“Why? Didn’t ‘Mister’ know anythin’?” Beetle asked.

“’Bout as much as you,” was Stalky’s reply.

I don’t go about pretending to. What was he like?”

“‘Mister’? Oh, rather like King—King and water.”

Only water was not precisely the fluid that Stalky thought fit to mention.

[1] See “Slaves of the Lamp”—Stalky and Co.

THE CENTAURS

Up came the young Centaur-colts from the plains they were fathered in—

Curious, awkward, afraid.

Burrs in their hocks and their tails, they were gathered in