Since he did know what it was supposed to say, however, he turned the card over and cleared his throat, as if to read the words, himself. It didn't seem to matter much that the writing was now upside down.

"'The presence of Smudge and Bodkin is hereby requested this very day, after noon-tide, at the residence of His Honor, the Mayor,'" he read, his voice shaking, slightly.

Smudge, who had been busy digging something out of his right ear, stopped what he was doing and sat up straight, his eyes suddenly wide open. "The MAYOR?" he squeaked in alarm. "Cor, wha'd we do to attract 'is lordship's attention?"

A request to attend the Mayor of Criminy was not usually considered a good thing--'request' in this instance meaning basically, 'you are hereby ORDERED to attend, with dire consequences reserved for those who ignore this summons'--especially if you were among the common folk, of which Smudge and Bodkin were among the commonest. "Dunno," Bodkin replied, thoughtfully. "Ye haven't been caught up at anything lately, have ye?"

"No!" Smudge answered, vehemently. "'Sides, that would fall under the control of the Watch, not the bloody Mayor." He considered the situation for a moment, chewing on a dirty fingernail. "Yer sure it's a real request?" he asked, thinking perhaps one of his cronies was playing a bad joke on them, although none of them could read or write, either.

"Aye, it's real enough," Bodkin assured him. "Look here," he said, pointing to one corner of the card. "It's got the official seal right on it."

Smudge squinted at the smeared ink print of the runner's thumb and vowed that it did indeed look very official. They were silent for a few moments.

"Guess we gotta go, 'uh?" Smudge asked.

"Looks like."

Smudge nodded. Not used to being up much during daylight hours, he asked, "Just when is 'noon-tide', anyway?"