"What can?" cried the woman.

The three young voices rose like a great cry: "The Can with the Diamond
Notch."

The woman caught her face in her hands as if some terrible thing had
been said. She stared at the youngsters intently.

"He wants one more to make up an order," they chanted. "He says he will
pay--"

The woman shrank from them with a cry. "How much?" she asked.

"Half-a-crown!"

The wife of Mac-an-Ward threw out her arms in a wild gesture of despair.
"My God!" she cried. "I sold it. I wronged my sick brother."

"Where did you sell it, mother?"

"Here, to this handsome dark man."

"How much did he pay?"

"Eighteen-pence."

The three youngsters raised their hard faces to the sky and raised a
long howl, like beagles who had lost their quarry.