dominated him as long as anything in this world could do so.  Nor do I wonder; on the contrary, I love his memory the better; for I too, as will appear later, have seen George, and whatever little jealousy I may have felt, vanished on my finding him almost instantaneously gain the same ascendancy over me his brother, that he had gained over his and my father.  But of this no more at present.  Let me return to the gaol in Sunch’ston.

“Tell me more,” said George, “about the Professors.”

My father told him about the nuggets, the sale of his kit, the receipt he had given for the money, and how he had got the nuggets back from a tree, the position of which he described.

“I know the tree; have you got the nuggets here?”

“Here they are, with the receipt, and the pocket handkerchief marked with Hanky’s name.  The pocket handkerchief was found wrapped round some dried leaves that we call tea, but I have not got these with me.”  As he spoke he gave everything to George, who showed the utmost delight in getting possession of them.

“I suppose the blanket and the rest of the kit are still in the tree?”

“Unless Hanky and Panky have got them away, or some one has found them.”

“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?”