"Headache, I suppose! And even if I did look glum, and I don't say I did--you needn't rub it into a chap. Besides, in any case, I didn't look glum!" "Your logic's masterful as usual, Philip!" "The point is not Philip's logic but the heartlessness of women!" Harry insisted. "What's to be done about it?" "The only thing to be done about it," declared Alec, "is to look the fact in the face, that's all! You must have no illusions about them! You must stare them straight in the eyes and beyond! Let 'em know they're not deceiving you with their little tricks! Strip off the illusions, I say!" "I suppose by 'illusions' you mean," said Philip, "all that's jolly about 'em and make 'em different from us! No, it won't work!" "There isn't anything different about us! We're all alike! Strip them naked and it's just--Body, Sex!" "What on earth are you driving at now?" Philip asked, frightened. "Only this--that it's about time you ... Hello! Look here! What on earth ... what on earth's this?" They had come to the darkest part of Chester Street. Alec's foot had stumbled against something large and soft. The boys stopped. Harry lit a match and they saw a bundle before them wrapped in a white sheet. It was large and bulky and tied at the top in loose knots. "What is it?" Philip asked. "Washing, perhaps?" Alec speculated. "Open it!" Harry demanded peremptorily. "It might be anything!" "What shall we do with it? Perhaps it's something dropped from a removal cart, eh?" wondered Alec. "But I hardly think so, it's lying so steadily on its bottom, as if it had been put there deliberately. I think we'd best take it along ... Hello! Listen! I say! It's _crying_! Good God, can you hear?" "Get out of the way, Alec!" Harry exclaimed, "Don't stand theorizing!" He bent down and untied the knots swiftly. "Light up!" he commanded, pushing his matches into Philip's hand. Harry uttered a startled cry. "A baby!" "Ye gods, a baby!" And in truth, wrapped in a blanket and lying in a soft heap in a clothes-basket, a minute baby lay, whining feebly and curling its infinitesimal fingers. "The kid'll die of cold! We must get it out of the way at once!" "Not a day old!" Alec mused. "Get a move on, for God's sake! Where shall we take it?" "The police-station just along!" Philip suggested. "Yes, the very place!" Harry took off his greatcoat and placed it over the top of the basket. "Here, Alec, take hold of the other handle!" The baby was delivered into the hands of an inspector, summoned by a policeman who refused to have anything to do with the case. The inspector scrutinized the three lads suspiciously, as if he were ready to believe that one or the other of them was the father of the child. They made their statement and at length, reluctantly, he allowed them to withdraw. "By Heaven!" muttered Harry, "What a swine the man is!"