 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. Yes. But a sprat is also thrown away sometimes in order to catch a
whale.«
    »A whale. Phew!« exclaimed Toodles, with bated breath. »You're after a
whale, then?«
    »Not exactly. What I am after is more like a dog-fish. You don't know
perhaps what a dog-fish is like.«
    »Yes; I do. We're buried in special books up to our necks - whole shelves
full of them - with plates. ... It's a noxious, rascally-looking, altogether
detestable beast, with a sort of smooth face and moustaches.«
    »Described to a T,« commended the Assistant Commissioner. »Only mine is
clean-shaven altogether. You've seen him. It's a witty fish.«
    »I have seen him!« said Toodles, incredulously. »I can't conceive where I
could have seen him.«
    »At the Explorers, I should say,« dropped the Assistant Commissioner,
calmly. At the name of that extremely exclusive club Toodles looked scared, and
stopped short.
    »Nonsense,« he protested, but in an awestruck tone. »What do you mean? A
member?«
    »Honorary,« muttered the Assistant Commissioner through his teeth.
    »Heavens!«
    Toodles looked so thunderstruck that the Assistant Commissioner smiled
faintly.
    »That's between ourselves strictly,« he said.
    »That's the beastliest thing I've ever heard in my life,« declared Toodles,
feebly, as if astonishment had robbed him of all his buoyant strength in a
second.
    The Assistant Commissioner gave him an unsmiling glance. Till they came to
the door of the great man's room, Toodles preserved a scandalized and solemn
silence, as though he were offended with the Assistant Commissioner for exposing
such an unsavoury and disturbing fact. It revolutionized his idea of the
Explorers' Club's extreme selectness, of its social
