morning"s service with a charity sermon to follow. As the guests might not talk on the subject they wanted to talk about, and were in no humour to speak of anything else, they gave their whole attention to the good things that were before them, without so much as a thought about reserving themselves for the evening"s banquet. Nevertheless, when luncheon was over, the Professors were in no more genial, manageable, state of mind than they had been when it began.
When the servants had left the room, Yram said to Hanky, "You saw the prisoner, and he was the man you met on Thursday night?"
"Certainly, he was wearing the forbidden dress and he had many quails in his possession. There is no doubt also that he was a foreign devil."
At this point, it being now nearly half-past two, George came in, and took a seat next to Mrs. Humdrum--between her and his mother--who of course sat at the head of the table with the Mayor opposite to her. On one side of the table sat the Professors, and on the other Dr. Downie, Mrs. Humdrum, and George, who had heard the last few words that Hanky had spoken.