Prosser returned it after a couple of days.
‘I can’t sleep with it in the room, I can’t, sir. When I shuts my eyes I seems to see all them ladies rollin’ up and down and every way till I’m fairly giddy. But I promise you, sir, I won’t go in no more for little thievin’s, I’ll keep my eyes open for something big.’
XXXIV
Sir Peter Parchmin was a rare visitor. He disliked the company which Dwala kept; he couldn’t get on with Mr. Cato, who was always in and out of the house. He was growing visibly older in the effort of keeping his countenance, while his colleagues gloated over despatches of the Missing Link Expedition, which kept writing hopefully from Borneo that it was on the eve of achieving its object; Mr. Holmes had seen curious scratches on trees, or had heard peculiar noises at night; once they sent home a button which he had discovered in the forest. The hopes of the scientific world ran high.
‘You must get those people to come home, Sir Peter,’ said Dwala to the Biologist, on one of his visits. ‘He’s a terrible fellow is that Mr. Holmes; I shouldn’t feel safe in going back while he’s out there. He’d have me, tail and all, in no time.’
‘But good heavens, dear Prince, you’re not thinking of leaving us?’ said the Biologist. Joyful relief soared upwards from his heart; he had barely time to clap a distressful expression over it to keep it from escaping.
‘Yes,’ said Dwala, ‘I’m going home. I have my own life to live, you know. I’ve been a slave over here, working for the good of Man. My work is done; I have delivered my message; and now I’m going back to my wild life in the forest while I’m still young and strong. I mean to ... to throw all this off’—he flapped his coat like a bird—‘and enjoy myself.’
‘I trust you will be very very happy,’ said the Biologist, shaking him warmly by the hand. ‘How are you going to manage about the money?’ he asked in a lower voice.
‘They’re arranging it in there,’ said Dwala, in the same precautious tones, pointing to a door, behind which voices could be heard.
The door opened at that moment and admitted an elderly obsequious man in black, with a big parchment folded under his arm; and behind him came Baron Blumenstrauss, Lady Wyse, Mr. Cato, and a lean brown man with a tuft on his chin, whom Sir Peter had seen there once before. This man smiled at Sir Peter drily. The obsequious man said good-bye, and shook hands with the Prince.