To say that Mr. Ferdinand ceased from looking through the telescope for the Lord Chancellor’s second-cook at this juncture would, perhaps, not convey quite a fair idea of the activity which he could on occasion display even at his somewhat advanced age. It might be more just to state that, without wasting any precious time in useless elongation, he described an exceedingly rapid circular movement, still preserving the shortened form of himself which had so deceived and startled his master, and brought his eye from the orifice of the telescope to a level with the Prophet’s knees exactly at the moment when the Prophet rebounded from the plate chest into the centre of the apartment.
“Oh, is it you, Mr. Ferdinand?” said the Prophet, controlling every symptom of anguish, with the exception of a rapid flutter of the eyelids. “I was looking for—for a bradawl.”
The Prophet’s choice of this useful little implement as the reason for his presence in Mr. Ferdinand’s special sanctum was prompted by the fact that, just as he was speaking, he happened to see a bradawl lying upon a neighbouring knife cupboard in the company of a corkscrew.
“And here, I see, is just what I want,” he added calmly.
So far he had displayed extraordinary composure, but at this point he made a slight mistake, for he picked up the corkscrew and sauntered quietly away with it into the darkness, leaving Mr. Ferdinand still in the attitude of a Toby jug, the planisphere still head downwards in the butler’s own special pomade, and the George the Third candlestick stretched at full length upon the passage floor.
CHAPTER X
THE PROPHET AND MALKIEL THE SECOND CONVERSE BY TELEGRAM
“Hennessey Vivian, 1000 Berkeley Square, W.
“Please wire result of last night’s observations from eleven till three inclusive.—Sagittarius.”