Page:The Zankiwank & the Bletherwitch (IA zankiwankblether00fitziala).pdf/170

 the shop Mr Swinglebinks with whom they had travelled from Charing Cross.

“Don’t waste your time like that! Make haste, let me have five minutes. I am in a hurry.”

“Have you got five minutes to spare?” asked the Zankiwank of Maude.

“Oh yes,” she replied. “Why?”

“Let me have them at once then. A gentleman left twenty-five minutes behind him yesterday and I want to make up half-an-hour for a regular customer!” screamed Mr Swinglebinks to the bewildered children.

“But—but—O what do you mean? I have got five minutes to spare and I’ll devote them to you if you like, but I can’t give them to you as though they were a piece of toffee,” answered Maude with much perplexity, while Willie stood awe-struck, not comprehending Mr Swinglebinks in the least.

“Time is a tough customer, you know. He is here, he is there, he is gone! He is, he was, he will be. Yet you cannot trap Time, for he is like a sunbeam,” muttered the Zankiwank as though he never was short of Time.