Percy was alone at home, thinking of Ingrid.

Nothing had been said of their teenage years and the way that Ingrid had treated Percy. She certainly made no mention of the way that she had treated the ‘little boy’ she had found. He wondered how often the experience was recalled in her thoughts. He hoped that she still had fond memories of it, albeit from her own POV, not the boy’s as far as she could know.

One thing was certain. Ingrid seemed to have lost all her mocking hostility to him. He had saved her life. So it could be gratitude. His height had been named as a reason to reject him on the night that they had first met. Had her disillusionment with her homicidal ex-husband extended to a change in taste (no pun intended) in men?

Or had some women seen so many naked hulking male torsos on the large and small screens that they had been completely programmed to dismiss any slim short man? Almost any man was shorter than Ingrid, except for her boyfriend turned husband turned ex-husband.

At least she was treating him as a friend now, and keeping up contact.

Percy was strangely keener to know her thoughts about the boy she had eaten (the Percy that she had not recognised) than her thoughts about the man who had saved her. There had to be some way to find out. He began racking his brains for a way to raise the subject without giving away the fact that he had been that boy. How could he lead her into discussing it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the front door. He went to answer it.

"Good afternoon. I'm Sam Werrings, a friend of your grandfather's. I've been looking forward to meeting Percy Dale."

The visitor appeared to be in his early forties, and he wore a business suit of decades past, which instantly reminded Percy of his grandfather.

"Is that so?" said the Sneaky Spy, "You should come in for a snack. I've just had lunch, but I'll get you some biscuits and a drink of...."

"Tea?"

"By all means. I personally don't  enjoy the taste of that drink, but far be it from me to expect  universal conformity to my own drinking habits. I do keep a small supply of tea for the guests. Help yourself to an armchair."

"Thank you. It's a good idea having the living room as your front room. Not too far from the front door."

"Well I should think that the architect would agree with you," said Percy, who was now in extremely high spirits. In a few moments, the entry of the stranger had created an atmosphere which had cast Percy back into the treasured days of his childhood visits to Ordinairy Man Manor. 

He was thrilled to meet somebody who knew and respected his grandfather. At last he could talk about old times with a man who would share his nostalgic enthusiasm. Percy returned to the living room with a tray which contained a pot of tea, a cup and a plate of biscuits. He then went to a cabinet and opened a door which unfolded downwards on its horizontal hinges to form a bench with a mirror on it. In fact, every inner surface of the cabinet was actually a small mirror, as well as its floor and roof. 

From the cabinet, Percy removed a glass and a bottle of lemonade and poured himself a drink.

"So tell me how you knew Grandpa," said the Sneaky Spy.

"Well I was only eighteen when we first met. My parents had tossed me out of home because I  had performed rather badly in my final year of school. Instead of pulling myself together, I turned to alcohol, and slept on the grass in Wahroonga Park. I could not have continued to do that indefinitely, because my savings were rapidly depleting, so I was extremely fortunate to be found by your grandad one night. 

"He was on his way home from a late board meeting and had stopped to play snooker at a club for a few hours. He walked through the park after alighting at Wahroonga Station and stopped to look at the moonlit fountain. Then he noticed me. I was asleep on the nearby grass. He listened to the story of my troubles and offered me a job as well as some ready cash to survive on for a while. He never treated me as a favourite in the office, but he did take a personal interest in my well-being, and we became close and special friends. I often came here for visits. When the old boy died,  I had to get over it and continue my own life. However, I recently got to wondering where his relatives might be, and I eventually tracked down your location, once I learned that you had inherited this place."

Percy absorbed the story with a keen interest. It certainly reflected his grandfather's preoccupation with the welfare of others.

"Yes, well I miss him at least as much as anybody else. I miss both him and Grandma, but it's more than a phenomenal blessing to be able to live here. Som people have believed that I treasure this large house and its many areas of garden out of pure snobbery, but I care little for their opinions. It is certainly an attractive residence because of its size, design and appearance, but my most important reason for my attachment to Ordinairy Man Manor here is the house's ongoing provision of nostalgic memories of my childhood holiday visits to those two treasured relatives of mine."

