He had, therefore, already slightly fractured his oath, and he
had no desire to earn the anathema of all such men as Robert Green by
breaking it into small pieces. Where was the butler's pantry? He glanced
eagerly round the kitchen, perceived a door, passed through it, and
found himself confronted by a sink. He had gained the scullery, but not
his goal. To the right of the sink was yet another door through which
the Prophet, who carried the planisphere in one hand, the George the
Third candlestick in the other, rather excitedly debouched into a
good-sized passage. As he did so he heard the muffled alto voice of the
eight-day clock proclaim that it was a quarter-past eleven. Feeling that
he was now upon the point of breaking both the promises of the damned
fool, the Prophet hastened along the passage, darted through the first
outlet, and found himself abruptly face to back with what appeared at
first glance to be an enormously broad and bow-legged dwarf, with a bald
head and a black tail coat, which, in an attitude of savage curiosity,
was gazing through a gigantic instrument, whose muzzle projected from an
open window into a spacious area. So great was the Prophet's surprise,
so supreme the shock to his whole nervous system occasioned by this
unexpected encounter, that he did not utter a cry.
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