"Can I help?" "Can you h----l!" came the surly response. Thereupon, many viscounts would have swept on into Piccadilly without further parley --not so Medenham. He scrutinized the soldierly figure, the half-averted face. "You must be hard hit, Simmonds, before you would answer me in that fashion," said he quietly. Simmonds positively jumped when he heard his name. He wheeled round, raised his cap, and broke into stuttering excuse. "I beg your lordship's pardon --I hadn't the least notion----" These two had not met since they discussed Boer trenches and British generals during a momentary halt on the Tugela slope of Spion Kop. Medenham remembered the fact and forgave a good deal on account of it. "I have seen you look far less worried under a plunging fire from a pom-pom," he said cheerily. "Now, what is it? Wires out of order?" "No, my lord. That wouldn't bother me very long. It's a regular smash this time --transmission shaft snapped." "Why?" "I was run into by a railway van and forced against a street refuge." "Well, if it was not your fault----" "Oh, I can claim damages right enough. I have plenty of witnesses. Even the driver of the van could only say that one of his horses slipped. It's the delay I'm jibbing at. I hate to disappoint my customers, and this accident may cost me three hundred pounds and a business of my own into the bargain." "By gad! That sounds rather stiff. What's the hurry?" "This is my own car, my lord. Early in the spring, I was lucky enough to fall in with a rich American. I was driving for a company then, but he offered me three hundred pounds, money down, for a three months' contract. Straightaway I bought this car for five hundred, and it is half paid for. Now the same gentleman writes from Paris that I am to take his daughter and another lady on a thousand miles' run for ten days, and he says he is prepared to hire me and the car for the balance of another period of three months on the same terms." "But the ladies will be reasonable when you explain matters."
Prev.
Back
Top