“Then,” said Yram half hysterically to herself, “he knew who you were. Now, how, I wonder, did he find that out?” All vestige of doubt as to who the man might be had now left her.
“Certainly he knew who I was. He spoke about you more than once, and wished us every kind of prosperity, baring his head reverently as he spoke.”
“Poor fellow! Did he say anything about Higgs?”
“A good deal, and I was surprised to find he thought about it all much as we do. But when I said that if I could go down into the hell of which Higgs used to talk to you while he was in prison, I should expect to find him in its hottest fires, he did not like it.”
“Possibly not, my dear. Did you tell him how the other boys, when you were at school, used sometimes to say you were son to this man Higgs, and that the people of Sunch’ston used to say so also, till the Mayor trounced two or three people so roundly that they held their tongues for the future?”
“Not all that, but I said that silly people had believed me to be the Sunchild’s son, and what a disgrace I should hold it to be son to such an impostor.”
“What did he say to this?”
“He asked whether I should feel the disgrace less if Higgs were to undo the mischief he had caused by coming back and showing himself to the people for what he was. But he said it would be no use for him to do so, inasmuch as people would kill him but would not believe him.”
“And you said?”
“Let him come back, speak out, and chance what might befall him. In that case, I should honour him, father or no father.”
“And he?”
“He asked if that would be a bargain; and when I said it would, he grasped me warmly by the hand on Higgs’s behalf—though what it could matter to him passes my comprehension.”
“But he saw that even though Higgs were to show himself and say who he was, it would mean death to himself and no good to anyone else?”
“Perfectly.”
“Then he can have meant nothing by shaking hands with you. It was an idle jest. And now for your poachers. You do not know who they were? I will tell you. The two who sat on the one side the fire were Professors Hanky and Panky from the City of the People who are above Suspicion.”
“No,” said George vehemently. “Impossible.”
“Yes, my dear boy, quite possible, and whether possible or impossible, assuredly true.”
“And the third man?”
“The third man was dressed in the old costume. He was in possession of several brace of birds. The Professors vowed they had not eaten any—”
“Oh yes, but they had,” blurted out George.
“Of course they had, my dear; and a good thing too. Let us return to the man in the old costume.”
“That is puzzling. Who did he say he was?”
“He said he was one of your men; that you had instructed him to provide you with three dozen quails for Sunday; and that you let your men wear the old costume if they had any of it left, provided—”
This was too much for George; he started to his feet. “What, my dearest mother, does all this mean? You have been playing with me all through. What is coming?”
“A very little more, and you shall hear. This man stayed with the Professors till nearly midnight, and then left them on the plea that he would finish the night in the Ranger’s shelter—”
“Ranger’s shelter, indeed! Why—”
“Hush, my darling boy, be patient with me. He said he must be up betimes, to run down the rest of the quails you had ordered him to bring you. But before leaving the Professors he beguiled them into giving him up their permit.”
“Then,” said George, striding about the room with his face flushed and his eyes flashing, “he was the man with whom I walked down this afternoon.”
“Exactly so.”
“And he must have changed his dress?”
“Exactly so.”
“But where and how?”
“At some place not very far down on the other side the range, where he had hidden his old clothes.”
“And who, in the name of all that we hold most sacred, do you take him to have been—for I see you know more than you have yet told me?”
“My son, he was Higgs the Sunchild, father to that boy whom I love next to my husband more dearly than anyone in the whole world.”
She folded her arms about him for a second, without kissing him, and left him. “And now,” she said, the moment she had closed the door—“and now I may cry.”
She did not cry for long, and having removed all trace of tears as far as might be, she returned to her son outwardly composed and cheerful. “Shall I say more now,” she said, seeing how grave he looked, “or shall I leave you, and talk further with you tomorrow?”
“Now—now—now!”
“Good! A little before Higgs came here, the Mayor, as he now is, poor, handsome, generous to a fault so far as he had the wherewithal, was adored by all the women of his own rank in Sunch’ston. Report said that he had adored many of them in return, but after having known me for a very few days, he asked me to marry him, protesting that he was a changed man. I liked him, as everyone else did, but I was not in love with him, and said so; he said he would give me as much time as I chose, if I would not point-blank refuse him; and so the matter was left.
“Within a week or so Higgs was brought to the prison, and he had not been there long before I found, or thought I found, that I liked him better than I liked Strong. I
