larity might be met by a fine. Sir Evelyn Jackson had inYou would agree to that? "It," said Edward Parker cheerfully, "depends on the amount of the fine." The eyes of of the official twinkled. "Naturally," he answered. "Then, in due course, you will be informed of the decision of the Department. Er-by the way—" He hesitated, and Parker encouraged him with a smile. "I take it that you do not want the fact that you are poor James Parker's boy-er-advertised? "I should like the fact to be known," Parker informed him. The official showed astonishment. terested himself in the matter. Most people regarded it as a foregone conclusion that the man who had ruined the father would not hesitate to complete the business by ruining the son. To get Edward Parker indicted for fraud would be such an excellent vindication of the contention, which Sir Evelyn had persistently adopted, that the Parker stock was bad. But Edward Parker, having made certain that Sir Evelyn Jackson was the only person who stood in the way of a satisfactory compromise, went to an interview with that great man without any sign of anxiety. He was ushered into the Sure?" he asked. "Known large airy office in the Secrein all quarters." tariat, smiling genially at the Parker rose from his chair immaculate but adipose figure and held out his hand. "Known," he said, "if possible to Sir Evelyn Jackson." And the official gasped, almost visibly. Within a week the local gossips were busy with a nice tit-bit of scandal, and people who had known James Parker were in considerable demand. Edward Parker, son of the illtreated and bibulous James, had, it appeared, involved himself in a piece of extremely irregular trading, but had managed to convince the authorities concerned that he had no real intention of defrauding the revenue. Compromise would have settled his case had he not been fool enough to make public the fact of his parentage. seated at the large writingtable beneath the gently swaying punkah. Then he sat down in an arm-chair, without being invited to do so. not like the fraudulent person's want of respect. "You have sought this interview," he stated judicially, "for, I presume, the purpose of bringing forward some reason why the Government should not prosecute you and your partner for fraud?" "Wrong," Edward Parker answered. "I am here to show you why you will not interfere in the settlement which was at first proposed." "Then," Sir Evelyn declared, flushing, "you need not waste your time and mine." "It's an overdue demand," he explained. 'You ruined my father's life because he was once foolish enough to convict you of talking like an ignorant fool. You deliberately kept him from higher pay and a higher pension. Two thousand pounds is letting you off light.' 66 'Blackmail ! "the great man asked, his voice rising. "I won't," Parker answered, with his pleasant smile. "The amount of royalty owing has been agreed upon at sixteen hundred sterling. The fine suggested for irregularities was four hundred. Two thousand pounds sterling in round figures . . .' Sir Evelyn Jackson held up his indignation. his hand. The suggested compromise will not be permitted," he announced. "I have some influence, and I do not tolerate fraud." "Label it what you like," Parker stated. "Myself, I rather like 'Poetic Justice' as a title." Sir Evelyn put restraint upon 'Before I have you thrown out of this room," he stuttered, "will you say definitely what you mean? "I will," Parker told him. "Tigers began and tigers end the interest which you have been good enough to take in my father and myself. Look at that." He took from his pocket a photograph, and handed it to Sir Evelyn. The great man looked at it, and his face went white. For he saw a very excellent picture of himself running madly down a jungle path from a dead tiger, throwing away his gun as he ran. "You do," Edward Parker remarked pleasantly, "look fat and frightened, don't you?" "What," said Sir Evelyn, and his voice was deflated, "do you propose to do with this?" "Either to send it to the papers for publication, when I should please myself, or to sell it to you for two thousand, when I should satisfy my partner's commercial instincts." The great man attempted to rally, but there was no conviction in his voice. "Your publication of this libellous atrocity," he stated, "would not free you of the charge of fraud." Edward Parker laughed geni- guarantee of good behaviour." ally. “Think again, little man," he suggested. "You alone amongst your colleagues for the prosecution! That portrait of you in the hands of the defending counsel! My innocent explanation and my accounts in order! What would the jury think?" He paused, smiling; then, as Sir Evelyn shuddered, he leaned forward and spoke quietly. "I do hope," he said, "that you will adopt a strong man's attitude and refuse to buy. Your exit from public life, where you are so much loved, would be more undignified than mine from your