der was hit by a hot halfpenny flying out of the air. Then Bert
thought of the papers in his pockets, and staggered back, trying to
extinguish his burning jacket--checked, repulsed, dismayed.

Edna was struck by the benevolent appearance of an elderly spectator in
a silk hat and Sabbatical garments. "Oh!" she cried to him. "Help this
young man! How can you stand and see it?"

A cry of "The tarpaulin!" arose.

An earnest-looking man in a very light grey cycling-suit had suddenly
appeared at the side of the lame motor-car and addressed the owner.
"Have you a tarpaulin?" he said.

"Yes," said the gentlemanly man. "Yes. We've got a tarpaulin."

"That's it," said the earnest-looking man, suddenly shouting. "Let's
have it, quick!"

The gentlemanly man, with feeble and deprecatory gestures, and in the
manner of a hypnotised person, produced an excellent large tarpaulin.

"Here!" cried the earnest-looking man to Grubb. "Ketch holt!"

Then everybody realised that a new method was to be tried. A number of
willing hands seized upon the Oxford gentleman's tarpaulin. The others
stood away with approving noises. The tarpaulin was held over the
burning bicycle like a canopy, and then smothered down upon it.

"We ought to have done this before," panted Grubb.

There was a moment of triumph. The flames vanished. Every one who could
contrive to do so touched the edge of the tarpaulin. Bert held down
a corner with two hands and a foot. The tarpaulin, bulged up in the
centre, seemed to be suppressing triumphant exultation. Then its
self-approval became too much for it; it burst into a bright red smile
in the centre. It was exactly like the opening of a mouth. It laughed
with a gust of flames. They were reflected redly in the observant
goggles of the gentleman who owned the tarpaulin. Everybody recoiled.

"Save the trailer!" cried some one, and that was the last round in
the battle. But the trailer could not be detached; its wicker-work had
caught, and it was the last thing to burn. A sort of hush fell upon
the gathering. The petrol burnt low, the wicker-work trailer banged
and crackled. The crowd divided itself into an outer circle of critics,
advisers, and secondary characters, who had played undistinguished parts
or no parts at all in the affair, and a central group of heated
and distressed principals. A young man with an inquiring mind and a
considerable knowledge of motor-bicycles fixed on to Grubb and wanted
to argue that