You will have to give it up to-morrow at
the Ranger's office; it will save you trouble if I collect it now, and
give it up when I deliver my quails.
"As regards the curiosities, hide them as you best can outside the
limits. I recommend you to carry them at once out of the forest, and
rest beyond the limits rather than here. You can then recover them
whenever, and in whatever way, you may find convenient. But I hope you
will say nothing about any foreign devil's having come over on to this
side. Any whisper to this effect unsettles people's minds, and they are
too much unsettled already; hence our orders to kill any one from over
there at once, and to tell no one but the Head Ranger. I was forced by
you, gentlemen, to disobey these orders in self-defence; I must trust
your generosity to keep what I have told you secret. I shall, of course,
report it to the Head Ranger. And now, if you think proper, you can give
me up your permit."
All this was so plausible that the Professors gave up their permit
without a word but thanks. They bundled their curiosities hurriedly into
"the poor foreign devil's" blanket, reserving a more careful packing till
they were out of the preserves. They wished my father a very good night,
and all success with his quails in the morning; they thanked him again
for the care he had taken of them in the matter of the landrails, and
Panky even went so far as to give him a few Musical Bank coins, which he
gratefully accepted.
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