"Ten o'clock. At a quarter past eleven I think we may count upon something. The driver of Engine 123 has given me the word of an Irishman from County Kildare; and the stoker, a Cardiff man, and the guard, who hails from Shoreditch, are quite as keen as Kildare."
"You're sending the stuff up North?"
"In the direction of the stretch of railway-line they're busy wrecking, in the hope that it may come in useful."
"Weel, I will gie ye the guid wish that the affair may go off exactly as ye are hoping."
"Thanks, Major! You could hardly word the sentence more happily."
They exchanged a laugh as the Mayor bustled up, rubicund, important, and with a Member of the Committee to introduce.
"Colonel, you'll permit me to present Alderman Brooker, one of our most energetic and valued townsmen, President of the Gas Committee, and an Assistant Borough Magistrate. One of Major Panizzi's Town Guardsmen. Was on sentry-go last night not far from here, and had a most extraordinary experience. Worth your hearing, if you can spare time to listen to my friend's account of it."
"With pleasure, Mr. Mayor."
Brooker, a stout and flabby man, with pouches under biliously tinged eyes, bowed and broke into a violent perspiration, not wholly due to the shiny black frock-coat suit of broadcloth donned for the occasion.
"Sir, I humbly venture to submit that I have been the victim of a conspiracy!"