that little girl of mine did last Saturday, when her troop was on a hike
out Berkhamsted way? She got two other girls to go with her, slipped off
from the hike, and spent the whole afternoon following a strange man. They
kept on his tail for two hours, right through the woods, and then, when
they got into Amersham, handed him over to the patrols.'
'What did they do that for?' said Winston, somewhat taken aback.
Parsons went on triumphantly:
'My kid made sure he was some kind of enemy agent -- might have been
dropped by parachute, for instance. But here's the point, old boy. What do
you think put her on to him in the first place? She spotted he was wearing
a funny kind of shoes -- said she'd never seen anyone wearing shoes like
that before. So the chances were he was a foreigner. Pretty smart for a
nipper of seven, eh?'
'What happened to the man?' said Winston.
'Ah, that I couldn't say, of course. But I wouldn't be altogether
surprised if--' Parsons made the motion of aiming a rifle, and clicked his
tongue for th
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