he does with it _You_ may
go.'

But the Owl was either too chivalrous to desert her, or he was paralysed
with terror.

'Dynamite strikes downwards,' the fairy heard him murmur with chattering
beak, and that was all he could say. Meanwhile the Nihilist went up to
the Bishop.

'Excuse me!' he murmured politely, and knelt down. The Bishop stretched
out his hands absently, in an attitude of blessing; but the Nihilist
did not look up. He took an American cloth parcel from the black bag and
laid it at the Bishop's feet. Then, gradually withdrawing, he began to
lay the train.

'He is going to blow him up!' whispered Mab, shuddering. But the
Bishop, absorbed in rapt contemplation, heard and saw nothing, till
the Democrat, breaking rudely through some bushes and into his
reverie, roused him effectually. The Democrat was not a person of whose
neighbourhood one could remain unconscious.

'Ah!' he exclaimed, while the Bishop looked upon him with an air of mild
disapprobation. 'I have found you at last! I was anxious to discuss with
you--but what is this?'

For the more observant Democrat had caught sight of the cloth parcel.

'What is this?' he repeated suspiciously.

'I really don't know,' said the Bishop mildly, putting on his spectacles
and gazing down. 'I am a little shortsighted, you know. It is the size
of the quarto edition of--'

'There!' interrupted the Democrat, who had caught a glimpse of the
Nihilist's shadowy figure. He darted after it, while the Bishop, a
little perturbed, moved slowly in the same direction.

'Don't move,' said the Nihilist, raising an abstracted face. 'I will
only be a moment. Just step back there, will you?' and he pointed
towards the parcel with one hand, while the other still scattered the
train.

'What are you doing?' cried the Democrat, shaking him.

'Stop that!' said the Nihilist 'You had better not lay hands on _me_, or
you mayn't like it. It is really inconsiderate,' he continued, appealing
to the Bishop in an injured voice. 'I am only going to blow you up,
and you won't be quiet half a minute together. How _can_ I blow you up
properly, if you will keep walking about?'

'You are going to blow _me_ up!' said the Bishop, awaking to the
situation, and becoming as indignant as his gentle nature would allow
him to be. 'Miserable man! What will you want to blow up next? I utterly
discountenance it. Take your dynamite to the haunts of iniquity and
atheism, if you will. Rather blow