In any congregation of people you will always find a liar ready to lie for fun, or the excitement of having a part in the business on hand; failing that, a person equipped with an imagination that sees what it pleases. This amazing statement of the fat woman almost took Jones' breath away. But there are other people in a crowd beside liars. "Why can't the gentleman leave the sovereign with the driver and get the change in the morning?" asked one of the weedy looking men. This scarecrow had not said a word to anyone during the drive. He seemed born of mischance to live for that supreme moment, diminish an honest man's ways of escape, and wither. Jones withered him: "You shut up," said he. "It's no affair of yours--cheek." Then to the driver: "You know my address, if you don't trust me you can come back with me and get change." Then he turned and walked off whilst the vehicle drove on. He waited till a bend of the road hid it from view, and then he took to the fields on the left. He had still the remains of the packet of cigarettes he had bought at Sandbourne, and, having crossed four or five gates, he took his seat under a hedge and lit a cigarette. He was hungry. He had done a lot of work on four Banbury cakes and an apple. CHAPTER XXVII THE ONLY MAN IN THE WORLD WHO WOULD BELIEVE HIM The tobacco took the edge from his desire for food, increased his blood pressure, and gave rest to his mind. He sat thinking. The story of "Moths" rose up before his mind and he fell to wondering how it ended and what became of the beautiful heroine with whom he had linked Teresa Countess of Rochester, of Zouroff with whom he had linked Maniloff, of Correze with whom he had linked himself. The colour of that story had tinctured all his sea-side experiences. Then Mrs. Henshaw rose up before his mind. What was she thinking of the lodger who had flashed through her life and vanished over the back garden wall? And the interview between her and Hoover--that would have been well worth seeing. Then the boy on the bicycle and the screaming invalid rose before him, and that mad rush down the slope to the esplanade; if those children with spades and buckets had not parted as they did, if a dog had got in his way, if the slope had ended in a curve! He amused himself with picturing these possibilities and their results; and then all at once a drowsiness more delightful than any dream closed on him and he fell asleep. It was after dark when he awoke with the remnant of a moon lighting the field before him. From far away and borne on the wind from the sea came a faint sound as of a delirious donkey with brass lungs braying at the moon. It was the sound of a band. The Northbourne brass band playing in the Cliff Gardens above the moonlit sea. Jones felt to see that his cigarettes and matches were safe in his pocket, then he started, taking a line across country, trusting in Providence as a guide.