fire nearest
Sunch'ston; these are Professor Panky's bones, with which I need not
disturb him. This is your permit, which was found upon the prisoner, and
which there can be no doubt you sold him, having been bribed by the offer
of the nuggets for--"

"Monstrous, monstrous! Infamous falsehood! Who will believe such a
childish trumped up story!"

"Who, sir, will believe anything else? You will hardly contend that you
did not know the nuggets were gold, and no one will believe you mean
enough to have tried to get this poor man's property out of him for a
song--you knowing its value, and he not knowing the same. No one will
believe that you did not know the man to be a foreign devil, or that he
could hoodwink two such learned Professors so cleverly as to get their
permit out of them. Obviously he seduced you into selling him your
permit, and--I presume because he wanted a little of our money--he made
you pay him for his kit. I am satisfied that you have not only had
traffic with a foreign devil, but traffic of a singularly atrocious kind,
and this being so, I shall Blue-Pool both of you as soon as I can get you
up to the Pool itself. The sooner we start the better. I shall gag you,
and drive you up in a close carriage as far as the road goes; from that
point you can walk up, or be dragged up as you may prefer, but you will
probably find walking more comfortable."

"But," said Hanky, "come what may, I must be at the banquet. I am set
down to speak."

"The Mayor will explain that you have been taken somewhat suddenly
unwell."

Here Yram, who had been talking quietly with her husband, Dr. Downie, and
Mrs. Humdrum, motioned her son to silence.

"I feared," she said, "that difficulties might arise, though I did not
foresee how seriously they would affect my guests. Let Mrs. Humdrum on
our side, and Dr. Downie on that of the Professors, go into the next room
and talk the matter quietly over; let us then see whether we cannot agree
to be bound by their decision. I do not doubt but they will find some
means of averting any catastrophe more serious--No, Professor Hanky, the
doors are locked--than a little perjury in which we shall all share and
share alike."

"Do what you like," said Hanky, looking for all the world like a rat
caught in a trap. As he spoke he seized a knife from the table, whereon
George pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and slipped them on to
his wrists before he well knew what was