"I don't think that it matters what anybody else thinks," said Sam, "You've got the right attitude, and you'd do your grandfather proud. I suppose you have been criticised for holding onto the old memories of the past as well."

"Sometimes, but that can only serve to increase my appreciation of company like yours," said the Sneaky Spy with a carefree smile.

"Well you're welcome to plenty of that. I should have introduced myself years ago, but I thought it would be assuming an awful lot to expect you to welcome a stranger purely because of his association with an old relative."

"So what prompted you to break the ice at last?" asked Percy.

"I needed cheering up. Things have changed for the worse in my opinion, at work, since your grandfather left. I just don't like the way they do things now, but I don't want to give up the job either. I'd be nothing without the career start that I got from your grandfather. Several things went wrong last week, including the fact that I did not get the payrise I have been desperately in need of, and so I thought of the good old days. I developed a desperate desire to find somebody who would share my respect for my original boss."

Percy wanted to give the man his complete trust and confidence. It would be like having his grandfather around to see how Percy's Sneaky Spy career had developed.

"Listen Sam, there's a lot that I should tell you. To many of this planet's naughty ones, I am remembered as the Sneaky Spy. It's something that my grandmother called me in jest a long time ago. I've inherited a lot of money as well as the house, and I've recently decided to keep a large sum of it in my safe in the study for emergencies. 

"Quite often I'm involved in an extraordinairy adventure, and I may not have time or a chance at night, to go to the bank. Anyway, I feel that I owe it to Grandpa to show you some of my more closely guarded secrets."
Percy gave Sam Werrings a tour of Ordinairy Man Manor. Its highlights included a visit to the bushes where Percy had first met Ingrid Castlecove, a look at the comic book collection, an explanation of the adventure souveneirs in the Sneaky Spy trophy room, and a revelation of the special gadgetry which was kept and developed in the Sneaky Spy's secret laboratory.

"You know, I have other friends who help me on my little jobs sometimes. You're welcome to think of yourself as part of the Sneaky Spy team."

"I certainly will. It sounds exciting from what you've shown and told me. Well I'd better be going. This is the second of the mere two days that make up a weekend, but I would like to have lunch with you at work tomorrow if you can make it."

"I'd like that too. I might even take a look at these declining office procedures which have been troubling you."

"I'm sure you know where to go. I'm still on the sixth floor at Hadricks."

"I do indeed. When shall I meet you?"

"Can you make it at midday?"
"That will be a pleasure."

* * * *

Percy went to sleep that evening with comfortable recollections of his meeting with Sam Werrings. He eagerly awaited the following day, a monday midday meal with an old friend of the family. As he was dozing off, he had an idea.

"That's it! Why, I've been wanting to do something to improve things for Sam. The best thing I could do is to surprise him. I'll go in an hour early and have a word to the personnel manager at Hadricks. With a little of my grandfather's influence reflected in my being his grandson, I may be able to turn the tides in Sam's favour. Anybody who has this sort of effect on me deserves a little intervening assistance."

* * * *

Percy arrived at the Hadricks personnel department by eleven o'clock, and spoke to the personnel manager.

"You would be young Percival...Dale, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, I was wondering if I could talk to you about a friend of mine, Sam Werrings. He works here."

"I cannot say that I know him, and I cannot reveal any confidential information to you either. You know the rules, I trust."

"That's fine. Actually, I wanted to mention some of his complaints about office procedures here. He doesn't know I'm here yet, but he told me about some rather disturbing trends in the course of employee relations among the staff members. When I was showing him around my house yesterday, he went into considerable detail, and I could only conclude that things were a lot better in Grandpa's days at this office, from what I was told. I was too young to come in here on my own at the time when he worked here as managing director."
Percy repeated the previous day's words that had been spoken by Sam Werrings, and was met with an unexpected reaction.

"But Percy, I've been here since the old boy's time, when I started out as a clerk in this personnel department, and our staff relationships have never been anything like those which you have just described. The higher graded employees have always been as helpful and understanding as could be expected towards their subordinates. In which department does Sam Werrings work?"
"Processing and filing."

"P.A.F? But we've nobody there by that name. We never have, as far as I know."

"But he said he worked there. He's the chap my grandfather employed when he was an eighteen year old boy with a hard life and no hope of a career at all."