room when we first met. You were strong Edward Parker examined the cheque and put it carefully into a note-case. Then he got up from his chair. He looked down at the small man at the writingtable, and waited. But the silence in the large airy room was complete except for the slight squeaking of one of the pulley wheels of the punkah cord. "I am glad," said Edward Parker at length, "that you appreciate the fact that your unsupported word is unacceptable in any bargain." He turned and walked out of the room. Sir Evelyn Jackson gaped. He had expected hate; but he found the depth of this under-bred person's contempt disconcerting. A BLACK SHEEP FROM THE SOUTH DOWNS. BY NGAK WENG. KENTISH villagers are unfriendly to new-comers. But after three years or so the "foreigner from China or Sussex is accepted as inevitable, and can, if he please, do a little cold-shouldering himself. Frumenty's term of probation, like mine, is just up; but now he is away again. I engaged him, as one Ishmaelite might another, as occasional gardener and handyman. Mr Onions, who sells me milk, and who therefore had me from the first under his protection to some extent, leaned over the fence and addressed me with a grin, which appeared even less amiable than he intended it to be, by reason of the gaps and black ruins in his still youthful jaws. Teeth are a weak feature in our village. was not weakened by Frumenty's admissions. Once he became reminiscent on the sub 66 ject of roses. Grawft? Can I grawft? Whoy, if you'll believe me, when we was boys there was a old bloke 'ad a field alongside of us, and damned if 'e didn't take and grawft all manner of these 'ere garden roses on the briars in the 'edge, fit to make you smoile. So when they was well set, bothered if us boys didn't go for to dig the 'arf of 'em up one noight. Got a bob apiece, we did. Proize blooms, as you might say." And then he has a disconcerting term " to win," meaning to acquire by right of trover, which he applies to the acquisition of rabbits, mole-traps, derelict tools, or indeed most things that will fit into a "So you've got 'im working pocket. However, I am bound for you." to say that I am aware of this "Yes; and working pretty point of view of his solely from hard, as you see.” his own unblushing confessions. He has not to my knowledge 66 Only once can I remember him to have owned himself mistaken. "Yes, you was right, ma'am," he said to a rival and triumphant gardener. "You cawn't always be wrong," he added kindly. Even when he was in the army, and silence and the other cheek would have seemed the only shields against oppression, a god comes out of the machine, and again he triumphs. ". . . So this young fellowme-lad with 'is cane and 'is blinkin' red tabs, 'e sez, 'Take your muddy lorry off of the muddy road,' 'e sez, and let the muddy guns go by.' So there we was, stuck up to the axles, and then my Major come along.' that was 'ow 'e started on 'im. And then," says Frumenty with fervour, 'e called 'im something I wouldn't like for to repeat. I lawfed. Goblimy, 'ow I lawfed. Leastways you 'as to lawf internal in the army." This habit of suppressed merriment he seems to have carried back with him into civil life. A roll of his rather fine blue eyes and a droop of his mouth are the only signs he vouchsafes, when the climax of his anecdotes is reached. At this point you may express your amazement at his astuteness, as when he and a neighbouring allotment holder wagered who should grow the finest leek, the upshot being that Frumenty, rising early, stole the finest from his opponent's patch. "So 'e grew 66 the biggest, and Oi won the bet," explained Frumenty neatly. 'Twasn't 'ardly fair, though," he added with (I hope) a twinge of conscience. Again, there is the diverting history of his silver watch, acquired through a strict attention to business while others were relaxing, at Cranford sheep fair, from this young chap what I'm telling you about. "Gimme my purse,' 'e sez. You've 'ad enough; I won't,' she tells 'im. There they was argyin', and all them other chaps in the bar sort of settin' 'em on. 'E didn't wish for to be 'ard on the girl: they was only engaged-like. I says quiet to 'im, Ain't you got nawthin' you can sell, mate?' 'Ere's my watch,' 'e sings out. 6 Who'll give me eighteen pence for my watch?' So o' course I did, and 'e 'ad 'is beer, and she 'ad 'er lesson. And Oi," adds Frumenty with his mouth all down at one side, won the watch." Add that he has taken pains to drop his army smartness, slouches, shaves once a week, greets his employer or any one else with a wave of his chin, never says Sir except by inadvertence, and there you have Frumenty as he sees and admires himself. And yet he is not altogether superior to human weakness. There are subjects about which he cannot bring himself to joke, one, to my surprise, being his spade. There is still Norseman blood in this south-east corner of England, as the horse em |