again, slowly, sorrowfully, shook her head.

"Oh, your spectacles are black--black," she murmured.

"I hope not," said he; "but such as they are, they show me the
inevitable conditions of our planet. The snatcher, here below,
is ubiquitous and eternal--as ubiquitous, as eternal, as the
force of gravitation. He is likewise protean. Banish him--he
takes half a minute to change his visible form, and returns au
galop. Sometimes he's an ugly little cacophonous brown
sparrow; sometimes he's a splendid florid money-lender, or an
aproned and obsequious greengrocer, or a trusted friend, hearty
and familiar. But he 's always there; and he's always--if you
don't mind the vernacular--'on the snatch.'"

The Duchessa arched her eyebrows.

"If things are really at such a sorry pass," she said, "I will
commend my former proposal to you with increased confidence.
You should keep a dragon. After all, you only wish to protect
your garden; and that"--she embraced it with her glance--"is
not so very big. You could teach your dragon, if you procured
one of an intelligent breed, to devour greengrocers, trusted
friends, and even moneylenders too (tough though no doubt they
are), as well as sparrows."

"Your proposal is a surrender to my contention," said Peter.
"You would set a snatcher to catch the snatchers. Other
heights in other lives, perhaps. But in the dark backward and
abysm of space to which our lives are confined, the snatcher is