"Just hold on a moment. I'll see if there's anything to confirm any of that on the files."

Percy waited for the personnel manager to return.

"There was a lad who was offered a job by your grandfather. He had no qualifications - not that you really needed many in those days - just a quick interview. However, his name wasn't Sam Werrings. Your grandfather was a clever man, and one day he uncovered this fellow's attempt to embezzle a terrific sum of company funds. The man went to prison. It was a ten year sentence. I'm afraid I cannot give you his name."

"You don't need to," said Percy, his mind racing with thoughts, "It's just a fortunate thing that I came early. Telephone the Hornsby Police Station and ask for an inspector, or otherwise just speak to anyone else you can get. Give them Grandpa's old address - which is now mine - and report a suspected robbery taking place there right now. Meanwhile, I had better race across town to be there."

Percy hurried to Town Hall Station and hoped that he would reach Ordinairy Man Manor in time.

"Oh what a sentimentally distracted idiot I have been," he thought, "allowing Werrings to soften me up with an artificial journey down memory lane. I showed him my safe, my comic collection, all of the easy ways into the house, and my secret weapons. Now the whole Dale residence is all ready for the looting, and I have been lured into the city, while he does the job. 

"Even if the police do grab him, I've got to cover up all of Ordinairy Man Manor's Sneaky Spy secrets, before the long arm lads start to see a little too much of my house's insides!"

Percy arrived in time to see the police escorting a handcuffed man to their car. Percy decided that it would no longer be wise to think of the man as a man. It was his visitor, the fellow who had called himself Sam Werrings.

"Thank you officers. I'm Percy Dale, the true owner of this property."

"Well you were right to expect a break-in. He had obviously forced a door, and he somehow got the safe open in the downstairs room which runs off the hallway. My partner and I found him with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Personally, I wonder why you keep it at home, but we will take care of your visitor for you."

"That's pleasing to know," said the Sneaky Spy.

"We had better check over the rest of the house with you," said the other policeman, and Percy had no option but to show them through again. Fortunately the burglary had not involved the unlocking or breakages of any of the doors leading to Percy's trophy room or his secret files. 

Percy managed to divert their attention to the study, while he locked the laboratory door with the spare key which he had hidden under the hallway carpet in front of the door.

"He must have used the key in my bedroom to get into the laboratory," thought Percy, "but why? What's of value in the laboratory? Oh yes, the safe job in the study. He used one of my metal dissolving solution pens from the laboratory in order to open the safe, and now he's cuffed to the police car doorhandle, or is he?"

The Sneaky Spy ran out to the street and saw that a hidden pen had obviously been used to pour metal dissolving solution onto the handcuff chain. Percy looked northward along Burnseid Street. There was no sign of his target. He then ran down to Eastern Road and saw the burglar running towards the Eastern Wahroonga end of its footpath. Percy sprinted after him. He was still handcuffed.

"He used a lot on the safe and still more on the chain. He can't have had any left for his handcuffs. I could only put so much into a special hollow pen," thought Percy, "So I should be able to capture him easily."

He ran past Braeside and Kintore Streets, and came within fifteen yards of his target.

"Give it up now, whoever you are!" he called.

He narrowed the gap between himself and his deceitful opponent.

"Not on your Sneaky life!" returned Sam's true self.

However, it was indeed difficult to run, while handcuffed, and the burglar was soon caught by the Sneaky Spy.

"You really had me taken in, didn't you, hook, line, sinker and lousy lies all in one, Mister Sam Werrings?"

"It wasn't all a lie. You can still remember him for giving me that job. I just hadn't expected my plan of revenge to backfire. I spent a long time in the lock-up looking forward to doing it. How did you find out anyway?"

"I actually planned a surprise ending to your non-existent problems at work, which saw me at Hadricks an hour earlier than we'd planned. You may not understand why, Mister, but I still wish you'd been on the level. Your version of things would have turned out for the very best."

Now he had his answer. Werrings had not shown the real version of himself to Percy. If Percy really wanted to know how Ingrid felt about the fact that she had eaten a tiny boy, there was only one way to find out. He would have to give her the chance to eat another.