“Not so, my dear,” said Yram. “‘Out of the country’ will not do for those people.  Nothing short of ‘out of the world’ will satisfy them.”

“That,” said George promptly, “must not be.”

“Certainly not, my dear, but that is what they will want.  I do not like having to tell them, but I am afraid we must.”

“Never mind,” said the Mayor, laughing.  “Tell them, and let us see what happens.”

They then dressed for dinner, where Hanky and Panky were the only guests.  When dinner was over Yram sent away her other children, George alone remaining.  He sat opposite the Professors, while the Mayor and Yram were at the two ends of the table.

“I am afraid, dear Professor Hanky,” said Yram, “that I was not quite open with you last night, but I wanted time to think things over, and I know you will forgive me when you remember what a number of guests I had to attend to.”  She then referred to what Hanky had told her about the supposed ranger, and shewed him how obvious it was that this man was a foreigner, who had been for some time in Erewhon more than seventeen years ago, but had had no communication with it since then.  Having pointed sufficiently, as she thought, to the Sunchild, she said, “You see who I believe this man to have been.  Have I said enough, or shall I say more?”

“I understand you,” said Hanky, “and I agree with you that the Sunchild will be in the temple to-morrow.  It is a serious business, but I shall not alter my sermon.  He must listen to what I may choose to say, and I wish I could tell him what a fool he was for coming here.  If he behaves himself, well and good:  your son will arrest him quietly after service, and by night he will be in the Blue Pool.  Your son is bound to throw him there as a foreign devil, without the formality of a trial.  It would be a most painful duty to me, but unless I am satisfied that that man has been thrown into the Blue Pool, I shall have no option but to report the matter at headquarters.  If, on the other hand, the poor wretch makes a disturbance, I can set the crowd on to tear him in pieces.”

George was furious, but he remained quite calm, and left everything to his mother.

“I have nothing to do with the Blue Pool,” said Yram drily.  “My son, I doubt not, will know how to do his duty; but if you let the people kill this man, his body will remain, and an inquest must be held, for the matter will have been too notorious to be hushed up.  All Higgs’s measurements and all marks on his body were recorded, and these alone would identify him.  My father, too, who is still master of the gaol, and many another, could swear to him.  Should the body prove, as no doubt it would, to be that of the Sunchild, what is to become of Sunchildism?”