He could not help, as they went along, to throw over his shoulder lightly: "And your sprat ?" "Got him," answered the Assistant Commissioner with a concision which did not mean to be repellent in the least.
"Good.

You've no idea how these great men dislike to be disappointed in small things." After this profound observation the experienced Toodles seemed to reflect.

At any rate he said nothing for quite two seconds.

Then: "I'm glad.

But--I say--is it really such a very small thing as you make it out ?" "Do you know what may be done with a sprat ?" the Assistant Commissioner asked in his turn.
"He's sometimes put into a sardine box," chuckled Toodles, whose erudition on the subject of the fishing industry was fresh and, in comparison with his ignorance of all other industrial matters, immense.
"There are sardine canneries on the Spanish coast which--" The Assistant Commissioner interrupted the apprentice statesman.
"Yes.