midday
`` That is a word unspoken , and neither will I tell it . Thy desire to know what concerns thee not is as great as thy fatness . '' With a doggedness that is often part of some forms of mania , the Burman squatted in the dust , and under no provocation could he be induced to speak . After midday he indicated by lifting his fingers to his mouth that he intended to go in search of food ; having worked Leh Shin 's assistant into a state of perspiring wrath by the simple process of reiterating in pantomime that he was dumb . It must be admitted that Coryndon got no small amount of pleasure out of his morning 's entertainment , and he doubled himself up as though in pain as he dragged himself back to the house . The vanished beggar 's tracks were entirely obliterated , and when the Burman went off in a _ gharry _ in company with Shiraz , the whole street knew that he was being sent away on a secret mission of great importance . To know something that other people do not know is to be in some way their superior .