came in sight of Policeman Rat-it-all (so named from his only and
frequent expletive), seated on a bollard and staring up at the sky.

Nicky-Nan hesitated: hung, indeed, for a moment, on the edge of
flight. This was Bank Holiday, and until to-morrow's sunrise a
constable was powerless as Satan in a charmed circle. Still, the man
might have the ejectment order in his pocket--would, if not already
furnished with it, almost certainly know about it. On the other hand
there was a chance--it might be worth while--to discover how much
Rat-it-all knew. Forewarned is forearmed. Moreover, when your
country is at war, and silence holds the city, there is great comfort
in a chat. Nicky-Nan advanced with a fine air of nonchalance.

"Lookin' at the sky?" said he. "Wind's back in the nor'-west again.
Which, for settled weather, I'd rather it took off-shore a bit later
in the afternoon. It'll last though, for all that, I shoudn'
wonder."

Policeman Rat-it-all withdrew his gaze from the firmament.

"I wasn' thinkin' of the wind," said he. "I take no account of the
elements, for my part. Never did; and now never shall--havin' been
born up to Bodmin, where the prison is."

"Oh!" said Nicky-Nan suspiciously. "What's it like?"

"Bodmin?" Policeman Rat-it-all seemed to reflect for a moment.
"Well, I wouldn't just say it's altogether _like_ any place in
particular. There's a street, of course, . . . and there's the
prison, and the barracks, and an asylum where they keep the lunatics,
and a workhouse and what-not. But if you put to me, in so many
words, what it's _like_--"

"I--I meant the prison," explained Nicky-Nan; that being the only
feature of Bodmin in which he felt any instant concern.

"It's a place," answered Policeman Rat-it-all with painful lucidity,
"where they shut people up. Sometimes there's an execution. But not
often; not very often; once in a while, as you might say. There's a
monument, too,--upon a hill they call the Beacon. I'm very fond of
Bodmin. It's the County Town, you know; and with these little things
going on, in one way and another, why, that enlarges the mind."

"Does it so?" asked Nicky-Nan, a trifle puzzled.

"It do indeed," the constable assured him with conviction. "Take
_me_, now, at this present moment, for instance. You comes upon me
suddent, and what do you catch me doin'? You catches me,"--here his
voice became impressive--"you catches me lookin' up at the sky.
And why