beaten; and he looked from one to the other with
very angry eyes. The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air. Their
appearance no longer pleased him.

"It's your own fault entirely," said the Terror coldly. "If you'd been
civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we shouldn't have
bothered about you. But you didn't take any notice of it--"

"And it was beastly cheek," said Erebus.

"You couldn't expect us to stand that kind of thing. So we kept an eye
on you and caught you poaching," said the Terror.

"Without any excuse for it. You've plenty of fishing of your own,"
said Erebus severely.

"And if I don't give you leave to fish my water, you're going to sneak
to the police, are you?" said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.

The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: "We aren't going
to do anything of the kind; and we don't want any leave to fish your
water at all. We're just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to
the police and prosecuting us, then after you've started it you'll get
prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook. That's what we came to say."

"And that'll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they
write to you," said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.

On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to
find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good
night, and left the room.

Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and
expressed his feelings without difficulty. Then he began to laugh. It
was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had
been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children,
rankled. He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of
Africa, by much more ferocious creatures. But after sleeping on the
matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased
it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield
children were allowed to fish his water.

CHAPTER XIII

AND AN APOLOGY

The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated
triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to
fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother's
faint appetite.

She had grown stronger during the summer. She was not, indeed,
definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak. But, a woman of
spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptine