Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-19

ma -,
| h eopSe.ssi9o,i\ ~
HENRY ssol1.e0..
Jack Winston to Lord Lane (Con-
| tinued).
| Narbonne, December II.
Now this was bluff. for the last thing to
| be desired was the presence of the police.
| had been careful to get in Paris the
| necessary permits de conduire from the de-
partment of mines, without which 1t Is He
| gal to drive motor vehicle OF any sort In
| France. But / had heard Payne boasting
| to Miss Randolph that he never bothered
| himself about lot of useless red tape; 1t
| was only milksops and amateurs who did
| that. l, as Brown, had kept my master
| papers. but 1t would do more harm than
good to our cause, should 1t come to an in
vestigation. If attempted to pass over my
| permit to Payne. Were the police to appear
| on the scene their first demand would be
for papers, and If the man who had been
| driving were unable to produce any not all
| our just complaints of the peasants I'M
lawful threat would help us. Payne would
| be liable to arrest and imprisonment; not
| only would he he heavily fined, but we
| should all be detained perhaps for weeks;
and as French magistrates have as strong
prejudice against The automobile as their
| English brothers. especially when the Of
| fender is a foreigner, might go hard with
| every one concerned This would be dis
NAL interruption of our tour, and if hadn't
| felt sure that the enemy would be in as
great a funk of the police as we were
Wouidn nave Ventured SO bold a bluff
l trembled internally for an instant as to
It's success, but, as usual, IN life and poker
it pa. paid Won aon,.r. ,.,
mil fha
merry peasant-chorus of light opera as you
can imagine. We won't have the police.
we attend to this affair ourselves
AND it began to look if they meant to-
Give the five hundred francs or you will
| be sorry! they yelled, and again. in a sec
ond they were all surging round US. threat
ehlns with their fists, snatching out their
pocket knives. and l saw things were get
tlng not A French crowd banks a good
| deal before 1t bites, but this one had come
TO the biting stage We were far from town
ana tne ponce, even If the latter wouldn't
nave done US more harm than good. Here
we mad Miss Randolph and Miss Kedison
II Payne were as useless as l Judged him
L was one man against forty
Payne had got off at first, but had slipped
pack when things began to be lively. I
alone was On the ground, close to the bon
net. so that If needful 1 could protect the
motor and Miss Randolph at the same time
The crowd consulted an instant tben
stampeded the car. Aunt Mary .shrieked
ana threw out her purse as if she flung a
I'VE lamp o., 10 hungry wolves. The motor was
SUNG sun, put 10 charge into the crowd
might mean killing a dozen wretched meas
ants. 1t was out of the question, but some
thlng must be DONE and now was the mo-
snh ior uoihg II. One fellow tried to snatch
d saDle rug Off Miss Kedison's knees. I
struck ms hand away, and sent him sta eyer
ing. men yelled to Payne to get into the
. t Ihere was no more pride left in
him than in rag. and he crawIed over
| like dog. Meanwhile. I'd made nm NV
mind what to do, and was going to try an
experiment as our best chance to get out of
the town without bloodshed
l knew that a union which held tho ex
haust pipe in place on the silencer had
been working loose. 1 grabbed a spanner
out OF the tool box. and elbowing my way
turns OF the spanner loosened the union
pushed forward the throttle lever In the
steering post and gave the motor all its
gas.
The thing was done In a quarter the time
It's taken me to write of it. and you can
guess the effect. Bang! bang! came a sue
cesslon or explosions quick and pitiless as a
Maxim gun. Those peas ants gave way like
wheat before the scythe. l don't doubt thew
thought they were shot and on the way to
kingdom come, and before they'd time to
ma out their mistake was up on the step,
mad seized the steering wheel and started
the car. We were on a slight decline and
the good steed bounded forward at the
rate of fifteen miles an hour. An instant
going forty-f1ve
When the enemy saw how they'd been
trlcked. which they did in about six Sec
onds, they were after us with howl A
shower of stones fell harmlessly on the
road behind u.s. angry yells were drowned
In the hideous noise of the exhaust We
could afford to laugh at the thought of pur-
suit. But there was another side to the
story. Now that there was no one on the
spot to complain Of their threats of v.o-
lence, they could safely apply to the police
and make bold stroke for vengeance, just
as we had for escape. However, there was
no use in thinking of that for the moment;
l had done the best l could and must go
on doing it. No normal tympanum could
stand the racket of the exhaust for long,
and Miss Randolph and Miss Kedison were
sitting with their hands over their ears,
the lower part of Aunt Marys face under
her mask expressing comca3 horror. L
caught sight of her visage when l stopped
the car (Which l did as soon as we were
beyond danger of pursuiD to fasten up the
silencer again. and it was all could do not
to laugh.
The fastening-up business was an affair
Of two or three minutes, and at first the
three sat In shocked silence. their heads
dazed by the late ear-splitting din. Then
the cool peace of welcome silence was
said stifly to Miss Randolph, that your
mecanicien has behaved with unwarranta-
bic insolence in ordering me
And l consider that he saved the s.tua-
II acted for what / thought the best.
miss; there wasn't much time to decide,
said I. with a sleek humility which I as
sumo on occasions. 'If l have given Of
fense 1 am sorry" I went on looking at
her and not at Payne.
You haven't given offense.,' She
said II am sure Mr.. Payne, when he
comes to reflect. will see that you
did yeoman's service. But what Is to
happen now? suppose we're not safe from
trouble yet, and we don't deserve to be-"
1 thought it rather sporting of her to
say I'VE" when all the bother was due to
the conceit and cocksureness of one per-
son.
mo miss, we don't deserve to be, IL
you'll excuse the liberty" meekly replied.
1--WE had no business charging along
crowded road the way we did. I'm sure.
until today, we've never had anything but
courtesy from people of all classes 1t
isn't often French peasants misbehave
themselves. and today most of the wrong
was on our side. though it's true that their
horse was skittish; and being market day.
I daresay they'd taken a little more red
wine than was good for them. The wine
of this country is apt to go to the head"
1 spoke to Miss Randolph, but at Jimmy.
pactally when I gave that dig about the