Our robber told my Father about the other burglar, and said he was sorry he'd let him escape, but my Father said, "Oh, it's all right: poor beggar; if he really had kids at home: you never can tell—forgive us our debts, don't you know; but tell me about the first business. It must have been moderately entertaining."
Then our robber told my Father how I had rushed into the room with a pistol, crying out ... but you know all about that. And he laid it on so thick and fat about plucky young uns, and chips of old blocks, and things like that, that I felt I was purple with shame, even under the blanket. So I swallowed that thing that tries to prevent you speaking when you ought to, and I said, "Look here, Father, I didn't really think there was any one in the study. We thought it was a cat at first, and then I thought there was no one there, and I was just larking. And when I said surrender and all that, it was just the game, don't you know?"
Then our robber said, "Yes, old chap; but when you found there really was someone there, you dropped the pistol and bunked, didn't you, eh?"
And I said, "No; I thought, 'Hullo! here's a robber! Well, it's all up, I suppose,
