6.14: The solution. Fabian is an enemy of the Order of the Sponge!

Later, at a pow-wow outside to mull over their discussion with Hipparchus, the younger three try to arrive at some concrete conclusions.

“Do you think that Fabian is a member of this Disorder of Catastrophe? Do you think he goes round throttling Pilgrims of Dust with his snaily tentacles? Might he slither up the wall of the Potting Shed, all handy-dandy, ignoring the ladders that decent folk use, and smother me in my sleep? Or, perhaps – with Gollum and the Evil One – steal me away?”, she shivers. “He did, after all, try to steal one of our insignia.” 

“But then he gave it back and, frankly, he didn’t look all that disappointed or all that serious.” 

“Perhaps that’s what it is with the Disorder. Perhaps ‘they’ are not serious like the Order. They are mischievous. (Hipparchus calls me an ‘imp of the perverse’. Me!) But they may still be dangerous and evil. They might be playful mindless psychos!” 

“I think we need to find out why Fabian is here. You can never tell with Alcock. I think, but I don’t know that he already knew him.” 

“Since you’re everybody’s goody-goody, bright eyed boy, I suggest you go and ask!” 

This is Masongill’s rather pointed final remark to pTravis, who nods in rueful concession and says:

“Okey-dokey,” good-naturedly. It is sometimes a burden to be thought a bright eyed boy.